iPICKHERE Community Engagement Fund
Donation protected
@ipickhere
In the spring of 2016, iPICKHERE will be launching an online wholesale food hub and farmers' market in Evansville. It is our desire that EVERYONE in our community have access to high quality local food ! To do so, we will need your support with three very specific projects.
1. We are reaching out to our WHOLE community to be both vendors and customers. We want to support the diverse needs of our community through the localization of goods by offering foods and goods specific to cultural and religious preferences. It is our intention to operate our website in both English and Spanish. To meet this goal, we will invest in software upgrades and coordinate with community and religious organizations.
2. It is our goal to open the markets for both our retail customers and our customers utilizing SNAP Benefits (food stamps) at the same time. This will give SNAP recipients access to the same high quality foods found at our local farmers' markets while allowing federal dollars to support our local growers and producers . To do so, our staff will continue to work with local and state agencies to build and implement the markets. This requires federally aproved equipment and training from the USDA.
3. In support of the Indiana Farm to School initiative, iPICKHERE will support existing relationships between school systems and local producers by offering our website as an organizational tool. Individual schools will no longer have to call individual producers. Multiple producers will be able to maintain their online inventories, allowing schools to purchase high quality local produce for our communities' children. iPICKHERE will need to travel the state to train school purchasers as well as recruit additional producers to meet the needs of the schools throughout Indiana.
The generosity of our donors will make these three important initiatives possible. Using the efficiency of an online food hub to organize and operate farmers markets will allow our local economy to continue to grow. All goods will be produced within a 100 mile radius, then organized and delivered throughout our community with the help and support of organizational partners.
Thank you in advance for choosing to support our ambitious yet obtainable goal of supporting the physical, financial and environmental wellness of our community by making buying local easy for everyone.
THANK YOU FOR HELPING iPICKHERE TO SOW THE SEEDS!
For additional information, please read this article, written by Aimee Blume, and published in Evansville's Courier and Press.
Farmer's markets are one of the joys of summer. Not only for the homegrown fruits and vegetables, but for the ready-to-eat foods such as jams and baked goods, locally-produced beverages and ingredients to take home and use in your own cooking, soaps, crafts, and even dog biscuits.
Wouldn't it be cool if all that stuff was available in one spot year round? Wouldn't it be doubly cool if you could see everything that was available from your computer, then order and pick it up in one quick trip?
You see where this is going.
Karen Conaway, the force behind the Franklin Street Bazaar, along with Steve Doyle and Erica Kissinger, is putting together a new kind of farmers', artisans' and even manufacturers' market, where everything is grown, made, cooked or finished within 100 miles of Evansville, and it can all be ordered and paid for online, then picked up in one stop.
The market is called ipickhere, and that's what it's about. Picking food and goods produced in our own area, to keep your dollars near home and benefit our community in innumerable ways.
“Ipickhere is a food hub, and it's more,” said Conaway. “It will serve both retail and wholesale customers, connecting them with local producers in one easy location. Gardeners, farmers, artisans, clothing makers, small and large scale manufacturers, anyone that makes or grows something or creates a finished item within 100 miles of Evansville can sell through the site.”
The site is currently looking for vendors, and will be open for purchasing sometime in the spring.
The first way ipickhere will function as a wholesale market is to connect our local schools with farmers growing the food they want to serve to students.
“There is not a centralized aggregation method for schools to buy through local vendors right now,” said Conaway. “If a school system wants to serve locally-grown food, it's individuals calling individuals. This way a school system can go online and look to see how much of a product the farmers have available. They might order from 2-3 different growers instead of making one bulk purchase through a national supplier, or offset a portion of their large order with what they can get locally.”
That way, the school's purchaser doesn't have to waste a bunch of time looking for product, and the growers will bring their goods to drop off right at the school—they may even talk to one another to share routes and save on travel time and gasoline.
Retail shoppers will pick up the goods they have ordered online at one of a number of drop-off points which will operate during limited hours and days around the city.This market can also operate in conjunction with the established local farmers markets, allowing shoppers to order ahead from their favorite farmers' market vendors. Drop off points and times other than existing markets will be listed, and the customer chooses whichever is most convenient for him or her, although the producers will be picking which drop-off location is the most convenient for them as well, so a buyer must make sure that the item they want will be offered at the location and time they wish to pick it up.
Of course, the first step in getting the market set up and ready to go is enrolling the people who make the goods. If you have a special good you enjoy making, this is the way to get it out to the public with minimal investment.
“Right now we are onboarding producers,” said Conaway. “This gives individuals the opportunity to start a business when they never thought they could... or if someone just wants to expand their garden and sell their extra produce, they can. It can adapt to any need.”
Producers will each have their own page. They will be responsible for updating it at least weekly with what items and how much they have available, as well as descriptions and prices.
The producer will be allowed to choose which drop-off points they wish to deliver to. If their products are seasonal, they may sell only at certain times of the year.
There is no cost to sign up to be a member of ipickhere. There is an annual vendor's fee, and a percentage of each sale will be taken by the site as a commission to meet expenses.
Because ipickhere eliminates the need for the middle-man and costly long-distance shipping, the prices should be comparable to what one would normally pay at a market or retail establishment for the same item.
In a nutshell, ipickhere offers a number of benefits to both producers and consumers in the local area:
It allows customers both large and small scale to choose local first, without a need to commit large amounts of time and travel, and they don't have to worry about showing up late to find the producer has already sold out of what they want.
It allows smaller suppliers to get a share of the market, because it's no additional trouble for purchasers to get, say, okra from three farmers if their order is larger than one could supply alone.
Other food vendors can be based at home as a cottage industry, so they can start selling products with very minimal start-up costs. Home-based food producers will not be inspected, but a member of ipickhere will visit the production area and take a picture to post on that vendor's page.
Yet other producers that cannot, for whatever reason, maintain normal working hours or work outside the home, can work at home and sell their goods through the site.
The site will be bilingual in English and Spanish, allowing a diverse population to use it with ease.
SNAP, WIC, and Senior Nutrition Program members will be welcome to make appropriate purchases, so regardless of economic status, shoppers will have access to high-quality, locally-produced food.
Producers will not be required to spend hours away from the shop or farm or hire employees to man a booth, and will only produce or pick the amount purchased, eliminating waste. This also helps hold down costs.
If many people purchase through ipickhere, it will prove a need and demand for local products, enabling the producers to apply for grants.
“Ipickhere is a localization initiative that will challenge people and institutions to purchase and live as locally as possible,” said Conaway. “It's not just a health initiative in making local food available, it's an economic wellness initiative far beyond that.”
If you'd like to be a producer for ipickhere, visit the site at www.ipickhere.com. Retail buyers may also register now, to receive the latest information on the site as it becomes available.
www.ipickhere.com
In the spring of 2016, iPICKHERE will be launching an online wholesale food hub and farmers' market in Evansville. It is our desire that EVERYONE in our community have access to high quality local food ! To do so, we will need your support with three very specific projects.
1. We are reaching out to our WHOLE community to be both vendors and customers. We want to support the diverse needs of our community through the localization of goods by offering foods and goods specific to cultural and religious preferences. It is our intention to operate our website in both English and Spanish. To meet this goal, we will invest in software upgrades and coordinate with community and religious organizations.
2. It is our goal to open the markets for both our retail customers and our customers utilizing SNAP Benefits (food stamps) at the same time. This will give SNAP recipients access to the same high quality foods found at our local farmers' markets while allowing federal dollars to support our local growers and producers . To do so, our staff will continue to work with local and state agencies to build and implement the markets. This requires federally aproved equipment and training from the USDA.
3. In support of the Indiana Farm to School initiative, iPICKHERE will support existing relationships between school systems and local producers by offering our website as an organizational tool. Individual schools will no longer have to call individual producers. Multiple producers will be able to maintain their online inventories, allowing schools to purchase high quality local produce for our communities' children. iPICKHERE will need to travel the state to train school purchasers as well as recruit additional producers to meet the needs of the schools throughout Indiana.
The generosity of our donors will make these three important initiatives possible. Using the efficiency of an online food hub to organize and operate farmers markets will allow our local economy to continue to grow. All goods will be produced within a 100 mile radius, then organized and delivered throughout our community with the help and support of organizational partners.
Thank you in advance for choosing to support our ambitious yet obtainable goal of supporting the physical, financial and environmental wellness of our community by making buying local easy for everyone.
THANK YOU FOR HELPING iPICKHERE TO SOW THE SEEDS!
For additional information, please read this article, written by Aimee Blume, and published in Evansville's Courier and Press.
Farmer's markets are one of the joys of summer. Not only for the homegrown fruits and vegetables, but for the ready-to-eat foods such as jams and baked goods, locally-produced beverages and ingredients to take home and use in your own cooking, soaps, crafts, and even dog biscuits.
Wouldn't it be cool if all that stuff was available in one spot year round? Wouldn't it be doubly cool if you could see everything that was available from your computer, then order and pick it up in one quick trip?
You see where this is going.
Karen Conaway, the force behind the Franklin Street Bazaar, along with Steve Doyle and Erica Kissinger, is putting together a new kind of farmers', artisans' and even manufacturers' market, where everything is grown, made, cooked or finished within 100 miles of Evansville, and it can all be ordered and paid for online, then picked up in one stop.
The market is called ipickhere, and that's what it's about. Picking food and goods produced in our own area, to keep your dollars near home and benefit our community in innumerable ways.
“Ipickhere is a food hub, and it's more,” said Conaway. “It will serve both retail and wholesale customers, connecting them with local producers in one easy location. Gardeners, farmers, artisans, clothing makers, small and large scale manufacturers, anyone that makes or grows something or creates a finished item within 100 miles of Evansville can sell through the site.”
The site is currently looking for vendors, and will be open for purchasing sometime in the spring.
The first way ipickhere will function as a wholesale market is to connect our local schools with farmers growing the food they want to serve to students.
“There is not a centralized aggregation method for schools to buy through local vendors right now,” said Conaway. “If a school system wants to serve locally-grown food, it's individuals calling individuals. This way a school system can go online and look to see how much of a product the farmers have available. They might order from 2-3 different growers instead of making one bulk purchase through a national supplier, or offset a portion of their large order with what they can get locally.”
That way, the school's purchaser doesn't have to waste a bunch of time looking for product, and the growers will bring their goods to drop off right at the school—they may even talk to one another to share routes and save on travel time and gasoline.
Retail shoppers will pick up the goods they have ordered online at one of a number of drop-off points which will operate during limited hours and days around the city.This market can also operate in conjunction with the established local farmers markets, allowing shoppers to order ahead from their favorite farmers' market vendors. Drop off points and times other than existing markets will be listed, and the customer chooses whichever is most convenient for him or her, although the producers will be picking which drop-off location is the most convenient for them as well, so a buyer must make sure that the item they want will be offered at the location and time they wish to pick it up.
Of course, the first step in getting the market set up and ready to go is enrolling the people who make the goods. If you have a special good you enjoy making, this is the way to get it out to the public with minimal investment.
“Right now we are onboarding producers,” said Conaway. “This gives individuals the opportunity to start a business when they never thought they could... or if someone just wants to expand their garden and sell their extra produce, they can. It can adapt to any need.”
Producers will each have their own page. They will be responsible for updating it at least weekly with what items and how much they have available, as well as descriptions and prices.
The producer will be allowed to choose which drop-off points they wish to deliver to. If their products are seasonal, they may sell only at certain times of the year.
There is no cost to sign up to be a member of ipickhere. There is an annual vendor's fee, and a percentage of each sale will be taken by the site as a commission to meet expenses.
Because ipickhere eliminates the need for the middle-man and costly long-distance shipping, the prices should be comparable to what one would normally pay at a market or retail establishment for the same item.
In a nutshell, ipickhere offers a number of benefits to both producers and consumers in the local area:
It allows customers both large and small scale to choose local first, without a need to commit large amounts of time and travel, and they don't have to worry about showing up late to find the producer has already sold out of what they want.
It allows smaller suppliers to get a share of the market, because it's no additional trouble for purchasers to get, say, okra from three farmers if their order is larger than one could supply alone.
Other food vendors can be based at home as a cottage industry, so they can start selling products with very minimal start-up costs. Home-based food producers will not be inspected, but a member of ipickhere will visit the production area and take a picture to post on that vendor's page.
Yet other producers that cannot, for whatever reason, maintain normal working hours or work outside the home, can work at home and sell their goods through the site.
The site will be bilingual in English and Spanish, allowing a diverse population to use it with ease.
SNAP, WIC, and Senior Nutrition Program members will be welcome to make appropriate purchases, so regardless of economic status, shoppers will have access to high-quality, locally-produced food.
Producers will not be required to spend hours away from the shop or farm or hire employees to man a booth, and will only produce or pick the amount purchased, eliminating waste. This also helps hold down costs.
If many people purchase through ipickhere, it will prove a need and demand for local products, enabling the producers to apply for grants.
“Ipickhere is a localization initiative that will challenge people and institutions to purchase and live as locally as possible,” said Conaway. “It's not just a health initiative in making local food available, it's an economic wellness initiative far beyond that.”
If you'd like to be a producer for ipickhere, visit the site at www.ipickhere.com. Retail buyers may also register now, to receive the latest information on the site as it becomes available.
www.ipickhere.com
Organizer
Karen Sue Conaway
Organizer
Evansville, IN
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