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MARKET INNOVATION

Making Lemonade with COVID-19 Lemons

By Beth Dooley
Photos by Tiffany Alexandria of Choochoo-ca-Chew

When COVID-19 hit, demand for local food skyrocketed as Started by Sara George in Wabasha, the Farmers’
shoppers sought closer connections to where their food came Market Hubs expanded to eight markets in 2018 through a
from and were increasingly worried by thinning store shelves joint initiative of Renewing the Countryside, the Minnesota
Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, and the MN Farmers’
and disrupted supply chains. Even though farmers’ markets were Market Association. While originally set up to aggregate
deemed essential businesses, some customers were anxious products from multiple farmers for sale to institutions (e.g.
about shopping in person. Fortunately, the Rochester Farmers schools, hospitals, nursing homes, caterers, restaurants),
Jessica Joyce, Rochester Farmers Market Manager at the time,
Market offered a solution. saw the opportunity to use the existing system to address
challenges presented by COVID.
“We took the infrastructure and
flipped it for individual retail sales,”
says Joyce.
On March 21, the market
offered its first drive-thru pick-
up. Instead of a few wholesale
customers placing large orders, now
many individual customers could
purchase orders for their homes.
That first Saturday, about 120
customers purchased nearly $5,000
of local products from 17 farmers.
Since then, another 30 farmers
have added their products to the
online market. Now customers
can order fruits, vegetables, meats,
dairy products, bakery items,
The Rochester Farmers Market drive-thru in Graham Park at the Olmsted County Fairgrounds. honey, flowers, and more online
Customers place orders online (rochfarmmkt.org/shop) by Wednesday at 11:00 PM prior to the and pick them up on market day.
market for pickup between 9:00-Noon or delivery between 10:00-2:00 on market Saturdays. “It was an adjustment for some of
our farmers,” says Mary Glenski,
Drive-thru market Rochester Farmers Market Manager. “But they found [the
new system] was easier than they’d initially thought.”

Within a week of Minnesota’s governor issuing an executive
order closing restaurants, bars and public gatherings, the Expanding customer base
Rochester Farmers Market launched an online ordering and
pick-up option for their customers. They could do so, in part, By June, the market added regularly-scheduled, open-air
because they already had an online ordering platform and the markets, welcoming customers using protocols to protect
appropriate licenses in place—a result of their participation in both farmers and shoppers, including everyone masked and
the Farmers’ Market Hub project. distanced. Signs encouraged people to make liberal use of the
hand washing and sanitizing stations.
42 FEAST! Local Foods Magazine