Along with general unease, worrying comes easily to all of us right now.  We know we are not alone in this unsettling time, and we know the Intervale Community Farm remains a vital part of the community and your lives. We have appreciated hearing from you over the last weeks, and we are working hard to make sure your local food source is safe and available to you.

The COVID-19 trendlines are not hopeful, and we all face an extended period of major disruption to our lives.  We have modified our operations to adhere to recommended practices from public health and food safety officials to reduce risk of COVID-19 transmission. You can see our current understanding of food safety here and our current operational modifications here.

Despite this disruption, Spring is on the way, and all of us at Intervale Community Farm want you to share some of the hopeful future that we see sprouting in the greenhouse, leafing out in the hedgerows, and greening up around the Intervale. We are adding staff every week, happy to see many returning faces (at a distance of at least 6 feet) in our seasonal team.  Looking ahead to April and May, we at ICF eagerly anticipate fields of brown soil and green plants, and we are so looking forward to sharing the Farm and good food with all of you in the months ahead.

In the short term:

·       We are focused on keeping the ICF staff healthy, safe, and employed.  While many farm tasks are solitary or at distances more than 6’ apart, we are looking at all of our work through a new lens of social distancing.  By reducing risk of transmission within the ICF team, we also protect our ability to keep growing food.  

·       We routinely and frequently sanitize high-touch surfaces, and we are washing our hands often.

·       Intervale Community Farm is committed to the well-being of our employees and will continue to compensate and support each of the staff in the event any of them need to self-isolate to heal or protect others.

·       ICF winter shares are now distributed as drive-up, pre-bagged shares, which we expect to continue for the remainder of the program.  While we all doubtless miss our weekly visiting and gathering of produce, this approach vastly reduces contact among members and between members and ICF staff. 

·       We are considering the format of our summer shares, as it is possible that our normal distribution scheme may not be appropriate in June.  While our main consideration will be staff and member safety, we also will do our best to preserve as much of normal ICF summer pickup as possible.  Stay tuned!

·       ICF continues to donate all the vegetables we can spare to Feeding Chittenden, the Vermont Food Bank, and other local agencies, all of whom are seeing a rapid increase in demand for food.

At the root, Intervale Community Farm is continuing to do as we always have: growing healthy, fresh, organic produce; serving our members; and donating to the emergency food system.  The strength of ICF has always been our strong community of staff and membership, and our current challenge requires a community solution.  Each of us has a part to play, all of which are critical to the success of our collective outcome.