There are five core organizations that received the grant:

• FarmsReach / Om Organics
• CAFF / Growers Collaborative
• Great Valley Center
• BALT
• Marin Organic

There are eight committed buyers:

• Living Room Events
• Palace Hotel
• Paula LeDuc Catering
• Ritz-Carlton Hotel
• SF Juvenile Hall
• St Regis Hotel
• Taste Catering
• W Hotel

And, there are three hard-working participating distributors:

• FreshPoint SF
• SF Specialty
• VegiWorks

Thanks to everyone for making this happen, and to its growth and success!

The Press Release copy is below…

Regional Food Hub Launches in San Francisco

San Francisco, CA – August 9, 2010 – After eight months of planning, the San Francisco Foodshed Project launched in the SF Bay Area thanks to a grant from the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA), administered by Great Valley Center. The project was born out of a recent Urban-Rural Roundtable coordinated by advocacy group Roots of Change, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom, and CDFA.

The project is being executed by both nonprofit and for-profit businesses working together to establish how to set up and grow regional food distribution hubs.  This collaborative effort, sometimes called “business clusters”, has proven to be crucial for other regional food programs.  Nonprofit organizations handle most of the coordination and outreach, and conventional distributors can handle the heavy-lifting of distribution.  Everyone focuses on what they do best.

This SF Foodshed program is no different.  FarmsReach is the overall project manager and provides the online system for buyers to track current and upcoming availability.  California Alliance with Family Farms (CAFF) identified producers who could meet the needs of larger institutional buyers.  Growers Collaborative serves as an aggregation hub for the farms. Finally, conventional distributors FreshPoint SF, SF Specialty and VegiWorks deliver the goods to the eight participating buyers: Living Room Events, Palace Hotel, Paula LeDuc Catering, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, SF Juvenile Hall, St Regis Hotel, Taste Catering, and W Hotel.

Actual deliveries have been running for a few weeks now, and it has already proven to be a learning process for all.  Kate Seely of FarmsReach explains, “Our goal is to increase access to fresh foods, help the logistics flow more smoothly, and ultimately enable farms to get a higher return on every dollar.  It’s no easy task.  But, it’s exciting to see everyone engaged and committed to make this work.”

Scott Davis of FreshPoint SF shares the same commitment: “Many of our customers are requesting to purchase local produce.  Partnering with [this project] enables us to expand our local offerings. We believe in the mission and are excited to help make it a success.”

In the coming months, more farms will join the program with the help of other grant recipients Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust (BALT) and Marin Organic.  More buyers will be invited to join as well, likely in the Fall.

As the demand for regional food systems grows amidst concerns about the health and safety of our food supply, the SF Foodshed Project is notable in that best practices are all being documented, so others may replicate similar models in other regions.

You can follow these lists via Twitter:

• Small Farm Consolidators: Organizations helping small farmers get high quality products to market
• Farm to Table Direct: Groups bringing farms to your doorstep

And, since only a handful of these groups use Twitter, we’re posting more complete info here:

• Grassroots Tweeple: Small Farm Consolidators
• Grassroots Tweeple: Farm to Table Direct

These lists are more illustrative than comprehensive, so if you see someone I’ve missed, drop me a line on twitter or via email: ameliap [at] farmsreach.

We hope you find these useful.Feel free to share these lists with friends, family, and anyone else in your network.

If you see someone I’ve missed, drop me a line on Twitter or via email: ameliap [at] farmsreach.

This list is part of a series.  Here is the Twitter version.

Group	State	Twitter	Facebook
Berkshire Organics	MA
Central New York Bounty	NY
Clean Food Network	AL
Colorado Local Market	CO
CT Farm Fresh Express	CT
Eugene Local Foods	OR
The Farm Buyers Club	VA
Farm Direct Co-op	MA
Farmer Girls	DC
Farmers Fresh Market	NC
Farmhouse Delivery	TX
Fresh Fork Market	OH
High Plains Food Coop	CO
Idaho's Bounty	ID
Iowa Food Cooperative	IA
Isidore Foods	PA
Locally Grown	GA
Lulu's Local Foods	VA
Nebraska Food Cooperative	NB
Oklahoma Food Cooperative	OK
Upstate Locally Grown Market	SC
Valley Green Feast	MA
West Michigan Coop	MI
Western Maine Market	ME

If you see someone I’ve missed, drop me a line on twitter or via email: ameliap [at] farmsreach.

This list is part of a series.  Here is the Twitter version.

Group	State	Twitter	Facebook
Appalachian Sustainable Development	VA
Cherry Capital Foods	MI
Common Market	PA
Eastern Carolina Organics	NC
Eat Here St. Louis	MO
Farm Fresh Connection	ME
Grasshoppers Distribution	KY
Growers Collaborative	CA
Grown Locally	IA
Root Sellers	AK
Kalona Organics	IA
Lancaster Farm Fresh	PA
Little City Growers	RI
Market Mobile	RI
Penns Corner	PA
Southeast Minnesota Food Network	MN

Sellers, you’ll notice a new “My Sources” tab when you log in. There, you can list all the farms – or “Sources” – you work with.

Using those sources, you can link farms with products when you add items to your stall.  Here’s how FarmsReach puts that source info to work for you:

• Customers see exactly where the product came from when they place orders.
• Print pick lists and packing slips for your partner farms.
• Stay on top of the big picture with detailed reports.

Give it a whirl and then let us know how it works for you. We’d love to hear your thoughts.