How Farmers Markets are surviving - and evolving - during the pandemic.

Featured on the April 9th, 2020 edition of ARIZONA SPOTLIGHT with host Mark McLemore:

• A look at how The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona is now making $50,000 dollars in emergency relief grant funding available to local artists struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.

Bike Church by Joe O'Connell and Blessing Hancock is a walk-in metal sculpture located in a community-created park and constructed from recycled bike parts arranged into geometric forms. The sculpture was commissioned through the Tucson Pima Arts Council Teaching Artist Grant. The artists led a group of high school students in the design and construction of the piece for Barrio Anita, a neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona with deep cultural roots.

Courtesy of AFTSA

• The first episode in a new series about food insecurity, produced by Alisa Ivanitskaya. How are local businesses connected to the Heirloom Farmers Markets at Rillito Park surviving - and evolving - during the pandemic? Through the month of April, bonus SNAP dollars are available to those living on food assistance than can be used to purchase local produce.

Produce from one of the vendors at the Heirloom Farmers Markets at Rillito Park.

Alisa Ivanitskaya / AZPM

Laura Brehm from Laura's Locals sells mushrooms and produce harvested in Southern Arizona.

Alisa Ivanitskaya/ AZPM

Larry from the Larry's Veggies with a customer. "When you get to meet your farmer, it's just one of the best feelings that you can experience," says Zoë Anderson, the Director of Advancement for Heirloom Farmers Markets.

Alisa Ivanitskaya/ AZPM

• And, Mark has a conversation with co-writer of Roadfood, frequent NPR guest, and newspaper columnist Jane Stern. She tells about experimenting with new recipes made from dollar store ingredients, finding the upside of social isolation, and how she became an Emergency Medical Technician in an effort to overcome her phobia about healthcare.

On the left, Jane Stern on one of her original trips to Arizona in search of "Roadfood", to both enjoy and write about. The 1977 bestseller helped launch her career as an author, columnist, and frequent radio and TV commentator.

VIEW LARGER Kathy Bates played the role of Jane Stern in the Lifetime TV movie based on her book "Ambulance Girl".

• And, "The Suit", a very short story from Tucson-based author and UA creative writing professor Aurelie Sheehan. Her fiction collection Once into the Night contains 57 short stories, ranging in length from 2 sentences to 3 pages, each written from the first-person perspective of a different character.

VIEW LARGER "Once into the Night", by Aurelie Sheehan, published by FC2 & The University of Alabama Press.