By Brianna Yee

This year, the Cochrane Farmers’ Market has had to make many changes due to the impact of COVID-19. With the support of Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre, the Town of Cochrane, Alberta Health and Alberta Agriculture, as well as our loyal customers, we are able to have things up and running with all of the new regulations.

Although these precautions may change our visitors’ shopping experiences, and make it a little more challenging, we are very grateful for the opportunity to provide an outlet for customers to support local producers and maintain our vital local food chains. By wearing masks and designating one shopper per family, customers are doing their part in keeping safety a top priority. The market has also designated from 9 to 10 a.m. as a shopping time for seniors or those who have a more compromised immune system. This allows them to have a safer shopping experience.

Actions such as these limit the potential exposure to COVID-19 for our community. The participating vendors will also not be sampling products during this time, and there are no food or drinks allowed at the market to encourage shoppers from staying longer than absolutely necessary. It is equally important that customers get counted at the main entrance so that we do not exceed our allowable number of customers at the market. Exiting through the designated exit point also makes it easier for our volunteers to keep track of the numbers of shoppers at the market.

By taking part in these new shopping protocols, we can do our part to protect the safety of everyone involved. We are grateful that we can still provide a place to support local businesses and discover new products made by people in our community.

Thank you to all our customers and we can’t wait to see you at the Market By the Bow!