COVID-19 Update
The health and safety of our vendors, staff, customers and community is top priority. We are working with the local health authorities, City of Courtenay, Comox Valley Regional District, BC Association of Farmers’ Markets and are taking cues and guidance from the most relevant sources including the Province of BC and the Federal Government of Canada. The Comox Valley Farmers’ Markets is an essential food hub not an event. We provide residents of the Comox Valley and surrounding area access local fresh and healthy food. This is especially important to note as conventional food and grocery supply chains may be disrupted, and local farmers’ markets can play an important role to fill the gap. We will continue to operate our markets as planned while exercising strict health and safety precautions.
It is important to note that our staff and vendors currently operate using FoodSafe and MarketSafe best practices, as prescribed by provincial health authorities. These best practices teach awareness and knowledge of food safety and safe food handling and sanitizing practices. The volume of customers attending a market to purchase food is staggered throughout our operating hours. Although we are not scheduled to move outside until April 10, 2020, we are looking into the possibilities of heading outside as early as next weekend.
Effective immediately we will be temporarily implementing the following changes to make our market as safe as possible. We understand that these changes may be an inconvenience in the short term, but we hope you will appreciate our efforts as we all navigate these health concerns and precautions as they arise.
- Encourage anyone who is sick to stay home. Ask a friend or a neighbour to pick up your items.
- Encourage vendors, staff and customers to follow recommended hand washing procedures.
- Eliminating sampling of vendor product.
- We are encouraging customers to make their trip to the market less of a social event and more of a grocery run.
- We will be staggering customers on site so that physical distancing can be maximized.
- We will be sanitizing high contact areas every 30-minutes.
- Encouraging the use of contactless payment where possible to limit the use of cash being exchanged between our customers and vendors/staff. Staff will be wiping down the card terminal frequently.
- Encouraging customers to look with their eyes first before handling products
- We will be increasing hand washing and sanitizing stations.
We ask for your patience and understanding as this situation is fluid and may change rapidly.
We continue to monitor the situation closely and will provide updates as necessary. Check for the latest updates on our website and social media channels.
Lastly, we encourage everyone to seek out information on how to protect themselves and the community at large by visiting the following sites:
Island Health – https://www.islandhealth.ca/…/diseases-conditions/novel-cor…
BC Centre for Disease Control — http://www.bccdc.ca/…/stories/2020/information-on-novel-cor…
Public Health Agency of Canada — https://www.canada.ca/…/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection.ht…
World Health Organization — https://www.who.int/emergen…/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Thanks for supporting local.
Stay Healthy.
The Board, Staff and Vendors of the Comox Valley Farmers’ Market Association.
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