Help Support Kitsap Fresh & Local Farmers
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Kitsap Fresh is asking for help to continue growing our co-op and supporting local farmers and small food businesses. We provide fresh food from more than 80 local producers each week, year-round. However, similar to many other regional food hubs and organizations, this past year has brought higher infrastructure and operational costs, while our sales have remained flat or even decreased. Market instability this past Spring also meant lower customer spending, and our co-op financials have been stretched farther than we anticipated.
Kitsap Fresh is a very lean organization and operates as a not-for-profit cooperative, with all funds going back into operations. Our budget is primarily paying our producers, paying 7 part-time staff, purchasing value-added goods, and then operations: vans, lease, etc. We don’t have any waste or anywhere to cut costs.
We’re asking our community to help us reach some practical fundraising goals that will significantly impact our organization and producers:
Cost of goods to stock our shelves & freezers: $12,000
- This includes so many great locally produced shelf stable items like flour, grains, pasta, spices, jams, pickles, and olive oil. Also freshly frozen fish, milk, cheeses, and kombucha.
- These items are a major source of income for our co-op, but we have not had enough cash flow to purchase what we regularly need to meet customer demand.
Van maintenance and repair: $2,000
- We recently found two of our vans in need of new tires, and all three have several minor maintenance items. Unfortunately, our budget is currently too constrained to allow those repairs.
Lease increase: $4,000
- We’ve put a lot of time, money and love into our warehouse space in North Kitsap - as many of you know! But like many other local businesses, we had a recent rent increase that has been a pretty heavy lift.
- We believe we can address this cost with increased sales of shelf-stable goods, but in the meantime, we are trying to manage the financial strain while also keeping our staff paid.
Ten years ago, we started Kitsap Fresh with a small team of volunteers and a big vision. Since then, we’ve been able to create a robust online marketplace for Kitsap farmers, food entrepreneurs and customers, as well as help many small farms and food businesses get started in our community. We’ve been amazed by the support for our small co-op, and we’re proud of the incredible amount of fresh, local food we’ve brought into Kitsap homes. We strongly believe in building our local food resilience and connecting local farms to all of our communities. Buying local food also means fewer miles traveled for produce + goods, for a lighter footprint on the environment.
We pride ourselves on providing our member farmers and small food businesses with the maximum income we can, with just a small amount paid in to help with our software, warehouse and staffing costs. The flexibility of Kitsap Fresh allows farms of all sizes and staffing levels to participate in the marketplace in a way that is less true of farmers markets and wholesale outlets. Most of our producers have multiple sales outlets, and we happily support all of them. As a co-op, we’ve also been able to effectively advocate for all Kitsap farms and small food businesses at the county and state level.
We continue to grow our retail operations, and we’ve added in wholesale accounts - some directly linked in partnership with Jefferson County farms. We are working to address food security in our region, while also building a more resilient and efficient food supply chain. We also regularly collaborate with regional food system partners, and our weekly market helps boost our local economy, rural income and jobs.
Value-Added Foods
Many of our long-time customers may have noticed that we’ve struggled to keep some items in stock – such as frozen fish, grains, and other shelf-stable goods. With limited cash flow, we have been unable to keep up with the forward purchasing necessary to keep these items in stock at our warehouse. In turn, this has created a constraint on our profit margins, and we find ourselves in an unsustainable cycle, where costs continue to rise, and our income stays flat.
We want to continue supporting these local businesses and bringing their products to you, and we know you value locally produced food from our county and region. Here is just a partial list of producers we regularly purchase from:
Spiva Cooking
Sylling’s Elderberry
Bluebird Grain Farms
CB’s Nuts
Chimacum Valley Grainery
Foraged & Found Edibles
Iggy’s Alive & Cultured
Cairnspring Mills
Lost Peacock Creamery
Patty Pan Cooperative
San Juan Island Sea Salt
Rills Specialty Foods
Red Dog Farm
Puget Sound Food Hub
Seafood Producers Cooperative
SpringRain Farm & Orchard
Taylor’s Honey Farm
Tonnemaker Hill Farm
More about Kitsap Fresh:
Kitsap Fresh is a producer-owned cooperative and food hub, with an online year-round farmers market. Located across from Seattle on the Kitsap Peninsula, more than 60 local farmers and small food producers list freshly grown, harvested, and made foods online each week. Kitsap Fresh was started back in 2015, making it one of the first and most established food hubs in the Pacific Northwest. Our partnerships with other regional food hubs and PNW small producers allow us to bring an amazing amount of fresh food into our community.
Kitsap Fresh has a well-developed system for aggregating and distributing local food, with 3 delivery vans and a large warehouse space in North Kitsap. Now in our 10th year of operation, Kitsap Fresh also brings experienced staff, producers and an online sales platform that’s easily scalable. We are proud to connect Kitsap customers with Kitsap producers, and we also have a vision for a more regional network, where we can further partner with our neighboring county farms and businesses.
Find our market open each Saturday from 9am until midnight Sunday, with delivery to 8 locations around Kitsap on Wednesday, and home delivery on Thursday. Truly the best way to help Kitsap Fresh and our local producers is to buy their goods! Definitely a win-win with more fresh, nutritious food brought to your table. Thank you!
Local Food Online at Kitsap Fresh
Organizer
Kitsap Fresh
Organizer
Poulsbo, WA