Vendor Booted From Market Over Claims Of COVID-19 Violations

MCHENRY COUNTY, IL —The owner of Nichols Farm and Orchard in Marengo says his business was unjustly singled out after recently being banned from the Wicker Park Farmers Market over COVID-19 safety protocol. In a letter posted to the business's Facebook page this past week, owner Todd Nichols says his farm, which is a vendor at the farmers market, received two verbal warnings: the first because a staff member wore her mask below her nose during set up at the farmers market and the second because a rope was not set up around the stand to promote social distancing.

Both of those issues were corrected, Nichols claims in his letter.

Ultimately, Nichols believes his farm was booted from the market over a personal issue between the new market manager and his business.

Nichols said his farm has been a vendor at the market for more than 20 years and there are crops currently in the ground that are meant to be sold at the Wicker Park market, which will no longer be used and go to waste. The move also effects the farm's reputation and its employees who will lose a source of extra income.

"Your living can be upended without due process," Nichols wrote in the letter. "This can happen to any of us. Decisions like this affect us more than you think."