Athens area residents can head back to the farmers market this weekend. Sarah Thurman is market manager of the Athens Farmers Market. She says they are working with a new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have spent the last couple of months keeping track of what other farmers’ markets are doing and what practices are best and how other markets are keeping people safe while still shopping,” Thurman said. “We complied those into our best practices.”
Thurman says they are more safety precautions that the state requires.
“Everybody’s going to be required to wash their hands before they enter the market. Everybody is going to be required to wear a face mask, if you do not have a face mask, we have face masks both for sale and for free if you need.”
And there’s more.
“We are asking people obviously, to maintain social distancing, we are asking people to designate one family member to come to the market,” according to Thurman. “In order to speed up the shopping, we are asking people to preorder when possible, athensfarmersmarket.net.”
Shoppers are being encouraged to use debit, credit cards or cash apps. Cash will still be accepted.
Options available for those who can’t make in in person.
“Our partnership with Collective Harvest built a strong foundation for online ordering and you can go to collectiveharvestathens.com and you can order through their website and you can either have it delivered to your home or you can have a contactless pick-up.”
The market is at Bishop park, from 8 until noon.
The West Broad Farmers Marketalso opens this weekend.
