Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://specialtyfoodmagazine.epubxp.com/i/282647
DELIVERING TO THE LOCAVORE MARKET The increased hunger for locally produced food has given rise to several new business models that cater directly to consumers. With the click of a mouse, one can order from a bounty of produce and artisan pantry items, baked goods, and more for delivery within a city's limits. Good Eggs. Founded in 2013 by five former Google employees, Good Eggs is a web- based delivery service that allows customers to order a wide array of fresh foods and locally produced products. Five days a week, Good Eggs delivers customers' orders to their doorstep, for a fee, or free to one of a handful of neighborhood delivery stops. Currently, Good Eggs operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, N.Y., and New Orleans. The company has plans to expand broadly in the U.S. and worldwide, says co-founder Rob Spiro. The Good Eggs team of 115 employees works with more than 400 producers, using sustainable practices, and operates four food hubs. "Every week is our biggest one yet," Spiro says. In late winter, Brooklyn, N.Y., customers had well over a hundred choices, including chicken pot pie made with pastured chickens and a butter crust, gluten-free Amoretti chocolate, dayboat scallops, littleneck clams, pasture-raised eggs, several dozen cheeses, yogurts, butters and ghee, frozen and fresh produce, naturally raised chickens, a whole goose, heritage corn tortillas, loaves of crusty bread, granola, fresh pasta, small-batch jams, and even a seasonal bouquet of flowers. Asked if there was anything Good Eggs has found it really can't deliver, Spiro replies, "Cream pies. One bump in the road … ." Farmigo. Started by a software entrepreneur in 2009, Farmigo is bringing the bounty of a farmers market to self-organized food communities in the New York City and San Francisco Bay areas. Customers desiring access to locally produced food use Farmigo to create food communities of 10 or more people, often neighbors or work colleagues, and get produce delivered, free of charge, from a range of local farms. The site offers a variety of produce grown without pesticides, pasture-raised meat, dairy, and eggs free of GMOs, hormones, and antibiotics. The food is harvested, delivered to the Farmigo facility, sorted and packed into individual customer bags, then delivered, all within 48 hours of harvest. Some 300 farms in 25 states participate with Farmigo. "It's not just about food, but what we're doing is also fostering the peer group that will help them continue to eat more healthfully," says founder Benzi Ronen. "We're connecting people to the people who grow their food, and that's a very meaningful experience." UbrLocal. The founders of this Seattle startup began testing their peer-to-peer marketplace website in beta last November. Their aim is to help grow the city's urban food economy through creating community connections. "We have a flourishing food scene in Seattle and a lot of people with tech talent who have a passion for food," says co-founder Liz Smith. "This allows them to connect with one another and share the resources they have and need to produce food." After creating a simple profile, Seattle residents can use the site to sell, buy, trade, or gift food items and beyond, as long as it's related to growing and making food. In mid-winter, the marketplace included offers to sell a pair of Nigerian dwarf goats, a request to buy organic juices, a request from a small kombucha company to share a kitchen, an offer to use an underutilized greenhouse and garden beds, and offers to swap produce. Spring is expected to be a heavy time for the marketplace with requests for compost, plant starts, and buying and swapping locally grown or made food. The site has 200 users—or "prosumers," a term marrying consumer and producer—all located within a 10-mile radius of downtown Seattle, which the founders view as the uber-local distance within which one could walk or bike, hence the company name. Ubrlocal has had requests to establish marketplaces in five cities, Smith says. PHOTOS FROM TOP: GOOD EGGS; FARMIGO; UBRLOCAL 30 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com lede_Spring2014.indd 30 3/17/14 8:38 AM