Carbondale Farmer's Market has been making changes to cope with social distancing. | Carbondale Farmer's Market / Facebook
Carbondale Farmer's Market has been making changes to cope with social distancing. | Carbondale Farmer's Market / Facebook
Southern Illinois farmers have seen an increase in direct-to-customer sales despite social distancing guidelines in place.
Owner and manager of All Seasons Farm and Little Eygpt Alliance of Farmers (LEAF) board member Jill Rendleman has seen her direct-toi-cusomer sales increasing, according to the Southern Illinoisan. Rendlemaa also said her LEAFs sales have seen an uptick as well.
“I must have gotten five or 10 new customers within a week,” Rendleman said to the Southern Illinoisan. “(LEAF) saw a big uptick in the number of people buying meat as well as other value-added products."
The community-supported agriculture (CSA) is a model designed to have food boxes ready for pickup. Customers pay in advance for their weekly food boxes. Similarly, the LEAF program has customers pay in advance for their weekly online orders.
Rendleman said the increase makes sense to her right now.
“I think this is a moment where people are questioning everything about what they eat, where it comes from, how it is grown, who handles it and how they handle it,” Rendleman said to the Southern Illinoisan. She also said she hopes "a lot of people will come to realize that food grown locally is, first of all, a lot more nutritious, is fresher (and) has had less handling.”
Rendleman said she thinks there will be a beneficial long-term effect and people will want to continue to buy local produce. But the increase is probably due to the lack of restaurants operating due to COVID-19, Rendleman said to the Southern Illinoisan.
Farmers are also taking precautions when handling the items for CSA pick-ups. Rendleman is handling the produce with gloves and disinfecting the grocery carts she puts the orders in. Customers also have to wait six feet apart and wait for their order to be brought to them.
Ann Stahlheber, market manager for the Carbondale Farmer's Market, is also taking new precautions when conducting business.
Stahlheber said that under normal circumstances, there is one lane for customers to browse the stalls. Now there will be a limit of 18 vendors all who have to abide by new rules.
Customers will drive through the line and place orders from their cars. Only one person will handle the money and another will place the order in the car, Stahlheber told the Southern Illinoisan. If the new system works, she said they will add more vendors.
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