Harrisonburg Farmers Market reopening online-only April 11

because of coronavirus outbreaks, restaurants had to switch to

take out or delivery only. farmers markets also fall into that category.

The Harrisonburg Farmers Market provides local farmers the platform to share their goods with the community, and now the market is moving online for the duration of coronavirus shutdowns.

"Customers can order from numerous different vendors just like they would buy at the market, then we'll consolidate each customer's order into one bag, and they drive through, someone goes out and puts it in their trunk, they leave and don't even have to get out of the car," Josie Showalter, the manager of the Harrisonburg Farmers Market, said.

Showalter said they've been closely following health guidelines and educating their vendors, as well.

"In a world where the grocery store has become a little scary for all of us," Showalter said. "I'm really proud that we can offer fresh, local food to our community in the safest possible way."

Sean McCarthy, an associate professor at JMU, and four students in his digital cultures course helped create the online platform and collaborated with the 50 plus vendors along the way.

"We had a discussion online, on Zoom one day, going well, we could continue with the syllabus or we could perform these ideas in a way that is useful to other people in the community, and they jumped at the chance," McCarthy said.

One student says they were happy to help people in the community.

"We just kind of dove in headfirst, put a lot of our other school stuff aside and said, let's just do something positive during this time and so we just went for it," Lacie Knight, a JMU graduate student, said.

The Harrisonburg Farmers Market is scheduled to re-open online on April 11.

Updates regarding the reopening can be found on the Harrisonburg Farmers Market Facebook

.