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Lake Pepin Local Food Group

Using USDA Local Foodsystem Toolkit to assess and implement the best cooperative direct marketing for an existing local food group to increase sales �

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Sara George

D & S Gardens

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How we got started

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Mission statement

The Lake Pepin Local Food Group’s mission is to bring together local food producers and consumers, working to build a sustainable, vibrant, and resilient community with economic opportunity and good quality of life for all.

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Farm Tours

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Potlucks

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Lots of ideas!

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SARE Proposal Main Objectives

Work through USDA toolkit
Interview local restaurants and institutions
Analyze data
Choose direct marketing method
Review online sales platforms
Recruit and train in farmers and buyers
Develop collaborative marketing materials
Figure out cooperative delivery�

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Work through USDA toolkit

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2. Interview local restaurants and institutions

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Buyer Obstacles

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3. Analyze Data

Top Barriers to Buying Locally

Consistent Availability

Number of Buyers

Connecting

Pricing

Too Many Deliveries

Quality

Packaging Size

Standardized Packaging

Sara: Read Results .. then Quickly: Just imagine, you are working in a local school kitchen, it was your job to place the orders for the week. You have to reach out to 10 different farmers to find enough tomatoes for your planned meal, no one has spinach this week and you have 6 different farmers delivering your potatoes. John likes text, Jane likes emailed orders and Joe likes it if you call him. You have to stop what you are doing each time a farmer arrives on your dock for a delivery because the schools are locked up during school hours, right? And each farmer that comes in hands you a unique invoice.

How much time do you have to dedicate to supporting local? Placing 10 separate orders, coordinated 10 deliveries, scanning in and verifying 10 invoices and double checking you received the right stuff.

For us, identifying these obstacles was very helpful!

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3. Analyze Data

Top 9 crops out of 58

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A wide variety of produce used by local buyers

Top 9 Crops only make up one quarter of the demand

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4. Choose Direct Marketing Methods

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5. Review online sales platforms

Reviewed 24 platforms

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Market Responsibility:

Create relationships with the buyers
Provide trainings & support
Aggregate orders
Develop a delivery method
Pay the farmers �

Farmers Responsibility:

Upload available product
Set package sizes
Set appropriate pricing
Print labels (provided)
Harvest & pack boxes
Bring order to drop site ��

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3. Analyze Data

Top Barriers to Buying Locally

Consistent Availability

Number of Buyers

Connecting

Pricing

Too Many Deliveries

Quality

Packaging Size

Standardized Packaging

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6. Recruit & train farmers and buyers

Local Orbit & Pack Standards

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Spring of 2018 - Farmer Training & Buyer Training

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7. Develop Marketing Materials

Logo

Posters for Restaurants

Brochures

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Sara: In late spring of 2018 we were getting excited to get this off the ground. That’s when farmers approached us with lots of questions about what they could sell online with us. Since we are aggregating vegetables, can we aggregate Honey? Maple Syrup? Flowers? What about canned goods like salsas and jam? Homemade breads? Meat? and Eggs?

So, we went to the Department of Agriculture and began the conversation.

Here are a few things to think about if you want to start this in your community. Every state is different.

Start the conversation with your Department of Agriculture. They are great to work with and can help you all the way through.

Ask what is allowed without a license, and what you need a license to sell.

Be sure to ask WHO needs the license. The warehouse/the individual/the market?

Remember that there is a liability that is associated with license - whoever applies for the license, assumes that liability.

Licenses are owner/operator driven.

selling online makes this a retail sale. Selling to institutions makes this a wholesale sale.

Gauge time here and determine Kim story?

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Road Blocks

Liability insurance
Business structure

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8. Cooperative Delivery

Market share and Local Orbit orders

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Successes

We got it off the ground!

Variety of Customers

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7 Purveyors

11 Customers

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Hospital

Individuals

Day Care

Restaurants

Grocery Store

Food Shelf

Types of Customers

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Vegetables

Fruit

Items sold

Items listed, not sold

Herbs

Pizza Crusts

Flowers

Flax

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$3,111

Sold

$435

Market Fees

$45

Delivery Fees

2018 Sales Through Local Orbit

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Struggles

Liability Insurance

Limited buy-in from both farmers & buyers

Disaster Strikes

Sara: Due to advice from our insurance company, we asked our farmers to get an insurance policy to participate in the program. The liability insurance seemed to hinder many farmers from jumping on board. Many were watching and waiting...but didn’t take the leap. But, we were not worried, Annelie and I were both totally invested and were going to lead the way. We knew that once the other farmers in the community saw this being successful, they would jump on board.

On June 13th, those plans were changed. My farm became victim to drift from a neighboring soybean field. I called in the Department of Agriculture. I was informed by DATCP that because I was serving the community and not just gardening for my family I was not allowed to touch my fields until I heard back from them. They wanted to make sure that the food would be safe. It took 7 weeks before I heard anything from them.

Due to the chemicals, I was asked to voluntarily destroy my crop. In the meantime, Annelie was listing all of her products and a couple other farmers were listing select items that they had in large quantities. Without having all of my products listed, it really reduced the amount of aggregation happening on the platform.

I was devastated for numerous reasons, but I felt terrible that I wasn’t able to help project this project forward. I do feel that because of this incident, we lost out on sales that would have made this much more successful than it appears. (though we still have many successes to celebrate!!)

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Next Steps

-More training on the platform

-More promotion, Lunch and Learns?

-More farmers on platform?��

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Together, we are forming a stronger, more vibrant community around local foods.

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Questions?

Comments?

Eat local, Eat Healthy!��For More Information Contact: ��Sara George �saralgeorge@gmail.com ��Annelie Livingston-Anderson�annelie@goodturnfarm.com��