Illinois Farm Families Facilitates Farmer-Nonfarmer Conversations During COVID-19

Farmers have an important role to play helping non-farmers understand food and food systems during the current global pandemic. Illinois Farm Families is helping.

Through Illinois Farm Families, IL Corn and our collation partners (Illinois Beef Association, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Pork Producers Association, Illinois Soybean Association, and Midwest Dairy) are reaching out to non-farmers in Chicago and all over Illinois to help them understand our food production systems and take advantage of this time when non-farmers are very interested in how food gets from farm to fork.

Throughout the pandemic, we’ve published and shared articles about food safety and the expectation of food delivery remaining constant. We’ve also capitalized on the requirement for people to stay at home and the resulting additional time on social media to bring virtual farm tours to our audience.

Farmer Friday takeovers are a highlight, where an Illinois farmer provides photos and videos of his or her work on the farm all day, inviting non-farmers to participate in the virtual on-farm experience.

And certainly we can’t be an expert on food without sharing recipes from Illinois farmers to help non-farmers use what they have when they can’t get to the grocery store, understand how to cook different cuts of meat than they might be used to, and reuse leftovers to eliminate food waste.

If you’d like to check in to learn more about how IL Corn is facilitating a conversation and understanding between farmers and non-farmers, you’ll want to plug into Illinois Farm Families at any of these social channels!

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