Information Sessions on New Virtual Farmers' Market

 Informational open houses will be provided next week to prepare customers and vendors to use Champaign County’s new virtual farmers’ market, which will begin operation the week of May 6.

 The open houses will be offered at the Champaign Family YMCA, 191 Community Dr., Urbana. The Y will serve as the pickup location for produce and other locally grown and produced food products that buyers order on the online market.

 To learn how to place online orders on the virtual market, visit the market website, champaignoh.locallygrown.net, or stop by the Y any time during the following sessions:

·        Tuesday, April 10, 10:30 a.m.-noon

·        Wednesday, April 11, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

·        Friday, April 13, 10:30 a.m.-noon

 Those who want to learn how to become a vendor on the virtual market may come to the Y anytime between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12.

The Champaign County Virtual Farmers Market – the first market of its kind in the region – is set to launch the week of May 6. It will broaden the market for locally grown food, supplementing the county’s existing farmers’ markets and farm-based markets.

 Here’s how the virtual market will work:

·        Participating vendors will post their available inventory on the website each Sunday.

·        Customers who register on the site will be notified by email when the inventory is posted and they can begin shopping. They will have until 8 p.m. that Tuesday to place their orders at www.champaignoh.locallygrown.net.

·        The vendors will prepare the orders and bring them each Thursday to the Champaign Family YMCA, where customers will pick them up between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. Payment is due at time of pickup.

 The virtual market is being started with a Pioneering Healthy Communities grant obtained by the local Y through the YMCA of the USA.  It has been developed through a partnership of the Y, Activate Champaign County and the Local Foods Council of the Champaign County Community Improvement Corporation (CIC).

 For more information, contact Heather Tiefenthaler at mctief@frontier.com or 614-578-9636.