CoMO Ag Park & Covid-19
Local food is more important than ever.
Welcome to Spring! Everything has changed. But its still spring...
Columbia’s Agriculture Park is a critical part of our local food infrastructure: It provides access to food as a direct market for local farmers, it produces food for local hunger relief outlets through Planting for the Pantry and donations made by CFM vendors, and it trains community members to grow their own food at home. Over the past few weeks the importance of a resilient food system has been made clear. Below is a message from each of the Columbia's Agriculture Park organizations are working to support our community with local agriculture during this uncertain time.
The Agriculture Park in 2019, with a rainbow. Hope for the future is grown here.
A message from Columbia Farmers Market :
Columbia Farmers Market remains OPEN! The City of Columbia, Boone County, Missouri, and the federal government have all recognized farmers markets as Essential Businesses. Now more than ever, we see the importance of our local food systems through the work our farmers are doing to keep us nourished and healthy. Reliable access to food is a human right and it is critical that our food supply chain maintain – and even be prepared to expand – operations throughout this pandemic.
Two CFM shoppers stand 6 feet apart while shopping.
We believe that CFM plays an integral part in our local food system and our local economy. Many of the precautions recommended by the CDC to reduce transmission of COVID-19 are things our vendors are well versed in. Safe food handling is an important practice required by all CFM vendors. Things like staying home when you’re sick, rigorous hand washing, proper cough covering, etc. are all things our expert vendors have practiced until they are second nature. All CFM vendors are required to abide by all food safety laws and regulations. During this pandemic, our vendors are taking extreme food safety precautions, and CFM is enforcing a wide range of safety protocols to protect our customers, vendors, and staff. We ask if you plan on attending CFM to please review our safety protocols before attending. Per Governor Parson's Stay At Home Order, we are limiting the number of customers into the MU Health Care Pavilion. This number will vary weekly depending on how many square feet we use. Please be prepared to briefly wait in line to enter the market.
Shoppers at CFM stand in line, 6 feet apart, waiting to be let inside.
In addition, we also understand individuals may not feel comfortable attending. Curbside Pickup is available during Saturday Market for pre-orders! While this has been a large hill to climb, our vendors are creating new systems and ways to get products online and take credit cards (before COVID only half of CFM vendors had the ability to take credit cards). We know these times are scary and challenging, but we cannot thank you enough for supporting our local producers. Your support is more important now, than ever before!
A message from Sustainable Farms and Communities:
Sustainable Farms & Communities (SF&C) has been working to help alleviate hunger in our community, since 2012. The Access to Healthy Food (AHF) program helps low-income families eat healthy food by matching up SNAP and WIC benefits at Columbia Farmers Market. Families that receive SNAP and/or WIC benefits with children under the age of 19, seniors, or the disabled are eligible to double their benefits up to $25 each market.
SF&C has increased its capacity to provide more food assistance to members in the community through the Access to Healthy Food program due to a recent donation from Veterans United Foundation!
USDA temporarily increased SNAP benefits up to the maximum monthly allotment to ensure that people have enough food to feed themselves and their families during this national emergency.
SNAP households may see a temporary increase in benefits when using EBT cards this April. SNAP households that do not currently get the maximum monthly allotment will receive or may have already received more benefits to reach the maximum monthly allotment for a household of their size.The approval ends in April and any extension beyond April requires the state of Missouri to seek additional approval from the USDA. SNAP households that already receive the maximum monthly allotment for their household size are not eligible. All Emergency Allotment benefits will be delivered on SNAP households’ EBT cards. To learn how to sign up for AHF and how to apply for SNAP or WIC benefits visit https://columbiafarmersmarket.org/events/snap-matching-programs/. SNAP and AHF transactions can take place if customers wish to use CFM’s Curbside Pickup program. CFM staff will take care of the card swipe at pickup. For token purchases, customers must still visit the Oasis booth.
A message from Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture:
CCUA’s progress at the Agriculture Park continues. Produce continues to be planted for our Planting for the Pantry program so that we can provide more fresh food to the food bank. This food assistance is especially important during this time of economic hardship for so many in our community. CCUA’s staff are continuing to work outdoors with masks and by practicing social distancing. Currently, CCUA has suspended volunteer activities until it once again becomes safe to have larger groups congregate.
CCUA staff plant rows of turnips, and green leaf lettuce while wearing masks and social distancing at the Agriculture Park.
Garlic planted at Columbia’s Agriculture Park in 2019 will be harvested this summer for donation to the Central Pantry.
Lettuce that was just planted will also be donated later in the season
Concrete footings for CCUA’s maintenance barn/greenhouse are ready to be poured. The concrete slab will come next and the metal building kit is currently waiting in storage to be erected at the Ag Park when the concrete is finished. Materials for the greenhouse have been purchased and it will be attached to the south side of the barn once the building is up. The one-room schoolhouse building is up, wrapped, and waiting for the metal siding and roofing materials to be delivered. Windows and doors have been installed and even standing inside the empty building, you can feel how great of a learning space it will be once it is up and running.
Footing locations are marked and ready to be formed up and poured for CCUA’s Barn
While CCUA’s in-person gardening workshops or hand-on activities for children have been paused during this time of social distancing, CCUA’s team of educators has gotten really familiar with providing virtual lessons on Facebook Live. Every day Monday - Friday at 10am children’s activities are offered like science experiments that can be replicated at home, or story time. Then again at noon, live Garden-Side Chats, cover home gardening topics such as planting carrots, raising chickens, and pickling vegetables. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4pm live cooking demonstrations give useful tips and recipes that can be replicated at home by kids and adults alike. To see all our virtual programming, please visit our website.
Cooking activities being broadcast on CCUA's facebook page
Daily Garden-Side Chats help people stuck at home start and care for their backyard garden
A message from Build This Town: Campaign for the Agriculture Park
We know things have changed a lot in the last few weeks, and the Build This Town team is still planning for the future. In early March (before the pandemic really hit) we announced the opportunity to FINISH the MU Health Care Pavilion this coming winter and provide shade and shelter to ALL the farmer vendors and customers. Ultimately, we'll need your help to "FUND-Raise the Roof" and extend the pavilion over the entire market area. However, the new reality of Covid-19 and its economic ripple effects has us re-evaluating feasibility of the timing of this. We'll be keep a close eye on the situation and share more details soon.
Read more about the early March announcement here on a deep dive about what's next for the Ag Park