People, Planet and Prices: Sourcing Choices at Just Fare
People, Planet and Prices: Sourcing Choices at Just Fare
Thank you to Nicole and team at Veritable Vegetable and Ciara and team at Mandela Partners for contributing their words, images and perspectives for this blog, and for all they do! 🙏
Just Fare is built upon three pillars: Food, People and Community. The positive impact and care we want to bring to the food system — the eaters, producers and workers in it — drives our approach to each of these pillars. We feed all of our client communities across Office Catering, Events and Community Kitchen by supporting responsible producers, and that starts with where we buy food.
Sweet potato heaven at Sea to Sky Farm, one of Veritable Vegetable’s farmer partners. Photo credit: Veritable Vegetable.
For this blog we’re taking a deeper dive into our Food pillar, so we connected with local suppliers Mandela Produce Distribution and Veritable Vegetable. These are two BIPOC and women-led, respectively, key sourcing partners for Just Fare. We wanted to hear about their business practices related to pricing and relationships. We also asked them about how their vision for the food system informs those practices and how they communicate that to the world!
“…we have all chosen to put our money where our mouths are and pay for the true cost of food because we believe in a stronger and more equitable food system”
Maria Catalan from Catalan Farms, a farmer partner for Mandela Produce Distribution. Photo credit: Mandela Partners.
Mandela Produce Distribution is a project of nonprofit Mandela Partners, and supports limited-resource farmers that use sustainable practices within 150 miles of their West Oakland food hub. Their commitment to fair pricing for farmers aligns with Just Fare’s commitment to pay for the true cost of good food so that farmers and suppliers can pay their workers a living wage and build sustainable businesses.
Veritable Vegetable (VV) is a women-led business that sources and delivers high quality organic produce throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Hawaii. They work with over 1,000 farmers and are committed to building a healthy, equitable and accessible food system, with a deep focus on sustainability and a triple-bottom line approach that prioritizes the planet and people along with profits.
To determine pricing, Mandela Produce Distribution looks to farmers to lead the initial pricing conversation and then strategizes where they move that product based on their preferred pricing. Rather than push for unreasonably low pricing, if they can't identify a viable sales channel for a product, they won't purchase it. They prioritize working with values-aligned customers that are bought into paying the true cost of sustainably grown food and committed to building the economic power of farmers of color through equitable sourcing practices.
One of Veritable Vegetable’s award-winning trucks and drivers, powering their radically different approach to distributing organic produce. Photo credit: Veritable Vegetable/Niall David.
VV approaches pricing by developing and nurturing personal relationships with each grower, working with them on crop planning, pack types, labeling requirements and sharing market information when they can, believing that ensuring the success of those around them is vital to their own success. They are dedicated to returning the highest possible return to growers for their product. In order to develop a market for their produce, they engage with customers, vendors and community organizations that align with their mission to build a sustainable food system through supporting farmers and increasing access to fresh food.
Mandela sees their role as supporting the physical and relationship-based infrastructure of a community-driven food system that honors community sovereignty and supports asset-building in historically disinvested communities of color. As a business that seeks to use food as a force for social change, Just Fare deeply relates to Mandela’s acknowledgement that while food is the underlying thread connecting all of their programs, at their core they are a community development organization.
Dominga from Avila Farms, one of Mandela’s farmer partners, at a weekly farmer’s market stand. Photo credit: Mandela Partners.
In a shared spirit with Mandela and Just Fare, VV runs a values-driven business that encourages political change and demonstrates a radically different approach to distributing organic produce. They employ sustainable and regenerative systems that increase energy and resources and are life-affirming, like investing in renewable energy, diverting 99% of their waste stream from landfills, moving their (award-winning!) fleet of delivery trucks toward zero emission, and prioritizing all the people in their circles: customers, staff and farmers, to contribute to a more equitable food system.
In 2020 and 2021 (YTD) Just Fare spent a total of $216,858 with these two suppliers, and we’re aiming to continue to increase our overall percentage of purchasing from local BIPOC and woman-owned farms and suppliers.
Just Fare purchases food from these suppliers because they deliver high quality and delicious product via responsible business practices, which is exactly what Just Fare strives to do in turn for meals, snacks and drinks for our client communities across Office Catering, Events and Community Kitchen. Sometimes this costs more, for both Just Fare and for Mandela and Veritable, but we have all chosen to put our money where our mouths are and pay for the true cost of food because we believe in a stronger and more equitable food system, and this starts with the farmers and the dirt!
Thank you for reading!
❤️ JF
Would you like to learn more about how Just Fare sources our food? Click the button below for further reading.📚