The Erie County Fairgrounds

7 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 8 community members that come in and teach about agriculture.” Each month follows a theme: Sweet Side of Agriculture, Pizza from the Farm, New York State of Harvest, and so on. Students will visit three stations to experience different agricultural elements and the role that food supply and animals play in the agriculture process. For teachers, the curriculum often mirrors that being presented in the classrooms across the state. When COVID hit, the need for adaptation took center stage for the dedicated staff on the Erie County Fairgrounds. Accustomed to face-to- face interactions and in-person attendance, the move to a remote-based program offering was needed to continue with the staff agenda during the height of the pandemic. While visitors were restricted from entering the fairgrounds, the committed staff brought the agricultural experience to the home and classrooms through the use of virtual technology including Zoom. The agriculture staff shared video footage and interactive demonstrations through internet meeting platforms and broadened their reach to extend further to those who would not be able to easily commute to the fairgrounds during normal times. “During COVID we did take our field trips virtually. Taking the model of two weeks of every month, we opened up three-time slots a day and this allowed me to interact with more schools and students every month. We were able to spend 30 minutes in each classroom do our farm tour, share that video and interact with the students,” Lucero explains. As New York state adhered to very strict COVID rules, the staff were forced to cancel the 2020 fair and did not resume all scheduled events until September 2021. Decisions were made to help keep some staff during the peak of the pandemic, since the employee number runs in the hundreds, factoring in the gaming area, horse