• Black Nova Scotia
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Health
    • COVID
  • Investigation
  • Journalism
  • Labour
  • Policing
  • Politics
    • City Hall
    • Elections
    • Province House
  • Profiles
  • Transit
  • Women
  • Morning File
  • Commentary
  • PRICED OUT
  • @Tim_Bousquet
  • Log In

Halifax Examiner

An independent, adversarial news site in Halifax, NS

  • Home
  • About
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Commenting policy
  • Archives
  • Contact us
  • Subscribe
    • Gift Subscriptions
  • Donate
  • Swag
  • Receipts
  • Manage your account: update card / change level / cancel
You are here: Home / Environment / Farmers Markets adjust to COVID-19 with online stores

Farmers Markets adjust to COVID-19 with online stores

And the opening of the brewery market’s Neighbourhood Goods General Store has been pushed up to Monday.

March 19, 2020 By Yvette d'Entremont 1 Comment

Photo: Halifax Brewery Farmers’ Market Facebook page

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free.

There are few silver linings to be found amidst the uncertainty created by the constantly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, but Justin Cantafio is excited about one small bright light.

The executive director of the Farmers’ Markets of Nova Scotia Cooperative (FMNS) announced on Thursday the launch of an initiative that will see the establishment of online stores, centralized pick-up points, and door-to-door service of fresh local food. This will support local food producers and help Nova Scotians safely access locally produced farm food products.

Due to the pandemic and the need for social distancing and limiting large gatherings of people, FMNS on Wednesday directed all farmers’ markets in the province to stop holding their events and shift to online stores.

The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture has provided FMNS with $30,000 to help farmers’ markets with the transition to online operations.

“This was a last minute emergency measure when we realized that it was not going to make sense to try to run farmers’ markets with this new restriction on the population in terms of concentration,” Cantafio explained.

“I’ve got tons of owner-operated businesses that run the risk of going completely out of business. To be a small scale producer in 2020 is to go against the grain of globalization and commodity production, so you’re going to be on razor thin margins and it only makes sense to find avenues to support these folks.”

Pointing to the fact that Nova Scotia is the most food insecure province in Canada, Cantafio said it only makes sense to use all resources that are readily available. This becomes particularly important as we face the many unknowns created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Local producers have the ability to meet our needs so that we don’t necessarily have to rely on concentrating as 500 people in a single place, elbow to elbow, arguing over toilet paper,” he said.

“We’re taking a thing that farmers’ markets and that local farmers and producers know how to do well, and that is grassrootsing the hell out of this thing. Galvanizing community support and making it happen, that’s what we do against all odds.”

Cantafio said the initiative will include safe spaces for people to pick up food in time-staggered, population controlled environments. Customers can order for themselves or others from their homes, determine a pick-up location and time, and arrange for a safe meeting time.

He stressed that in addition to having best practices in place and following all guidelines provided by public health officials, those involved in the initiative are well-versed in food safety measures.

“These are coming from people who work at farmers’ markets who understand food safety. These are people who have run establishments that have public market permits which means that they are certified and inspected by the government,” he said. “It’s not like we’re just running this with people who don’t know what they’re doing. These are food service handler professionals.”

FMNS has partnered with an online marketplace software program called Local Food Marketplace. Cantafio said it is already being used by the Wolfville Farmers’ Market for their WFM2Go service.

Although it may take a week or two for other markets across the province to get up and running, he said many are already taking orders and Nova Scotians should check with their local markets as plans are quickly evolving.

“Sometimes it takes a crisis to bring people together,” Cantafio said. “I’m not trying to celebrate what’s happening, I’m just trying to find a bit of a silver lining and some opportunities to build on what we already have in this province.”

The Halifax Brewery Market is one confirmed project participant. The market’s community engagement coordinator Rachael Delano said they’re excited by the opportunity.

“That is actually going to help our customers and our vendors long term,” she said. “It’s really not just a temporary bandaid solution. It will help right now but it will also carry on into our normal operations, which is an exciting thing.”

She said they participated in an online webinar on Wednesday to familiarize themselves with the Local Food Marketplace software program. They hope to be fully up and running by March 27, with a worst case scenario date of April 4.

The pandemic has also expedited the launch of the brewery market’s Neighbourhood Goods General Store. Although it has been in the works for a few months and was expected to open next month, Delano said they now plan to begin operations on Monday.

“We have to push everything forward. The demand is there and we want to make sure that people have access to local goods as soon as they need them,” she explained.

Their original plan was to open the grocery store in a smaller space. But now that the brewery market is closed, they’ll be taking over one of the inner rooms. They plan to set up long tables, ensure the presence of hand washing stations, and will monitor the number of people entering and leaving the store.

“It will essentially act like a grocery store where people can select their goods and pay for them with a credit card,” Delano said.

“Vendors will come in and restock the shelves in the evening so they’re not interacting with customers, and then we will make sure everything is super sanitized.”

She said they’re actively encouraging people to visit their website and sign up for their online newsletter for updates. Delano stressed maintaining rural to urban connections is important for all communities, especially during these uncertain times.

“We’re just trying to maintain our current relationships and make sure they exist, make sure they (vendors) feel like we’re supporting them in the best way that we can while keeping the community safe,” she said.

“It’s really important, especially at a time like this. Lots of people need the support and need that sense of community when we aren’t really able to have it.”

As of Thursday morning, the following farmers’ markets and regions are confirmed FMNS project participants. More will be announced soon.

Annapolis Valley: Wolfville Farmers’ Market

Halifax Regional Municipality: Halifax Brewery Farmers’ Market

Truro & Central NS: Truro Farmers’ Market

North Shore: New Glasgow Farmers’ Market

South Shore: Lunenburg Farmers’ Market

Cape Breton Regional Municipality: Cape Breton Farmers’ Market

Digby & Annapolis Counties: Annapolis Royal Farmers and Traders Market, Annapolis Royal Winter Farmers’ Market, and New Digby Farmers’ Market

Southwest Nova Scotia: Yarmouth Farmers’ Market


The Halifax Examiner is an advertising-free, subscriber-supported news site. Your subscription makes this work possible; please subscribe.

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News

About Yvette d'Entremont

Yvette d’Entremont is a bilingual (English/French) journalist writing news and features for The Halifax Examiner. She's also a journalism instructor at the University of King's College. email: [email protected]; Twitter

Trackbacks

  1. Volunteers Needed! Sign Up Now to Help Farmers’ Markets Move Online | Farmers' Markets of Nova Scotia says:
    March 21, 2020 at 4:57 pm

    […] Farmers Markets adjust to COVID-19 with online stores […]

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

Sign up for email notification

Sign up to receive email notification when we publish new Morning Files and Weekend Files. Note: signing up for this email is NOT the same as subscribing to the Halifax Examiner. To subscribe, click here.

Recent posts

  • Halifax chief administrative officer Jacques Dubé resigns May 18, 2022
  • Pastel QAnon: How extremist groups recruit women May 18, 2022
  • Union leader pleads for better wages for paramedics May 18, 2022
  • Halifax council round-up: Reprieve for Rankin, development study next to Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes, and more May 18, 2022
  • Halifax council hikes taxi fares 16% May 17, 2022

Commenting policy

All comments on the Halifax Examiner are subject to our commenting policy. You can view our commenting policy here.

Copyright © 2022