The FRESHFARM Pop-Up Food Hub (PUFH) has years of experience and familiarity working with both restaurants and commercial clients, as well as local farms of all sizes. Sourcing within 200 miles of DC, the FRESHFARM network of farms from Virginia to Pennsylvania will allow your food business to extend your seasonal menu, expand your list of local ingredients, and explore the outstanding variety of produce grown across our region.
Whether it’s seasonal staples, specialty items, herbs and garnishes, or fruit, we work with you to communicate what is available on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis throughout the year. We are in constant contact with our partner farms to coordinate deliveries that are harvested to order, which allows us the turnaround time to satisfy the product needs of our customers.
The PUFH works directly with the small- and mid-sized farmers in our network to aggregate local produce at wholesale prices for our partners in the Washington, DC region so that they have access to the highest quality seasonal ingredients for their customers. Twenty-five percent of the farmers we source from identify as Black and Brown, and 29% are first-generation farmers.
Why is it better to buy produce from us?
We are your partner, not just another food vendor:
We work with you to select the right produce for your business, based on your budget, needs, taste, preferences, and availability. We communicate with our network of local farms to provide you with seasonal availability on a weekly basis throughout the year, and we handle the administrative follow-up for invoicing and payment, to ensure that our farmers are paid in a timely manner.- We can provide our logo and boilerplate language to our restaurant and commercial clients who want to share with their customers that they are procuring locally and supporting small- and mid-size farms in the region.
Your dollars go farther:
- When you buy produce through us, your dollars go directly back to the small- and mid-sized farmers in our network. In addition to getting tasty local produce, you are supporting our local farmers.
- We are transparent with our prices. We pay the farmers the prices they ask for for the food they grow, and we share those prices with our partners on a weekly basis. We add a 10% fee to the wholesale prices for our for-profit partners. This fee is used to extend this wholesale buying program to our nonprofit partner organizations, who are working to reduce food insecurity in our community.
You are getting fresher (and tastier!) produce with fewer hands and machines handling it:
- Most of the produce we offer is picked within days of delivery. This shorter supply chain means tastier, more nutritious food: instead of sitting on a truck or plane to ripen, the produce is picked and sent to you. It’s better for the environment, better for the local food system, and better for your health.
There are two primary ways wholesale partners can work alongside us:
ORDERS FOR PICKUP AT FRESHFARM FARMERS MARKETS:
Partners can place orders for local produce at wholesale prices directly with FRESHFARM. For farmers market pickups, there is no minimum order size, and we can work with a wide range of budgets. If you have a FRESHFARM market that you prefer to pick up your order from, we can coordinate with the attending farms to have your order packed up and ready for you on the day of the market.- If you don’t have a market in mind, we can work with you to find the FRESHFARM market location closest to your business or facility.
ORDERS FOR DELIVERY:
- Partners can place orders for local produce at wholesale prices directly with FRESHFARM. We offer delivery to the DC area on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. We can work together to discuss a delivery schedule.
To learn more and become a partner, please email wholesale@freshfarm.org or fill out this form.