BURLINGTON, Vt. — A series of Zoom cafés are planned for May to assist farm stays, pick-your-own operations and other agritourism enterprises in making viable decisions to welcome visitors during the evolving COVID-19 pandemic.
The sessions, sponsored by University of Vermont Extension, are free, but advance registration is required. Go to https://go.uvm.edu/farm-
Agritourism operators also may sign up at this site for a free safety and liability consultation with an agricultural service provider. These one-on-one videoconference or on-farm consultations, offered May through October, will help individuals assess their risks and develop a customized safety plan for visitors.
Zoom cafés are planned for the following dates and times:
May 11–7-8 p.m.: Agritourism Operation Checklists and Self-Assessment. Rutgers Cooperative Extension personnel will provide checklists for agritourism operations to use when making management decisions regarding safety and other protocols for opening their farms and operations to visitors.
May 18–7-8 p.m.: Crisis Management and Communications for Farms Open to Visitors. This session will help prepare on-farm direct marketing and agritourism operations to handle crisis situations involving visitors. Discussions led by experts from Rutgers Cooperative Extension will focus on incident response planning, actions to take, documentation and dealing with the media.
May 25–12-1 p.m.: Liability Insurance for Farms Open to Visitors. Participants may submit questions in advance about liability insurance, costs and coverage for Stuart Farnham, farm sales vice president of the Frazer Insurance Agency in Windsor, to answer.
For more information, contact Lisa Chase at lisa.chase@uvm.edu or (802) 257-7967, ext. 311. If requiring a disability-related accommodation to participate, contact Christi Sherlock at christi.sherlock@uvm.edu or 802-476-2003.
–UVM Extension
For more articles out of New England, click here.