Local food future
At the beginning of the pandemic, I started delivering food from my farmers market to my neighbors. You can probably remember when there was nothing left on grocery store shelves. Yet, small farmers at my local farmers market had so much beautiful produce going to waste because people were afraid to go to the market.
I bought a wagon on Amazon, made an order form online, and told my neighbors to pay me on Venmo. My friend and I started making deliveries every week for several months. We even rented a car so we could deliver to people around the community.
We turned it into a business, and while the business only lost us money and fizzled out after the first year, it lit a fire in me to connect people with local food.
By this time, I had been looking for my place in the food world for several years. I had staged at several restaurants, including one with a Michelin star, done informational interviews at food non-profits, and worked at a grocery startup in San Francisco, but nothing clicked until the moment I started delivering local food to my neighbors.
Over the next few years I ran experiments in an attempt to find a glimmer of product-market fit. I wanted to find another way to connect people with local food that we could turn into a sustainable business.
At first, we thought maybe we could create Instacart for farmers markets. The demand for our delivery service dropped off as the pandemic went along, and the operations would have been too risky at scale anyway. Then, we thought maybe we could build a farmers market pick-up service where customers could order ahead and pick up from the farmers market. We got a tent and put flyers in every mailbox in the area, but there was no interest. We then tried creating a CSA box marketplace that people could use to easily identify the right CSA box near them. We found three eager early adopters, but they never actually bought anything.
The tricky thing is that everyone eats, and most people will say they want to buy local food if you ask them. But there’s a big difference between what people say and what they’ll do. This has made it difficult to identify a promising business opportunity.
The opportunity
Enter Heather, a friend who I met while delivering farmers market items during the pandemic. She is a kick-ass local food consultant who knows all of the ins and outs of different local food supply chains and customer needs. She has built supply chains for Google and Kaiser Permanente, and designed programs for nonprofits and the USDA. She’s a consultant to the USDA and is called on by others whenever there’s a challenge in local food that is difficult to solve. She has connected countless farmers with buyers all over the country. She’s probably one of the most knowledgeable people in the US about local food supply chains.
There are other individuals and organizations like her across the country, who connect farmers with buyers and sales opportunities. I will refer to them as “connectors” from here on.
In September 2023, she shared with me a big problem that she and other connectors want to solve. Connectors build local supply chains for institutional buyers with dining programs, like hospitals, schools, and corporations. Many of these buyers have new sustainability goals and see sourcing local food as a way to reach their goals, but they have no expertise in sourcing locally.
On the flip side, farmers don’t know how to set up their businesses to successfully sell to an institutional buyer. For connectors, the process is ridden with challenges, from stakeholder management to poor communication. Because information between the three parties is not easily made available, something that should take a few months at most can take up to a year or even two. The process doesn’t have to take so long, and there are a lot of opportunities for improvement.
But is the need big enough to warrant its own product?
The market is looking up
It’s hard to estimate how many institutions are looking to source locally, but what we do know is that the local food market is looking up all across the country.
All 50 states have farm to school lunch programs. That’s 67,000+ schools and counting, which makes up over 65% of schools, with over $1.2 billion spent just on farm-to-school. In 2024, the California Department of Food & Agriculture will award $52.8 million in funding for farm to school programs, up from $8.5 million in 2021. In 2023, the USDA awarded $12 million across 176 school districts, 37% of which started their farm-to-school program in the last 6 years. Back in 2022, the USDA announced its investment of $60 million for farm-to-school programs over 4 years, on top of an additional $12 million for the fiscal year. Farm-to-school is a rapidly growing area for local food because of its potential to strengthen local economies while ensuring healthy food is available for our nation’s kids. Not to mention, the food is more delicious.
Between 58-91% of hospitals procure local food, according to a study by the NIH. The same study noted that there are some challenges that prevent more hospitals from sourcing local food, including availability of and ability to trace local food.
There isn’t good data on how many corporations are sourcing local food, but it’s safe to say, with more companies adopting sustainability policies and the federal and state governments investing more in local food, the number of corporations sourcing local food will only be going up.
In 2023, the USDA announced that it’s creating 12 new regional food business centers to provide technical assistance, capacity building and coordination for small- and medium-sized growers. Along with that, it’s providing $420M in funding to build resilience into local and regional food systems, particularly in processing and distribution. This comes after the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities in our industrialized food supply chains. We will benefit long-term by diversifying our food system and making it possible for small and medium growers to thrive.
Even grocery stores are adopting more sustainable sourcing policies. Walmart, for example, is investing in regenerative agriculture. Target recently doubled down on sustainability practices through its Target Forward program, where it’s sourcing from producers that meet a minimum standard of responsible criteria. These policies don’t specify local food from small farms, but if we can make it easy to manage relationships with reliable small farmers, I believe there will be a future where we see local food from small farmers in our go-to grocery stores.
The biggest risk
In order to make it easier for small farmers and institutional buyers to do business, small farmers have to want to use technology. Currently, they aren’t prone to using technology as much as the average person. They care more about a personal touch and communicating directly with another human. Yet, if you talk with them, many of them will acknowledge that they need to adopt technology in order to stay relevant. The right solution just hasn’t been created yet.
Small farmers spend their time being the head of operations, finance, and marketing of their own businesses. They’re kind of busy. Any technology they use has to be easy to use and provide lots of value, while being cost-effective for their business. It has to work for them, and not the other way around.
Creating a solution that works for farmers is one of the most important things we can do. If we can make it work for farmers, we can make it work for everyone else.
The future
I truly believe there will be a day where everyone can put local food from small farms on their tables. This vision isn’t just a dream - it’s within reach, and there has never been a better time to make it happen. The demand for local food is growing everywhere, with more institutions across the country looking to source locally than ever before. If we can design a solution that works for local farmers, we can transform how communities access fresher, more delicious, and more nutritious food.
This dream isn’t just for institutions. It’s for all of us.
That future starts now. Dare I say the seed has been planted?
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If you’re curious about what we’re building, or would like to chat, please reach out! I always love connecting with others who care about local food. Together we can do great things.
APPENDIX
The irony is that, while most Americans believe we need to eat more sustainable, locally sourced food, over 28,000 farms - most of them small growers - close their doors each year. These farms are vital, not only for their ability to feed us, but for sustaining vibrant local economies and a resilient food system. Creating a solution will not be easy, but nothing great comes easy. This is worth every ounce of effort.