Coronavirus: Farm opens drive thru shop to minimise contact

The Tulleys Drive Thru Farm Shop is now open daily, stocking a wide variety of food (Photo: Tulleys Farm)
The Tulleys Drive Thru Farm Shop is now open daily, stocking a wide variety of food (Photo: Tulleys Farm)

A West Sussex farm has opened a drive thru to help its customers buy local produce while minimising contact with other people.

Tulleys Farm, near Crawley originally closed its farm shop in 2014 to focus on its event business and pumpkin growing.

But in the last couple of weeks, the farm has been 'inundated' with people travelling in the hope of buying fresh food amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I had a team of around 40 staff that were twiddling their thumbs, so we got creative," the farm business said on its Facebook page.

The Tulleys Drive Thru Farm Shop is now open daily, stocking fruit and vegetables, meat, dried goods, eggs and dairy.

It follows the prime minister's recent announcement that pubs, restaurants and other businesses would have to close to tackle the coronavirus.

Stuart Beare, owner of Tulleys Farm, told The Argus that the drive thru idea is 'quite radical'.

“As people aren’t shopping in the traditional way at the moment I knew that if we were going to do something it would have to be quite radical," he told the paper.

“That’s when he suggested a drive through farm shop to minimise contact – like an American-style diner.”