First, we'd like to start by saying that we are thinking of all the folks who have been directly impacted by COVID-19. We also want to thank all the frontline workers who are working day-in and day-out to help fight this terrible pandemic.

What are we doing at Bow Hill to prevent the coronavirus? Read on to find out.

Since we’re a producer of organic foods, we already had all the food safety procedures in place (this includes interactions with customers, online orders, and working the retail counter/market booth as well as warehouse cleanliness, harvest, and packaging). We’ve put those same procedures into overdrive these days.

Some ways we’re doing that is we’ve converted a window in our store to a walk-up window for contactless transactions, open our farm store doors (weather permitting) which has a plexiglass shield, require social distancing in and outside the store, only allow one party in the store at a time and do not allow unmasked folks into our store. We wear fresh gloves while packing orders. We sanitize each interaction surface (including the iPad at the walk-up window and the window itself) between customers and accommodate to customers requests. We'll walk the order outside, if requested, and place in the customers trunk (zero contact). And of course, our employees are required to wash their hands and limit customer contact. In the warehouse and packing shed, we’re wiping down all surfaces and high-touch points (door handles, for example) often.

Those who can work from home are. Those who cannot (owners, our kitchen manager, and shipping lead) do not share computer terminals, terminals are wiped down often, delivery vehicles are sanitized upon arrival back at the farm and wiped down in between every delivery. Each employee is trained on microbial contamination issues and we have two (owner and our operations manager) certified Preventative Controls Qualified Individuals (PCQI), an certificate controlled by the FDA.

While producing products in our certified USDA organic kitchen, our kitchen manager is instilling all food safety guidelines (on overdrive as well). When there is a product, such as the juice, that requires about three people to produce it, we are ensuring that people are always 6+ feet away from one another, changing gloves, wipe down the racks and handles, and so on. In the fields, during planning and safety meetings we’re practicing social distancing as suggested by the CDC.

We hope this helps answer your questions, if we didn’t mention something that you specifically wanted to know, please get in touch at info@bowhillblueberries.com and we'll respond ASAP.