By Mary Elizabeth Kidd and Lauren Cox
Over the past decade, the number of restaurants sourcing directly from farms or through small-scale aggregators has been consistently increasing. Georgia Organics believes this restaurant market, beyond the “farm to table” moniker, holds huge potential for Georgia farms, and the Farmer Services team aims to foster these important, nuanced relationships between chefs and farmers.
With this in mind, in 2019, the Farm to Restaurant program, led by Lauren Cox, Georgia Organics Organic Procurement Coordinator, launched the Farmer Cohort program to assist small-scale, local, and organic farms in better planning and operations for the restaurant market. Through this program, Georgia Organics aims to help diversify participating farms’ revenue streams and, ultimately, increase their sustainability and viability, while establishing transparency in the restaurant sourcing process.
About the Farm to Restaurant Farmer Cohort
The Farm to Restaurant team supports the Farmer Cohort on an annual basis (sometimes up to two years) by providing consulting on business management, on-farm systems, crop production, and post-harvest handling, as well as record-keeping tools that enable them to become restaurant-ready. The team also provides assistance in fine-tuning their growing practices for the restaurant market, connection with Georgia chefs, and overall help increasing and strengthening farmers’ restaurant partnerships. The aim is that these learnings help farmers across the state build better businesses and increased revenue streams.
Farm to Restaurant Farmer Cohort members deliver to Farmer Champion restaurants with signature Georgia Organics boxes. Photo credit: Bailey Garrot.
The Farmer Cohort application process begins each year in January, with new members selected and announced in March. Cohort members are chosen based on their potential for growth in restaurant sales by a committee comprised of farm partners, chef partners, and members of the Georgia Organics Farmer Services team.
Farm to Restaurant Farmer Cohort applicants are Georgia Organics Farmer Members who agree to participate in program offerings such as one-day workshop, data surveys, networking opportunities, and feedback discussions.
Deciding to be a member of the Farm to Restaurant Farmer Cohort means participating farmers are committed to selling to restaurants consistently whenever possible and creating space to intentionally increase their farm's restaurant sales. They are also encouraged to be realistic about the program and the long-term nature of building lasting restaurant relationships.
Farm to Restaurant Farmer Cohort members have access to:
Farm to Restaurant intensive consultation
One-on-one support in pricing, variety and crop rotation, on-farm efficiency, availability list creation, packing and harvesting techniques, and logistics strategies
Help with direct restaurant and chef “matchmaking” opportunities
Two networking events during your Farmer Cohort year
One year of QuickBooks, paid for by Georgia Organics
One farm visit and Farm to Restaurant sales assessment
One FSMA training course and certification (if desired)
Organic Certification assistance (if desired)
QuickBooks training
300 free Georgia Organics Farmer Champion boxes (3/4 bushel) for restaurant delivery use
Featured placement on Georgia Organics Farm to Restaurant website
Featured placements on Georgia Organics website, emails, and social media channels
Inclusion in the Farmer Champion chef sourcing packet for restaurants and priority consideration in chef sourcing inquires
Pre-pandemic farmer and chef catch-ups at Farmer Champion restaurant Root Baking Co. Photo credit Bailey Garrot.
The Farmer Cohort “Class of 2020”
In February 2020, four farms from around the state were accepted into the Farm to Restaurant program. 2020 Farm to Restaurant Cohort Farms include:
From mushrooms to berries to diversified veggie producers, these farms were all positioned to grow their businesses into the restaurant market before COVID-19 hit. Although resourcefulness and the ability to pivot are inherent characteristics of a wise farmer and entrepreneur, 2020 has proved an unprecedented market in almost every way.
Making the Most of a Pandemic Food Economy
With a quick and dramatic decline in restaurant orders due to COVID-19-related closures and the state-mandated shelter in place, the farm-to-restaurant pipeline in 2020 has—and remains— significantly decreased for many farmers around the state and across the country.
With a brand new batch of Farmer Cohort ready to learn and grow, Lauren Cox and other members of the Georgia Organics team got right to work finding and creating new avenues for income, tied to the restaurant sector, yet inherently different to fill the new needs of customers as well as industry workers affected by the pandemic.
Mid-Week Pop-Up Market order, ready for safe pick-up, from Atlanta Harvest and Local Lands.
One such solution was to launch the Mid-Week Pop-up Market at Wrecking Bar Brewpub, a restaurant participant in the Farm to Restaurant’s Farmer Champion campaign and longtime supporter of Georgia farmers. This market connects shoppers to the Farmer Cohort farms via online ordering from the Farm to Restaurant website for weekly socially-distanced pick-up. The goal has not only been to provide shoppers with a convenient way to support local food and have weekly farm-fresh groceries, it also encourages those shoppers to support Wrecking Bar Brewpub, which offers takeout ordering and a menu that often features the produce, proteins, and more from Farmer Cohort farms.
In another effort to create revenue streams and stay engaged with the restaurant community during this time of crisis, Cox and Georgia Organics team members also worked with Farmer Champion Root Baking Co. and founding funders Jamestown Charitable Foundation and Ponce City Market to establish Food Fight Georgia. Through this program, Georgia Organics coordinates the sourcing, purchasing, and packaging of weekly farm boxes for out-of-work restaurant workers at participating restaurants. This has served a dual purpose of serving the restaurant community (often rightly referred to as family), while putting dollars in the pockets of farmers, further filling the gap from pre-pandemic restaurant orders.
Food Fight GA weekly orders being packaged for unemployed restaurant workers. Photo credit: Kate Blohm.
The mission of Food Fight GA is to serve Atlanta’s restaurant family by providing weekly farm-fresh produce boxes to former staff while preserving and stabilizing Georgia’s local food system. With funding from the Jamestown Charitable Foundation and Ponce City Market, this program is going beyond providing nourishment to those now unemployed in the restaurant community; Food Fight GA is also supporting the Georgia farmers that have been affected by COVID-19 by ordering directly from these farms who are existing sellers to the restaurants or members of the Georgia Organics Farm to Restaurant Cohort program, to supply the produce boxes, helping to mitigate potential lost revenue due to shifts in sales outlets. With this dual-service approach, the aim of the campaign is Championing Our Farmers & Feeding Our Restaurant Family.
In addition to these new selling opportunities, the farmers of all four Farmers Cohort member farms are carving out time to attend a five-session QuickBooks training to brush up on and refine their accounting skills. The first session took place in early June via Zoom and was also attended by some 2019 Farm to Restaurant Farmer Cohort members as well as one farm that is part of the 2020 Farmer Services Accelerator program. These sessions cover topics from setting up a chart of accounts and preferences to invoicing, creating sales reports, and running a profit and loss report to understand if what farmers are growing truly align with their business and overall goals. Georgia Organics is offering to sponsor a year of QuickBooks for farms new to the platform to understand if it fits their business prior to buying the platform for themselves.
“One of the most exciting things about being a part of the Farm to Restaurant Cohort program is that it’s helping us focus on streamlining the business side of our farm by way of offerings like QuickBooks training and learning how to better do business with chefs. There always room for room for improvement in figuring out what folks like to eat and how to grow, which this program also helps with. As you know, it’s been a tough spring, so having more of a community to share the ups and downs with helps, not to mention just having another set of eyes on our farm!”
Jessica Plymale, Row by Rowe Organic Farm (Luthersville, GA)
Josh and Jessica Plymale of Row by Rowe Organic Farm. Courtesy of Row by Rowe.
Ellijay Mushrooms is a participant in the Mid-Week Pop-Up Market and has been a participant in Food Fight Georgia program from the very start.
“When I was selected to join [the Farm to Restaurant Farmer Cohort], I was so excited based on what I’d heard from past farmers. Then COVID hit…and I was naïve to think it was a bad year to have been selected.
I quickly realized that it was actually the best year to become a Cohort farmer because of initiatives like Food Fight Georgia and the extra length that Georgia Organics has gone out of your way to do more for the farmers. So it’s been a weird mix emotions, but wow, it’s been amazing and so good for the farm. We’ve made great new relationships with the restaurants and with the leads you’re helping out with, we’ve been blown away.”
Howard Berk of Ellijay Mushrooms (Ellijay, GA)
Howard Berk of Ellijay Mushrooms. Courtesy of Ellijay Mushrooms.
Upcoming events for the 2020 Farm to Restaurant Farmer Cohort include online daylong workshops on topics such as diversified revenue streams, farm efficiency, and choosing your markets, as well as one-on-one farm visits with Lauren Cox, the Organic Procurement Coordinator, to talk farm-specific on-farm systems.
The highlights thus far of this year’s Farmer Cohort group are strong. This is a group of diversified producers (vegetables, perennial fruit, mushrooms, and more). There is also a wide range of experience levels in selling to restaurants. Some have more experience, such as Ellijay Mushrooms, and some are newer to the market, such as Buffalo Creek. Others, like Local Lands and Atlanta Harvest and Row by Rowe, have experience selling to restaurants, but have the potential to expand that side of their business.
“We’re being challenged to look at how we can maintain relationships with restaurants in the time of COVID and where both the farmers and the chefs hold value. Now is the time to dig into those relationships and commit to seeing how and where they can be mutually beneficial. Another opportunity has come in the form of taking the step back from restaurants due to the government shutdown, which is giving these farmers the chance to look at their systems on the farm, in getting their products to the end user, and how best to do that.”
Lauren Cox, Georgia Organics Organic Procurement Coordinator
Stay tuned as we continue to spotlight the growth of the Farmer Cohort and the farmers in the program. In the meantime, be sure to shop the weekly Mid-Week Pop-Up Marketing at bit.ly/midweekpopup and learn more about Food Fight Georgia at www.foodfightga.com/.
To learn more about the Farmer Cohort, Farmer Champions, and other aspects of the Georgia Organics Farm to Restaurant program, visit farmtorestaurant.georgiaorganics.org/.
Mary Elizabeth Kidd is Georgia Organics’ Communications Manager. She can be reached at maryelizabeth@georgiaorganics.org. Lauren Cox is the Organic Procurement Coordinator at Georgia Organics and can be reached at laurencox@georgiaorganics.org. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.