7 minute read
FSA adapts during pandemic
Photos by Carolyn Lange
Because USDA offices have been closed during the COVID pandemic, an outside window at the Farm Service Agency office in Willmar has been used for customers to receive and drop off documents for various farm programs.
COVID THROWS CURVEBALL TO FARMERS AND COUNTY FSA OFFICES
By Carolyn Lange | clange@wctrib.com
It’s a damp, cloudy day not suitable for combining beans, which made it a good day for Doug Weis to make a trip to the Kandiyohi County Farm Service Agency office to sign one of the many forms required by farmers who are enrolled in various federal agricultural programs.
Weis, who farms corn and soybeans near Lake Lillian, stood outside the Willmar office at an open window where Marilyn Dunn, who has worked at the FSA for 34 years, handed him the required form from inside the building.
Both were wearing masks during the transaction that took just a few minutes.
“Doesn’t bother me at all,” said Weis of taking care of business while standing outside.
That’s been the general attitude of ag producers who’ve had to adjust their normal interactions with FSA staff during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Following the federal regulations, most offices have not been open to the public for much of the year, which means local FSA staff had to establish safe procedures for working with producers while filing annual paperwork, like certifying planting acres on detailed maps of their farmland, and signing up for new programs like the Coronavirus Food Assistance Programs.
Karen Wermers, an employee at the Kandiyohi County Farm Service Agency office in Willmar removes documents from a drop box outside the offices. Farmers use the box to return paperwork for farm programs.
Creative alternatives to meeting inside the office, and a good dose of patience and flexibility, has helped FSA staff and producers work together during the Coronavirus outbreak.
“We had to be creative,” said Scott Newberg, Kandiyohi County FSA executive director.
The staff in Willmar turned a sliding window at the front of the building into a walk-up center, where they meet producers to finalize paperwork. A file box outside near the front door is also available for producers who just need to drop off completed paperwork without seeing a staff member.
“It’s been busy and challenging at times,” said Newberg. “We have to take it one day at a time, but we’re getting through it.”
Some county FSA offices, including Redwood County and Swift County, are doing business in the parking lot.
Producers call to make an appointment and then call when they arrive in the parking lot so staff can meet them outside to deliver or receive paperwork.
“We are open for business. It may look a little different, but we are serving producers,” said Alex Fellbaum, Swift County FSA executive director.
Chippewa County’s office is located in the courthouse, so producers can be indoors but cannot come into the FSA office. Instead, they stand at the office door where plexiglass divides staff from producers, with everyone required to wear masks.
Challenges
Increased use of technology – including email and a new app for electronic signatures – and old technology like the U.S. Postal Service, drop-boxes outside office doors and lots of telephone calls – has helped producers and staff complete the necessary paperwork with limited personal exposure.
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Marilyn Dunn, a longtime employee at the Farm Service Agency office in Willmar, stands at an outside window that’s been used to reduce person-to-person contact between office staff and customers during the COVID pandemic.
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But it hasn’t been without challenges.
Liz Ludwig, executive director of the Chippewa County FSA, said much of the work they do with producers is visual that includes detailed maps of fields and what crops were planted on each parcel.
When that parcel is “a tiny little sliver of land” that could be 0.2 acres Ludwig said it’s easy to point to it on the map when the producer is sitting across from staff at a desk, but it can be difficult to “make sure we’re looking at the same thing” while talking on the phone.
On top of doing business outdoors or at windows and doorways, FSA staff have had to learn and implement two new programs within a couple months. The deadline for the first Coronavirus Food Assistance Programs was Sept. 11 and the deadline for signing up for the second CFAP is Dec. 11.
The programs provide financial assistance to farmers whose operations have been negatively affected by the Coronavirus.
The back-and-forth exchange of documents means more work – and flexibility and patience – for the producers and staff.
All the area FSA directors praised the farmers for being understanding with the changes in office practices brought on by COVID.
“We’re very thankful for the producers and the patience they’ve had with us,” said Fellbaum, from Swift County.
“They have been wonderful and understanding,” said Shannon Olson, acting executive director in Redwood County, where staff also meet producers in the parking lot. “We want to thank everyone for their patience.”
She said the challenges of handing out maps in the parking lot and communicating through email, regular mail and numerous phone calls back and forth has been a learning experience for producers and staff.
Marilyn Dunn, a longtime employee at the Farm Service Agency office in Willmar, hands documents to Lake Lillian farmer Doug Weis through an outside window that’s been used while USDA offices are closed during the COVID pandemic.
– ALEX FELLBAUM, Swift County FSA executive director
“We appreciate the grace and understanding that they’ve shown us and we hope we can give it back to them,” said Olson.
Way of the future
With winter approaching, county FSA offices are exploring options for indoor interactions with producers.
In Kandiyohi County, it’s expected that a vestibule at the front door will be used so producers can step inside the entry to interact with staff who’ll be at the second door.
Swift County is looking at escorting producers inside the office to separate areas set up with plexiglas, along with required masks and stringent cleaning routines.
Moving ahead with the different phases of reopening the FSA offices will depend, in part, on COVID case numbers in each county, which is a system that school districts use for whether classes are held in-person or with distance-learning methods.
While producers and FSA staff are eager to get back to businessas-usual, it’s possible that some of the new tools of technology that have been implemented during the pandemic may stick around and be used even after offices are fully open.
If farmers can receive and send documents electronically and submit digital signatures rather than driving to town to the FSA office, Fellbaum said the emergency methods of doing business might be incorporated into the normal way of doing business in the future.
Newberg said the e-signatures are good options and producers are warming up to the idea of using the technology, but the FSA directors in the region all agreed that it’s hard to replace the in-person meeting with a farmer.
The “eye-to-eye” contact is the best, said Ludwig.
While everyone has worked together to get the work done during the pandemic she and other FSA directors said they definitely miss the human interaction and connecting with the farmers they serve.
Carolyn Lange is an agricultural and features writer with the West Central Tribune in Willmar.
Carolyn Lange
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