The Owsley County Farmers Market was in the process of finalizing plans for the 2020 market season, most all vendors had been through the annual training and were tying up any loose ends when all of a sudden a World Pandemic has been declared due to the spread of the Coronavirus. As we waited for instruction and the opening day got closer, the responsible thing to do was arrange a meeting with our local Health Department and our vendors to seek guidance on how to proceed. Vendors were given instructions on how to proceed following CDC guidelines and a plan was implemented.

However, a major partner in our market known as “FARMACY” through Mountain Comprehensive Healthcare called this agent with different ideas. Since all participants of the FARMACY program have health issues, which is how they become eligible for the program to receive vouchers for fresh produce at the market, they had decided that it wouldn’t be in the best interest of their patients to gather at the market to make their purchases. With input from all collaborators a plan was put in place for all vendors to group their produce into $32.00 baskets to be distributed to 85 FARMACY participants on a day when the market wasn’t scheduled to be open and it was to be done as a curbside service so that minimal contact would be made, keeping it as safe as possible for everyone involved.

The Owsley County Extension Office, Owsley County Schools, Mountain Comprehensive Healthcare and the Owsley County Farmers Market was successful with the FARMACY Program despite the major obstacles that were placed in front of us. The program was able to provide Fresh Homegrown Fruits and Vegetables to the Participants and generate $32,640.00 in revenue for our Farmers Market Vendors without any issues related to the Pandemic.