Between farmers markets and CSAs, buying local produce is an option for a lot of people. Just not always the most convenient option.
While farmers market shopping is seasonal, and CSAs can’t always provide a variety of produce and products that consumers want, Harvest Delivery hopes to offer a way for consumers to connect directly with small, local farms.
“There’s a technology gap between what the farmers and the farmers markets and the CSAs have to offer, and what a generation of people who are tech savvy want,” says Jacob Hince, one of the cofounders of Harvest Delivery. That’s why he, along with his brother Adam Hince and sister-in-law-Allyson Hince, co-founded Harvest Delivery, a farm-to-front-door distribution service that promises to make it easier shop local.
The service will allow consumers to choose organic produce, pastured meats, dairy and breads from local farms and purveyors to be delivered to their door in once-a-week shipments. Using a computer or the mobile site, customers will be able to build a local farm box from Harvest Delivery’s partner farms and farmers, including Weatherbury Farm in Avella, God’s Country Creamery in Ulysses, Foxley Farm in Ligioner and others.
“We’ll be able to offer local cheeses, meats, breads and different local products that you would never be able to find in one place,” says Hince. “There’s going to be a lot of variability that you wouldn’t get in a typical CSA.”
Products that are part of Harvest Delivery boxes must adhere to their guiding standards, which include no pesticides or herbicides, no artificial hormones or fertilizers, no GMOs, along with other sustainable farming practices.
And, even though it sounds like a logistical nightmare, Hince, who, along with his brother, has spent his career in logistics and has a supply chain background, is ready for the challenge.
“That’s really the nightmare of my career, because figuring out these supply chain problems is what I do,” Hince says. “It’s our competitive advantage, and no one in this region has solved this problem yet.”
Harvest Delivery is running a Kickstarter campaign now, and box delivery will begin in June. They also have a series of events planned before the final day of the campaign, including a launch party in Wheeling, West Virginia on April 8 at Wheeling Brewing Company at 5:00 p.m., an information session and workshop at The Yoga Hive Strip District on Saturday, April 9 at 5:00 p.m., and a Food, Juice & Yoga event with Fresh From the Farm Juices at Yoga Flow on Sunday, April 17 at 7:00 p.m.
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