During fiscal years 2020 and 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) provided WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) State agencies with waivers of certain regulatory requirements under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. This authority ended on September 30, 2021, and any active waivers are set to expire 30 days after the end of the public health emergency.
Many farmers' markets have changed how they operate during the pandemic in order to practice social distancing. FMNP participants should be encouraged to reach out to their local farmers' market for the latest updates on market operations. Farmers' markets are encouraged to use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting public spaces (available in multiple languages).
Find more information, such as how COVID-19 is transmitted and ways to protect yourself from the virus, on the CDC's About COVID-19 page, available in Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
You can also check out social media toolkits for those who are pregnant and new parents, with print materials and videos available in other languages, and a communication toolkit, available in multiple languages, for specific messaging targeting migrants, refugees, and other limited-English-proficient populations.
Looking for more farmers' market resources?
Explore these resources you can use to educate participants on the benefits of farmers’ markets.
Use the Farmers’ Market Directory to help participants find the markets closest to where they live, work and shop.
Discover recipes in Maryland WIC's Farmers' Market Cookbook, also available in Spanish (found at the bottom of the page) as well as tips on how to help participants increase their fruit and vegetable intake with kids activities, food safety and storage tips, and more.
Staying safe doesn't stop at shopping. Did you know that foodborne illness incidences rise in the summer? Bacteria multiply faster when it's warm, so it's also important to keep all food safe, including produce. Explore Summertime Food Safety resources that you can use to help educate participants on how to reduce their risk of foodborne illness.
COVID.gov: A One-Stop Shop
COVID.gov is a one-stop shop website to help all people in the United States gain even better access to lifesaving tools like vaccines, tests, treatments, and high-quality masks.
This site includes a Test-to-Treat locator to help people access pharmacies and community health centers across the nation where people can get tested for COVID-19 and receive appropriate treatments if they need them.
COVID.gov also provides people an easy way to find the level of COVID-19 in their community, and is available in English as well as Spanish and Chinese.