Business AgLife
B
Thursday, July 30, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
New funds will
help workers
hurt by pandemic
By Dick Mason
EO Media Group
Photo by Katy Nesbitt/For the Capital Press
Kristy Athens started Genuine Wallowa County Provisions in Enterprise to provide fresh, local food to customers’ front
door.
Delivering freshness
Pandemic sparks
idea for home food
delivery service
By Katy Nesbitt
For the Capital Press
ENTERPRISE — In
the spring the world was
shaken by a global pan-
demic that either sent
people home to work or
left them unemployed. The
shutdown shuttered restau-
rants and left local pro-
ducers with nowhere to dis-
tribute their food.
In the far northeastern
corner of Oregon, a unique
online marketplace was
expanded to allow those
producers to sell their crops
and products and have them
delivered to customers’
doorsteps.
About a year ago, Kristy
Athens started an online
gift shop called Genuine
Wallowa County featuring
locally made products. Her
five-year plan was to add
locally grown food to the
online store’s offerings, but
the pandemic put that plan
on a fast track.
“A couple local pro-
ducers asked if I would
sell food on my website,”
Athens said. “They were
interested in not having
“It became clear that it was a really
good time to offer food delivery to
people’s houses so they don’t have
to endanger themselves by going to
a grocery store.”
Kristy Athens, founder of Genuine Wallowa County
to do their own laborious
deliveries.”
Mary Hawkins of Haw-
kins Sisters Ranch, Theresa
Stangel of Stangel Bison
Ranch and Beth Gibans of
Backyard Gardens started
meeting with Athens in Jan-
uary. COVID-19 pushed the
idea to the front burner in a
hurry.
“It became clear that it
was a really good time to
offer food delivery to peo-
ple’s houses so they don’t
have to endanger them-
selves by going to a gro-
cery store,” Athens said.
“Meanwhile, restaurants
were closed and local pro-
ducers had nowhere to
sell their food. If there is
ever a time to be resilient
as a county, it’s during a
pandemic.”
In 2015, Athens, a writer
drawn to the food justice
movement, graduated with
a master’s degree in food
systems from Marylhurst
University in Portland.
“I work in economic
development and was
looking for ways to put
those things together,”
Athens said. “What I really
wanted to do and hope-
fully still will is create
a larger scale incubator
farm. Wallowa County has
a very strong brand as far
as tourism and I think we
could use that brand as far
as local food production is
concerned.”
As the outreach spe-
cialist for Northeast Oregon
Economic Development
District, Athens came
across a 2006 economic
study. One of the recom-
mendations was to create a
Wallowa County brand.
The online gift shop cul-
tivated Wallowa County
brand recognition, and
GWC Provisions brought
food delivery into the mix.
The results from a poll
on a community Facebook
page were overwhelming.
She realized she had a
market.
Athens said she started
with pre-sale memberships
and fundraising for sup-
plies. She received small
grants from the Eastern
Oregon Workforce Board
and Slow Foods Wallowa
as well as investments from
community members to buy
a refrigerator and freezer,
design a website and cover
other startup costs.
GWC Provisions meat
and produce are either
delivered to customers’
doors or dropped off in
insulated bags at Main
Street Motors in Enterprise,
a central location for most
people in the county.
Athens sells items such
as chicken, bison, goat, veg-
etables and fruit, Jor energy
bars and Sei Mee Tea and
Joseph Creek Coffee. She’s
even started selling some of
the bounty from her garden
— items that don’t compete
with her vendors.
Vendors receive 80%
of the retail price, and $1
of every sale goes to one
of the county’s two food
See, GWC/Page 2B
LA GRANDE —
Northeast Oregon resi-
dents who lost their jobs
due to the COVID-19
pandemic now have an
increased number of
opportunities to get job
skills training.
The Training and
Employment Consortium
has received two Dislo-
cated Worker grants from
the federal government.
The funding is to help
anyone who lost their jobs
because of the corona-
virus pandemic in eight
Eastern Oregon counties,
including Union, Wallowa
and Baker.
“We are trying to make
more people aware of this.
We want to get the word
out,” said Lynn Trice of
La Grande, region pro-
gram manager for the
Training and Employment
Consortium, which is part
of WorkSource Oregon.
Money from the grants
will pay for training to
obtain certificates and
licenses for jobs. Trice
said the goal of the TEC
staff is to provide grant
funding to as many
people as possible. Cre-
dentials in career fields
with many employment
opportunities include
health care, building con-
tracting and commercial
transportation.
Dislocated Worker
grant money also covers
job training and short-
term vocational training,
which benefits both
the employer and the
employee, Trice said.
See, Grants/Page 2B
Struggling merchants,
insurers battle over
pandemic coverage
Estimates predict the insurance
industry will pay out $107 billion in
pandemic-related claims
By Michael Liedtke
Associated Press
NEW YORK —
Restaurants, bars and
other merchants strug-
gling to stay afloat during
the coronavirus pandemic
are desperately reaching
out for a lifeline from
insurers that in turn con-
tend they are being mis-
cast as potential saviors.
Shutdowns and crowd
restrictions imposed by
state and local govern-
ments to limit the spread
of the virus have resulted
in more than $1 trillion
in estimated losses so far
for thousands of rapidly
sinking small businesses.
That has prompted
a flood of claims under
business interruption
insurance policies that
have been almost univer-
sally rejected for a variety
of reasons, including
boilerplate provisions
inserted by insurers after
the SARS outbreak in
2003 to exclude disrup-
tions caused by virus and
bacteria.
“This is an existen-
tial threat,” said John
Houghtaling, a New
Orleans attorney who
is representing restau-
rants and other businesses
seeking about $8 billion
in losses that he estimates
they will suffer during
the pandemic. “A lot of
people who did the right
thing and bought this cov-
erage thinking they would
be thrown a lifeboat if
disaster struck are now
being told, ‘Sorry, let the
Coast Guard come and get
you instead.’”
So many lawsuits
have been filed against
insurers in the U.S. that a
Thursday, July 30, hearing
has been scheduled before
a federal judicial panel
in Washington to decide
how to manage them all
in the months — and pos-
sibly years — ahead. The
See, Insurance/Page 2B
Mysterious seed packets from China baffle officials
By Sierra Dawn McClain
Capital Press
SALEM — Agricul-
ture departments in at least
27 states are warning resi-
dents to report any unsolic-
ited packages of seeds that
arrive in the mail appearing
to come from China.
The packages, officials
warn, might contain inva-
sive plant seeds, insect spe-
cies or pathogens, some of
which may be invisible to
the naked eye.
Officials in Washington
state, Virginia, Kansas
and Louisiana have issued
statements during the past
few days about residents
receiving in the mail pack-
ages of seeds that they did
not order.
According to local news
reports, residents in Utah,
Arizona and Ohio have
also received seeds. Chanel
Tewalt, spokeswoman for
the Idaho State Department
of Agriculture, told the
Capital Press Monday the
agency has also received
about 20 reports from Ida-
hoans who received seeds.
“Please, do not open
Image from the Washington State Department of Agriculture
States are warning people not to plant the seeds they received in unsolicited packages
and appear to have come from China. Some packages say they contain jewelry.
the seed packet,” Chris
McGann, spokesman for
the Washington State
Department of Agriculture
asked the Capital Press to
tell readers. “It may con-
tain insect pests or patho-
gens. These things could
be inside any type of seed,
and since they entered the
United States without agri-
cultural inspection, they
pose a higher risk.”
In a statement, WSDA
warned the seeds could
introduce disease to local
plants or harm livestock.
Researchers warn the pack-
ages, if opened, may pose
a risk to agricultural indus-
tries and the environment.
Photographs from
WSDA show the seeds
appear to have been mailed
in white pouches marked
on the outside with Chi-
nese lettering and the words
“China Post.” But Monday,
the Ohio Department of
Agriculture released photos
showing seeds have also
come in yellow envelopes.
The Kansas State
Department of Agricul-
ture’s statement said some
of the packages were mis-
leadingly labeled saying
they contained jewelry.
According to the Louisiana
Department of Agricul-
ture and Forestry, some res-
idents reported packages
labeled saying they con-
tained toys or earbuds.
Officials say it is not
yet clear why the seeds
were sent and agency
leaders have not yet
tracked whether the people
receiving packets fit a
specific demographic or
regional pattern.
Even the number of
people receiving seeds is
not yet clear, officials say.
In Washington state, for
example, some people have
been reporting it to USDA,
and others to various
branches of WSDA, making
it difficult to track the total
number.
“We don’t have a good
way of counting how many
people are impacted yet.
But I know we did get more
reports over this weekend,”
said McGann of WSDA.
In the first few days,
people in some states
were advised to put seeds
in Ziploc bags and throw
them away, while others
were told to keep the sealed
packages and await further
instructions.
A USDA spokes-
person told the Capital
Press anyone who receives
an unsolicited package of
seeds from China should
immediately contact their
state plant regulatory offi-
cial or APHIS state plant
health director.
“Please hold onto the
seeds and packaging,
including the mailing label,
until someone from your
state department of agricul-
ture or APHIS contacts you
with further instructions,”
the USDA spokesperson
directed.