Local co-op introduces online ordering and local delivery to core islands amid COVID-19 pandemic
In just a few years, the San Juan Islands Food Hub (SJIFH) has established itself as a valuable link between local farmers and retail customers, who can order online for curbside pickup on each of the three islands.
As demand for locally grown food increases, many small farms are finding it difficult to transition from selling at roadside stands or farmers’ markets to selling in bulk to grocery stores, restaurants and other establishments.
Food hubs allow producers to reach new or additional markets that would be difficult or impossible to access on their own, according to a USDA report.
At the Brickworks in Friday Harbor, construction is underway to expand refrigerated space, which is essential for storing agricultural products. (Nancy DeVoe / Salish Current © 2024)
Currently, there are about 40 growers on San Juan Island, Orcas Island, Lopez Island and occasionally Whidbey Island who are cooperative members of SJIFH.
The idea of a food hub, first applied to serve wholesale customers, had already been explored by the San Juan Agricultural Guild during the COVID pandemic, when a great need emerged, as both farmers’ markets and restaurants were closed at the time: the question was how to get food from the farms to the people.
All the pieces fit
Oak Knoll Farm owners Sarah Pope and her husband Adam Green produce lamb and wool, currently keeping 121 sheep. Pope is also the food hub’s market manager.
Pope said Green has a background in technology and found a software platform that would allow for a seamless ordering process.
At that point, “all the pieces just came together, and we had pretty good success from the get-go,” she says. Pope taught farmers how to use the technology, and now they’re using it without issue, and they’ve gained more retail customers.
Every Thursday, producers list their available products and expected prices.
Customers place their orders between Friday and Monday, and on Tuesday producers deliver the orders to their hubs on each island, where they are sorted, packed and delivered to the other islands.
On Wednesdays, customers will pull up to the curbside pickup point at a designated time and collect their order.
Ordered produce waits for customers to pick up at Brickworks. (Nancy DeVoe / Salish Current © 2024)
Our partners on Orcas, Lopez and San Juan Islands provide the space to collect and store the products before shipping them to the buyers’ islands. These partners also provide the space where the weekly deliveries to customers are made.
On San Juan Island, the Brickworks, owned by the San Juan Agricultural Cooperative, is the designated location and site of the Saturday Farmers Market. Pope said work is currently underway to improve additional refrigeration as part of the new outdoor market stalls. The stall closest to the Brickworks kitchen will be the Food Hub’s refrigeration.
This week, 51 customers placed orders, which were packed into paper bags by a group of four volunteers who work with Pope at Brickworks. When customers arrived, they brought their own reusable bags and repackaged their orders so the bags could be reused.
On Lopez Island, Taproot Community Kitchen is serving as a partner, operating as a shared-use commercial food processing facility. The new Lopez Food Center in Lopez Village is scheduled for completion in 2026. The Lopez Food Center will include prominent retail space for SJIFH, in partnership with Housing Lopez, which plans to build 15 units of affordable rental housing on the same parcel.
Orcas Island Food Co-op is a partner with Orcas Island, sharing storage, refrigeration and freezer space and helping with transportation. The food hub space is located in the grocery pickup area on the south side of the co-op’s main building.
The food hub showcases produce from the islands, including Chinese broccoli and pork chops from a farm on San Juan Island, microgreens and chèvre from a farm on Orcas Island, and mixed greens and lemongrass soap from Lopez Island.
Francie Rutherford has been coming to the food hub since it opened four years ago. “I live in town and I walk here,” she says. “It’s so good and so fresh!” (Nancy DeVoe / Salish Current © 2024)
Pope said there are hundreds of different items for sale, including produce, meat, eggs, pizza dough, soups, pastries and cookie dough.
The Market Manual specifies what may be sold through the Food Hub: Preference is given to San Juan County producers who sell products they themselves raised, collected, grown or processed in San Juan County.
Value-added producers must use ingredients that have been raised, collected, grown or processed by themselves, other SJIFH members or other sources in Washington State, in order of preference, that employ sustainable farming methods and fair trade and fair labor practices.
Producer members may sell non-food value-added products they manufacture, such as soaps, household cleaners, etc. All non-food products must be pre-approved by the SJIFH Board of Directors.
The Council may limit the proportion of non-food items sold through a food hub to ensure that the focus of the food hub is on local food and agriculture.
To become a participating producer, there is a one-time fee of $250 for your share of the cooperative.
Producers set the price, with retail buyers adding 16% (12% for wholesale), which is paid to the food hub and covers a small portion of software, transport and administrative costs.
According to the FAQs on the Food Hub’s website, the Food Hub accepts EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) payments “because we believe access to fresh, healthy food should be a human right,” and per SNAP guidelines, only food and beverages can be claimed.
Challenges in making all this happen include coordinating ferry schedules and relying on frequently canceled inter-island ferries, transporting products between Eastsound and Lopez Village and the ferry terminal, securing the use of refrigerated trucks for this process, and coordinating volunteers to fill orders across the three islands.
“It’s fair to say our food hub is the most complex,” Pope said.
But it’s all working out: producers are selling, customers are buying, residents of the main islands now have easier access to fresh, locally grown food than ever before, and everyone is happy.
Nancy DeVoe
Also read Salish Current:
“Cultivating Resilient Local Seed-to-Sandwich Food Systems”, February 12, 2024 “Rising Food Insecurity Leads to Empty Cupboards, New Insecurities”, April 7, 2023 “Returning to the Land on Islands: Women in Agriculture”, March 31, 2023 “Food Security Requires Connection to the Land, and to Each Other”, March 10, 2022 “Food Hub Plus is Part of an Ambitious Collaboration to Meet Housing and Food Needs”, October 1, 2021
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