Strengthening communities requires a dedicated effort to creating economic opportunity and establishing sustainable, equitable access to nutrition. Since 2015, The Growers Collective has brought the farm to more and more tables, leveling the playing field for all growers.
T H E N E E D
A Gap in the System
For generations, farmers of color have been left behind by the marketplace. Lack of access to markets, technology, and capital have kept small producers from being able to scale and meet the needs of large buyers. Large buyers haven’t had an incentive or an avenue to seek out small producers.
Fortunately, the incentives are changing. There is increasing market demand to support local farmers and producers. People want to know where their food comes from: the location, the people, and the practices involved. The market increasingly cares about its impact on the planet and communities.
Even with the shifting demand, there’s a distribution and transportation gap. That’s where Share Farm comes in, offering a win–win alternative for buyers and sellers.
T H E A N S W E R
Building Bridges
Growers Collective has spent years cultivating relationships with farm-to-fork networks. We know where our food comes from, we know the people who grow it, we know how it’s produced, and we know its environmental impact.
We bridge the gap between buyers and producers by setting a fair market price and managing logistics and distribution. Farmers list their products and buyers shop those products from an aggregated supply on our platform.
Through our innovative approach to building relationships with producers — combined with advanced technology design, implementation, and analytics — we have proven that we can provide the necessary supply chain infrastructure to create a dynamic marketplace and expand local offerings.
Our Proven Business Model Growers Collective equity-driven entrepreneurship is a proven business model with an inclusive digital supply chain. We pair technology with artisan food culture to meet the market demand for healthy food that supports local producers.
Benefits for Growers
Increased planting efficiency and premium pricing
Hub model where product can be dropped at fewer locations
BIPOC Food Growers Collective
Digital Grower Collective
Access to inventory and highlights
Assistance with GAP certification and liability insurance acquisition
Training to meet and develop into current USDA grades
Benefits for Buyers
Expanded local offerings with specs, sku, and grades on product
Access to higher quality food at fair prices from local ranchers, farmers, growers, and artisans
Aggregate supply for high-volume orders
Direct delivery
Ability to purchase local food from active producers within a certain radius
Analytic supply and demand controls
Future season volume requests/commits
Additional Channels
There are other ways to support our efforts and engage with Growers Collective. We also utilize small and minority-owned farm products in the following ways:
Value-added product sales to our restaurant partner network
Emergency food boxes delivered to at-risk Census groups
Chef-prepared meal kits (currently available in West Coast grocery stores)
Software integrated as an API to buyers’ existing systems
Farm Food Distribution
This is a farm economy of the future, a recession proof model that is, in-fact, sustainable and can be replicated across the nation through a peer-to-peer circular distribution model.
Growers Collective is developing a specialized procurement software through co-creation with farms and food service that enables farmers, micro-hubs and food service to more extensively and quickly access wholesale channels over an entire region focused on minority in-state growers and producers. We must establish a permanent food hub, a digital marketplace that allows minority farmers to begin scaling and selling to institutions, restaurants and broadliners.
Our model's secret lies in the efficacy of teamwork. Food hubs in a geocentric (self-identified) region pool their inventory on a single platform, enabling wholesale purchasers to access the region's goods in a more consistent and varied way that connects them to a buying partner at the institutional level.
Aggregated food is picked up from micro-hubs in the region and repacked, delivered by the local wholesale food service hub to partnering grocery stores, restaurants, education and healthcare institutions.
Micro-hubs can operate as a physical marketplace that accepts orders with a POS device that accepts EBT as an affiliate of the Collective. Main aggregate hub will offer online EBT orders and DoorDash delivery directly to end users.
Food will be digitally listed, procured, aggregated and sold to Institutions, hospitality, food service and used as emergency food boxes and prepared ready to eat meal kits that will be delivered to Black and minority census groups.
This will allow minority farmers to sell directly, grow their operations, receive fair market prices, receive training and group GAP certification, Online marketing and advertising and remove barriers to entry in order to scale efficiently and sustain a region's food system.