Midland's Downtown Farmers Market is beginning to operate again after months of closure from COVID-19, taking into account the need for heightened safety and sanitation measures, CBS 7 reported.
Vendors and visitors alike are being careful to constantly clean their hands and prevent contamination, the story said.
Elaine Blount, Shade Tree Salsa’s vendor, said that everyone is sanitizing their stands.
“I think we have spaced out so much and we have people, you know the vendors set back, the lines are back so people can walk through,” Blount told CBS 7.
Michelle Sutherland, a long-time customer of the farmers market, is happy to see it reopened with new precautions in place.
“Honestly this is the best place in the world," Sutherland told CBS 7. "They have fresh veggies, they have plants, they have the world’s best jam I’m just saying, ever. The atmosphere here is just amazing. This is Midland, this is what we’re about.”
The key is balancing the consumers’ desires to shop locally and the ability to maintain safety and sanitation standards.
In addition to having extra sanitation practices in place, vendors have also been careful to space out their tents to provide for social distancing opportunities and they are donning face masks to prevent the spread of germs.
Blount said that in addition to familiar faces among clientele that there were also new customers coming to the farmers market.
The Midland Health Department reported that on June 15 there were 21 new confirmed COVID-19 cases within the county.
A June 1 press release from the Midland Health Department stated that there had been 12 deaths from COVID-19 in the county. At the time of the press release, the state of Texas had suffered 1,672 deaths.