The Ballard Farmers Market will reopen this Sunday, April 19th as a walk-up and drive-thru market.
The City of Seattle suspended farmers markets around the city in mid-March, and since the closure, the Seattle Farmers Market Association (SFMA) has been working with local government leaders such as Councilman Dan Strauss to reopen.
“The safety and health of our shoppers, farmers, and staff is SFMA’s primary concern as we reopen the Ballard Farmers Market,” SFMA writes in a statement about the opening.
To that end, the Ballard Farmers Market will reopen as a drive-thru market. Customers on foot will still be allowed to walk up and purchase products, but the SFMA is encouraging people to pre-order and use the drive-thru option as much as possible.
The reopening comes with strict health and safety sanitization measures, which will mean a few changes:
- No sampling, no selling ready-to-eat food, no refilling reusable containers
- Public is banned from touching produce—vendors to select and bag product
- Encouraging pre-paid orders
- Contact-free payment methods (i.e. Apple Pay, Venmo)
- Limiting the number of shoppers in the market at one time
- Segregation of money/market currency and food handling
- All vendors and staff must wear protective gloves and ensure regular and proper hand-washing
- Increasing distance between vendor booths
- Social distancing markers on the pavement for lines
- Increased safety signage
In addition, the SFMA staff will be there to conduct regular and ongoing checks of hand-washing stations and sanitizing supplies.
SFMA asks that shoppers be alert to major modifications at the market—signs will be posted to help with that. They ask that shoppers observe physical cues for distancing, including tape, chalk, and signs set up at each booth.
“While farmers markets are often social spaces, it is important not to confuse this as the primary purpose,” the SFMA writes. “Our commitment to farm and food-only markets that support Washington’s small family farms and ensuring food access for all. We believe that open-air markets with transparent and short supply chains can be the safest and best way to obtain food during this crisis. “
To pre-order goods, visit this spreadsheet for a full list of vendors that will be selling at the market.
oh wow! danny o’brien really stepping up! wow!
“ask that shoppers observe physical cues for distancing, including tape, chalk, and signs”
The kind of leadership these times demand.
This will be a shit show. Hard pass.
Agreed, I much preferred the pirate market the last few weeks; just a little less pretentious.
Ballard Commons is the shit show. This will be the 6 ft of separation waiting for kale shit show.
lets say the safety measures and the meaning behind the opening of these Markets is honest and real.
The problems are Human beings. There is no way some who go to the Market don’t see it as portal to normalcy.
They will then take the next step they will venture out with friends go places with friends, they shouldn’t. I have worked hard to avoid busses and people only to possibly see some set back, all because of an over priced bunch of radishes.
“The problems are human beings”. So true. Like a broken clock, you’re right twice a day.
i just love these dialogues we have fallen into, don’t you?
And, “no live music is allowed” according to the Seattle Times. In these crazy times where many demand scientific evidence, can anybody here tell me what is “scientifically dangerous” about live music?
people congregating. don’t forget to take the magic OATH
Appalling.
Open air might be safer than enclosed supermarkets.
Less than 100 yards away there’s a free for all sh*t show of junkies and vagrants on Ballard Commons.
Day in, day out. Passing about booze, drugs, Hepatitis and you can bet Corona virus. No one has shut that down.
BMWL- that is more like 250 yards from Bergen Place to the middle of the commons. I used to shoot targets at 100 yards and that would be a long shot.
Google maps show it 175 yards. Let’s split the difference.
You chose an article on a farmers market to showcase your homeless fetish?
Seek help.
As long as it’s about Ballard, yes.
Ok riddle me this Batman. Why was the farmers market forced to close but the No Social Distancing Bum Show at the Commons was allowed to grow tenfold?
Because the city doesn’t care about the homeless. They don’t build the housing, they don’t address the mental health commitment laws and they don’t build the mental health or substance abuse facilities required to fix the problem. The city, county, state and country do not care enough to make a dent in this problem or others exactly like it in Lake City or New York City. That’s the truth.