World Farmers Statement on COVID-19

World Farmers
COVID Considerations

Dear World Farmers supporters, and Flats Mentor Farm customers:

While the World deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, our farmers are tasked with the job of providing all of us with good fresh food to sustain us. Spring does not wait for the world to get healthy, and the 2020 growing season cannot wait until next year.

World Farmers continues to be an advocate for small-scale vegetable farmers during this time, with a lens of what the immigrant and refugee farmers at Flats Mentor Farm need to have a safe and financially viable season. We are working with partners such as MDAR, the MA Food System Collaborative, NOFA-MA, and the MA Farm Bureau on state policy needs, and with the Rural Coalition and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition on federal policy activities. 

Many of our small, immigrant and refugee farmers are getting hit hard. The marketing strategies that farmers have used in the past are closing or are uncertain. We need our farmers to keep us healthy through this crisis and we will need them to help us rebuild our economy when we come out of this.

In light of COVID-19, Flats Mentor Farm (FMF) has established strict distancing and sanitation protocols for all FMF farmers and WF staff. We plan to run a safe and active 2020 farming season.

We have very real concerns about the negative financial impacts this pandemic is having on farmers in the region, including FMF farmers.  Farmers who rely on retail markets for a majority of their income, as FMF farmers and many farmers in Massachusetts do, are at high risk of not making a profit this year. 

While there are many things we can eliminate from our daily activities, food is not one of them. Farmers' markets across Massachusetts are establishing regulations for summer markets, and FMF farmers will be there: explore our FMF 2020 farmers’ markets. 

We encourage you to take every opportunity you can to purchase directly from farmers. 

If you are unable to attend farmers markets this season, explore local CSA options. We are enthusiastically accepting CSA memberships for the 2020 season! Check out our pick-up sites and share options on our website: www.worldfarmers.org/CSA. 

We, World Farmers, believe this time of insecurity has created a moment of great opportunity for all of us to appreciate the role that your small local farmer provides in this time of need. We are planning how we can support emergency food service efforts with fresh AND culturally important vegetables to individuals and families experiencing food insecurity this summer. 

Much of this, however, depends on resources we don’t yet have. Our number one priority is to ensure FMF farmers have a financially viable season, and that means selling their crops. If you are interested in supporting our efforts to pay FMF farmers market price for donated vegetables going to low income and immigrant communities in need, please contact us – at support@worldfarmers.org – or donate today. 

Sincerely,
World Farmers Team

 

Special Note: If you are food insecure, there are many community programs mobilizing to get food to those who need it. If you need help finding food, try calling the Project Bread FoodSource Hotline. Also, if you are a SNAP recipient, programs such as HIP can ease the financial burden of purchasing from local producers, learn more.