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They place orders with several farmers, then must send individual invoices and receive multiple deliveries at the kitchen door. A chance meeting between two small Collin County farmers promises to change that. Profound Foods, an ambitious new food hub, will improve the market for local growers and make it easier for restaurants to put the freshest food on customer’s plates.

Jeff Bednar, owner of Profound Microfarms in Lucas, and Nelson Carter, owner of Cartermere Farms in Celina, sat next to each other at a farm conference in 2017. Bednar said he was delivering produce to Dallas on Tuesday, and Carter said he was making a delivery on Thursday. “I said, ‘Why don’t you bring your stuff over and I’ll deliver it,’ ” Bednar says. Then Carter could make a delivery for him another day. It cut in half the time spent on deliveries for each of them. That simple conversation grew into an extensive, computerized network that allows chefs to order online from dozens of local farms. The farmers then deliver their goods to a central location and a shared delivery driver takes the goods to the restaurants. Growing quickly. Profound Foods used a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to acquire software and buy equipment, Bednar says.

The hub, located in Lucas at Bednar’s farm, provides a walk-in cooler and refrigerated delivery truck to make sure groceries are in peak condition. Fourteen farms have enrolled and more applications come in daily, says Amanda Vanhoovier, a local farmers market veteran who was brought on to Profound Foods to work directly with the growers. And about 52 restaurants have enrolled. Their goal is to reach 50 farms and 250 restaurants in the next 2 1/2 years. The food hub uses an extensive online program where each farm is represented and chefs can log on and see who is selling what. Orders are placed with the farm and then delivery is coordinated through Profound Foods. The chefs receive one invoice and make one payment. The money is then distributed to the farmers. The site offers a full menu of locally grown food, from produce to grass-fed beef and pork. There’s chicken and eggs, cheese and even mushrooms. Some of the produce comes from hydroponic farms like Bednar’s, and others come from more traditional soil (known as in-ground) farms. All items, including meat products, are grown using sustainable methods. No more ‘faceless farmers.’ Rick Wells, who owns two restaurants (Harvest Seasonal Kitchen and Rick’s Chophouse), lives on an organic farm in Lucas and started The Seed Project Foundation to support food sustainability, loves the hub.

Before small farms began springing up throughout North Texas, restaurants bought the best they could find, but it was from what Wells calls “faceless farmers.” These were big food distributors and big farms, and there was little relationship between the farmer and the chef. The farms make it easier to source local foods, and the hub makes it even easier to get the fresh foods the restaurants want, Wells says. Many small farmers depend on restaurant sales. Often, they don’t grow enough to supply major grocery stores and rely on sales at farmers markets. But selling at farmers markets requires a lot of time hauling to the market, waiting for sales, and then loading up and heading home, often for little profit. Establishing relationships with chefs is efficient, and it gives growers an ongoing market and some stability. Carter says he can call chefs and let them know if he has a particularly good crop of radishes or beets. “If I’m overstocked on chicken legs, I can call and encourage them to maybe serve a special with chicken legs,” he says. It’s those relationships that Profound Foods wants to strengthen, Carter says. Farmers will be encouraged to occasionally go along on deliveries to maintain the ties they have and start new ones. “How else are you going to meet 30 chefs in one day?” Bednar says. While the hub will help restaurants maintain high quality, it’s mostly about helping small farmers, Carter says. “We’re building the whole thing to elevate the farmers,” he says. – Source: The Dallas Morning News.

 

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