Buy lettuce and leave: Washington farmers markets open with limited vendors, new rules
Farmers markets, under the same essential business category as grocery stores, have begun operating across the Pacific Northwest but with significant changes.
Organizers have limited the number of vendors to allow for social distancing, installed gatekeepers at entrances and asked guests to shop efficiently and refrain from congregating.
If you’ve ever shopped at these weekly gatherings in Pierce County or beyond, you know they are a place to ogle the bounty of your region’s land and to ask farmers how to peel the alien-esque kohlrabi or how they prepare pork shoulder at home.
The coronavirus has threatened to shatter that communal sensibility, but local food leaders in the Puget Sound have vowed to press forward.
It will just look a little different and maybe feel more transactional than communal.
“As opposed to having markets as lovely community gathering places, for now they’re a place to pick up your groceries and do so safely,” said Anika Moran, executive director of Tacoma Farmers Market.
The independent nonprofit runs four markets in the city, starting with the Thursday Broadway Street market in May. The Tuesday Eastside and Sunday Ruston markets start in June, as would the Friday market in the rose garden at MultiCare’s Tacoma General Hospital.
To meet COVID-19 health and safety requirements, vendor tents will be spaced 10 feet apart, as opposed to squeezed side-by-side.
Making that decision was “the hardest part of all of this,” said Moran. “We’ve had to exclude craft vendors and also stay true to the nature of the farmers market as an essential grocer.”
The Broadway market normally hosts about 80 vendors, but that number has been cut in half. It also might have to cancel its annual fundraiser, an open-air communal dinner on Broadway Street in August.
Each season, more than $1.3 million runs through these markets, but Moran expects revenue to drop for both the vendors and the organization this year.
“That’s $1.3 million that goes into the hands of small business and local farms,” she said, adding that on a busy day, the Broadway market serves 5,000 people.
Following the lead of markets already up and running across the country, including in Olympia and Bellingham, market staff will sit behind a plexiglass barrier; masked and gloved vendors will have handwashing stations at their tents. They also are encouraged to pre-bag as much as possible, build a barrier of sorts and designate one person to handle product and another to handle — typically cash — payment. In fact, market staff is encouraging vendors to consider taking prepayment online if possible to limit contact on-site.
Having that second person might sound simple, but many vendors work alone, and the additional labor cost will strain an already strained business.
“We are planning to open on schedule, but we don’t really know what shopper attendance will be like,” Moran told The News Tribune in a phone call. “We have so many modifications going into place. It’s hard to say how well people will do at the markets this year.”
Another of those changes could include a lane system to keep customers flowing in one direction and out the other. Translation: no zig-zagging, a common sight at markets as customers float from the table heaped with the season’s first asparagus to the cheese samples across the way.
That typical behavior worries Scott Gruber, the owner of Calendula Farms and board chair of the Proctor Farmers Market, which will kick off its delayed season on Saturday, April 25.
“Yes, at its core it’s an outdoor grocery store, it’s a grocery store without walls, but it’s also a social event,” he said. “People equally see the farmers market as where you show up on a Saturday and chat with neighbors, and you get to shop for great local food.”
He asks customers to understand that markets are doing everything they can to ensure their safety and that of their vendors and their staff. Proctor would have started the first weekend in April but instead spent the past few weeks nailing down as many safety details as possible.
Similar to the Tacoma markets, it will space its 40 vendors six feet apart. Guests will be required to wear a mask to enter. Gruber himself bought masks from a local seamstress for the express purpose of saving those who forget or aren’t aware of the policy, but he cautions they will only go so far.
Finally, hot food vendors must serve their meals in closed containers, and customers cannot eat on site. The usual seating area won’t be there, either.
SMALL BUDGETS, BIG FOOTPRINT, ESSENTIAL SERVICE
“It’s not a family shopping event — it’s really restricted so we can get as many people in and out, while keeping physical distancing,” said Patty Villa, executive director of the Puyallup Farmers Market, one of the largest in Washington state with more than 200 vendors that serve 15,000 people every Saturday from April to October.
In the COVID-19 crisis, the market’s size became a liability.
Villa and her small team were forced to delay opening day because spacing restrictions would decrease the number of vendors they could fit on a single street in downtown Puyallup.
“It would work OK temporarily for a couple of weeks,” she said, “but beyond that it would be too costly to sustain.”
In the interim, the market launched an online shopping portal to connect vendors directly with consumers.
Usually, the Puyallup market runs down Meridian, around to Elm and into Pioneer Park, but the city has closed its parks. So Villa is searching for an alternate location, likely a private parking lot large enough to hold all food vendors (no crafters here, either) in one place at one time.
“That’s the life of a market manager right now,” she told The News Tribune. “I’m balancing the lives of 200 small businesses and community members against COVID requirements and fears that are out there.”
The crisis also has revealed a bureaucratic roadblock: Some cities, including Seattle, categorize farmers markets as events for permitting purposes. Mayor Jenny Durkan halted Seattle’s markets in March, despite Gov. Inslee having explicitly named them an essential business alongside grocery stores and other agricultural businesses, including breweries. Local food advocates and the Neighborhood Farmers Markets Alliance revolted, paving the way for a few markets to open recently — with social distancing measures in place.
“Markets are not an event but a grocery shopping experience,” said Villa of this hiccup. She hopes local governments reevaluate these classifications.
Colleen Donovan, who leads the Washington State Farmers Market Association, also hopes the public understands their mission and why they are integral to sustaining local food systems.
“Most people don’t really realize that there’s dedicated organizations behind every single farmers market that work really, really hard to balance and juggle this complex array of different requirements,” she said. “They happen through a lot of hard work and sweat equity and learning, and now those organizations are under stress.”
Her group has been watching how markets in Washington, and year-round ones in places like New Orleans and California, have handled COVID-19 restrictions.
“Farmers markets are taking this very seriously, and we want to do our part as essential services to help stop the spread of COVID-19,” said Donovan. “It’s coming from a place of care. Just because we have all these restrictions doesn’t mean we don’t love our markets or our shoppers or our vendors any less.”
Likewise, in Proctor, Gruber recognizes that naysayers might not realize the precautions markets have taken to ensure they can safely provide this essential service.
“There are some people out there that don’t understand what the new protocols will be, and we are really trying to discourage the aspect of the market as a social event and encourage the aspect of the market as a resource — and the farmers who desperately need the help,” he said.
LOCAL FOOD FOR ALL
One closed season could dismantle years of progress in nurturing these local food systems, leaders say. Farmers have already lost connections with chefs at diminished or closed restaurants.
“They really are the workhorse of the local food systems,” said Donovan. “There’s this real incubation role that farmers markets play. They’re the front line of research and development for these businesses.”
In other words, by spending time in a community week after week, farmers develop these direct sales channels to chefs and to the public, to customers who return for a dozen eggs or wild mushrooms.
Farmers markets sometimes suffer from a perception of being expensive or out-of-reach for certain demographics, but their mission is rooted as much in supporting local agriculture and small farms as they are in providing affordable, healthy food to a community regardless of income.
Through a series of private and government grants, including Washington’s new Market Match program, recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program can use their benefits to purchase produce at farmers markets. In 2017 SNAP recipients redeemed more than $24 million at some 7,000 farmers markets in all 50 states, according to the Farmers Market Coalition. Washington’s match program, similar to other state programs, doubles their buying power.
Tacoma Farmers Market last year recorded SNAP transactions from people living in 73 different ZIP codes.
“It’s so important, especially during this horrific mess, to help people feel they have control over what they’re putting into their body,” said Moran.
Her organization has also been developing a mobile market to increase access for seniors and immunocompromised residents to bring local food to them — and to provide those businesses another means to sell their crops.
PROCTOR FARMERS MARKET
▪ Details: 27th and Proctor; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., April to October starting April 25
▪ Pre-order available from select vendors for easy pickup
TACOMA FARMERS MARKET
▪ Broadway/Downtown: Broadway Street between 9th and 11th; Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., May to October
▪ Point Ruston: 5005 Ruston Way; Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., starting June 7
▪ Eastside: 3500 McKinley Ave.; Tuesday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., starting June 2
▪ Rose Garden: Tacoma General Hospital, 315 Martin Luther King Jr. Way; Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., start date TBD
PUYALLUP FARMERS MARKET
▪ Details: South Hill Mall, southwest parking lot near the former Sears; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
▪ Shop their vendors online at puyallupfarmersmarketstore.com
LAKEWOOD FARMERS MARKET
▪ Details: Fort Steilacoom Park, parking lot next to baseball fields; Fridays, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., June 19 to September 18
▪ Option to pre-order online and pickup from your car
STEILACOOM FARMERS MARKET
▪ Details: Lafayette St. at Wilkes St.; Wednesdays, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., June 17 to August 26
ORTING FARMERS MARKET
▪ Details: North Park, Route 162 at Calistoga St.; Fridays, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., June 19 to August 28
FEDERAL WAY FARMERS MARKET
▪ Details: 1701 S. 320th; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., May to October (first hour dedicated to shoppers over 60 years old)
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This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.