Remember way back in March more than a year ago when the Coronavirus pandemic was something new and mysterious? We all had to get used to so many new things. Those masks that we wondered about people in Asia wearing? Suddenly they were on our own faces, and we never left our homes.
It was all about adjusting. That’s what the Pasadena Farmers’ Market at Victory Park did.
“We never closed,” said Manager Gretchen Sterling in a recent interview. “We worked very hard with the Pasadena Health Department to get the protocols in place and quickly sign up for what was required and we did everything they asked and they let us stay open the whole time.
“Some markets, like the one in Beverly Hills, were closed for six or eight weeks,” she said. “Burbank was closed. Santa Monica was closed for a couple of weeks. Different markets took different times, but we were not closed at all.”
And the market setup isn’t an easy one, even pre-pandemic.
She described her market prep for us, saying, “We have a 46,000 square foot footprint that we operate, within the market confines that have to be walled. And it’s like going into any grocery store. You have doors that go in and out, and you have an exterior wall. And outside our walls are barricades.”
Barricades go up on Friday morning within the parking lot in front of Pasadena High School at Victory Park. Delineators for venue vendors who have longer lines and need more accommodation are put in place.
And when she arrives on Saturday morning at 5:30 a.m., there are already one or two customers driving in the driveway right at the same time. The market doesn’t open until 8.
Sterling continued, “I’m going to our four corners where we put up our entryways, where we have specific signs at different places. I have two entries and two exits. I drive around in the parking lot, unloading things from my van. A couple of my people need umbrellas because they’re standing there all day in the sun. They need tables for the hand sanitizer.
“And then by the time I get all of those things out of my vehicle, then I can finally park. And then I start putting the signs up along the individual walkways, where people are coming through reminding them that, you know, go to the exit or go to the entrance.
By 7:30 a.m., all the Health Department signs are up reminding people to social distance or how to wash their produce.
And then there is the customer social distancing. Twenty-five people are allowed in at a time until there are 300.
“That takes about 20 minutes for that first 300 customers to get inside,” said Sterling. “After that, we have to start really monitoring how the individual lines are going and making sure that people have room to pass each other in our aisles. So it’s kind of a big puzzle, but it’s all required by the health department.”
“With the new mask guidelines of the CDC, please remember that we may be outside, but we are not a small gathering,” Sterling said. “Masks must still be worn within our boundaries.”
But Sterling can feel the coming light at the end of the tunnel.
“Once this is over,” she said, “we will go back to opening early, opening without having to come in through an entrance. You’ll be able to come in from anywhere. And you can go directly to the stand you want to go to without having to go through these various protocols that we’re doing.”
But she might miss those very early customers, she said.
“My first customers are coming into the parking lot at 5:30. I have two or three customers who come in and park. They’ve formed little friendship groups of people at 5:30, or six o’clock. They exercise together, separated but together. They have conversations. Some of them sit and read books. It’s just a whole new social gathering that happens before the market now. And it’s really kind of nice with some of the groups that have found each other.”
Victory Park Farmers’ Market is open each Saturday morning with extended hours from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Face coverings are required per the Pasadena Health Department. For more see https://www.
