ROCKINHAM — Another annual Richmond County, and national, tradition has fallen victim to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The local USDA-Farm Service Agency announced Thursday morning that all Farm-City Week events for this year are cancelled.
This would have been the 25th year for both the Farmers Day parade in Ellerbe and the Farmers Luncheon at the Cooperative Extension office in Rockingham.
“We are trying to do our part to stop the spread of this virus in our community so that hopefully we can gather together again to celebrate our farmers in 2021,” said Kelsey Lovin of the FSA.
The yearly celebration, which comes just before Thanksgiving, a time for city folk to thank farmers for their toil of the soil to provide food for the rest of the world.
Each year, a local family farm is honored at the luncheon. Last year, it was the Lambeth Family of Triple L Farms in Derby.
Because of regulations in response to the pandemic, most other events have been canceled this year including Rockingham’s Plaza Jam summer concert series, the Seaboard Festival in Hamlet and the Rockingham Veterans Day parade.
