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#186 Food Connect Comes To Phillip Bay!

Food Connect, a "community supporting agriculture (CSA) enterprise that connects farmers with city folk" has arrived at Phillip Bay.  My wife and I are City Cousins from whom subscribers pick up their boxes of fruit and vegies each week.

Food Connect promises to source fruit and vegies from gowers so that it travels no more than five hours by road to their Sydney warehouse from which it is distributed to their City Cousins. Most of the victuals are souced from within a two to three hour drive.

Food Conect offers three sized of boxes priced at $35, $50 and $65 which can be bought weekly, fortnightly or otherwise.

In my enthusiasm two weekends ago I printed 100 leaflets and, with my grand daughter, did a letterbox drop to promote the concept to my neighbours.

I encourage you to consider signing up to Food Connect to reduce the kilometres your food travels from farm to kitchen as well as support local farmers.

Monday is the delivery day and subscribers who live in the 2036 postcode area can pick up their boxes from our place from 6:00 PM.  Monday, February 15 is the first day so hopefully you can get on board by for next week's delivery.

Food Connect Header

Food Connect's First Day

Rosada, Food Connect's produce co-ordinator, on the packing line.

Four Weeks Later ..

As a City Buddy (I need ten subscribers to become a City Cousin) I've been collecting the boxes of fruit and vegies from the Randwick Community Centre on Mondays from 5:30AM and bringing them back home.

The size and quality of the boxes has been improving after some initial hiccups.  Everyone at Food Connect is very 'up' and positive as they strive to deliver what the subscribers want.

Comments (3)

Picture of user Amy Kludas

Hi Gregory,

What a beautiful idea! Such a great thing to connect local farmers and city folk so that people in the city know where their food is being grown and under what conditions.

I am keen to know what kind of stuff you get in a $35, $50 or $65 box? Do you feel it is value for money?

Picture of user GJO ESQ

Amy, 'tis a "beautiful idea".  There were some teething problems with the first order.  I think I should post the email sent out by Ann after she received a few feedback emails:

"Dear subscribers
 
We value your feedback on your first experience with our produce boxes, and would like to assure you that we are making plans to avoid a repeat of the disappointing quality of fresh fruit. This includes ensuring that the farmers do not provide us with unacceptable quality, a higher standard of quality control in our packing lines and packing produce to avoid soft items becoming damaged.
 
We will also be launching our weekly FarmLetter soon, which will tell you more about what is happening out on the farms on a seasonal and weekly basis. The high rainfall and humidity has had a detrimental impact on farm produce and produce in transport. The stone fruit was soft, and needs to be kept in the fridge, but the flavour is delicious! They need quick eating. We would be disappointed if you felt they were inedible, and threw them away. We’ve had good feedback on the flavour of apples, though some were blemished. Remember, this is seasonal fruit. Just picked this weekend and not kept in long term cold storage.  Other seasonal produce, e.g. the zucchini we had on order, has also been set back by the wet weather.
 
As a Community Supporting Agriculture program, we are all sharing in some of these growing risks that the farmer bears. We will be working with farmers to improve their farm viability, which includes getting good quality produce to market, and collaborating with our customers to sustain the interest in and demand for this farm produce.  We will all be learning more about the cycles of farming and environmental conditions that impact on fresh food supplies.
 
Please do continue to provide us with feedback that will help us create an excellent business in support of farmers, food security and healthy, happy eating.
 
Let us know, good and bad, your views on your next box. Call us if you would like to chat."

Picture of user GJO ESQ

And here's a follow up email:

"Dear Subscriber
 
We're very pleased to say that this week most of the produce came from right here in Sydney... Can't get much more local than that! And we trust you noticed the difference, especially in the leafy greens.
 
Early yesterday morning we met with the farmers who had just come from the field. Each of the them told us how pleased they were that something like Food Connect had started up and wished us all the best in our endeavour to provide "food with integrity". They also told us how the last few weeks of heavy rain had been a bit rough on them and the produce.
 
In the warehouse the Food Connect team worked well together to get our first ever boxes ready for you. We learnt many lessons!
 
We commit to bringing you a great box each week and appreciate your understanding in our early days. Your subscription is directly helping local farmers and creating a sustainable food system.
 
Watch your email inbox for a regular weekly e-news about what’s in the box for the week. Also save our website in your favourites list and check in regularly to see how we’re growing. There’ll be new City Cousins opening up every month.
 
For those subscribers who haven’t yet paid this month, and would like to receive a box next Monday 22nd February, please confirm your payment with us by 5 pm tomorrow, Thursday 18th February, to make sure we order in enough produce."

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