A beloved neighborhood bakery in New Orleans posted a beautiful piece today on their experience trying to save their business as COVID became the reality for us all. (It’s Bywater Bakery; if you are ever in our city, do yourself a favor and check it out. And read Chaya’s beautiful piece on their FB page.)
It sent me down the same path of memory, although before I read that this morning, I did have to test for the virus once again. I heard from a friend who has miraculously escaped from contracting it over the previous years and finally got it last week, and after traveling 1200 miles across 6 states, I felt a little under the weather and decided to see if I was positive for the virus. This time, I was not, but like her, I also still expect my first positive test at some point….
I remember well the early news stories about the virus, especially as New Orleans had just had a huge Mardi Gras celebration even with the early reports of this virus. (One may remember that the federal response was not clear nor robust.) During MG, I had been on the streets with friends and strangers, but less than some others. That was partly because I had also been very sick with similar symptoms over the holidays, and a pal who was a nurse suggested during Carnival that maybe I was an early victim and asked me to test for it. Although negative, she warned me to be extra careful even in those early days and so I heeded her advice.
I was also extremely lucky to already have a remote job at FMC, and so was inside on my own a lot of the time.
So I spent loads of time on news sites from the beginning, and in reading markets updates and answering emails from leaders, and so I have a unique vantage point to the magnificent way that markets handled this crisis.
I will share that I remember that year mostly in a fog from exhaustion not only because (like so many of you) I worked every day until finally taking a day off in late November, but also because my elderly mother became gravely ill with an infection and had to be hospitalized for 3 months that summer. I’d rise early, attend to emails and FMC business, and then I’d head to her house to feed her cats and then to calls with doctors and caregivers and trying to unpack the medical tangle in conference with my sister who was a thousand miles away, and thankfully a master at deciphering medical and legal technical information. After that, I’d be back to the laptop to do more with markets and local leaders and national partners into late into the night.
I tell you that not to gain sympathy for what was a very typical situation thousands of families had to face, but to share the regular pride and jubilation I felt first thing and then at the end of the day on hearing how state associations and markets were winning the bureaucracy battles, how they made sure to include MORE vendors and MORE initiatives in their makeshift drive through, or one-way, or timed entry markets (remember those words??) and how I had an inkling as to how exhausted everyone was*.
But as a result of that incredible pivot (another word to remember!) during the worldwide emergency, markets gained a lot of respect and trust from some who may have only ever watched us with one eyebrow raised, or without any idea of why we showed up rain or shine, week in and week out.
FMC was asked to join a multi-year, multi sector USDA initiative to catalogue the innovation and challenges of this emergency response. I tell you all, that to a person, every leader congratulated us on how well U.S. markets responded, and noted their brilliant design changes and deep care to make sure that no one was left out. We accepted that on behalf of you all, and did our best to transmit it back to the thousands of leaders doing the actual work.
Here is the link to the hundreds of resources gathered and created to tell the story of local food systems response: https://lfscovid.localfoodeconomics.com/
This is important to remember not only because of this anniversary of COVID, but also because we find ourselves in another national crisis. This time, millions of dollars in funding promised or already underway has been withdrawn with little or no information as to why it is gone or if it will return. Farmers and sector leaders find themselves with costs incurred, promises made, and carefully made plans, now out on their own.
So just as before, I know market leaders will pivot, look for other sponsors or grants for their programs, rework their plans to make it without the promised funding, and ensure that week in and week out, the farmers and makers have a space to collect, share their talents, and make enough to come back another day. Coming back another day is a lot of the battle; the rest is how we treat ourselves and each other during all of the another days after that. I promise, just as during COVID, I’ll be here, doing my best to help but also being nourished by the community built by each of you and by all of you.
*As usual I want to firmly state how talk of “resilience” and resilient systems in that year or the next was very misguided. Resilience is later; what markets (and others did) did that year was pure survival, spending down every asset and bit of energy, hoping to refill it later on. Some were able to do that; others were not. Over the last 3 years, we saw and heard anecdotal reports of even greater staff turnover and many markets struggling to regain their pre-COVID energy. NOW is when to measure resiliency from that emergency; now is when you also note that the emergencies keep coming and formal responses are beginning to lessen, forcing individuals into permanent recovery mode.
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