Are you a busy young professional who cares about where your food comes from, but don’t have the time to leisurely peruse the farmer’s market? Are you a member of a busy family with lots on the go, but still want to make local, organic and healthy food a priority? Are you mobility challenged and would like access to good, local food without having to leave your home?
Edmonton now has two services that deliver groceries to your door: SPUD and the Organic Box.
The Organic Box (theorganicbox.ca)
Danny and Miranda Turner opened the Organic Box in 2010. The Turners, organic cherry and apple farmers from Creston B.C., created the Organic Box because they felt that there was a community of people who wanted access to organic and local food year round. The Turners still farm, and have grown the Organic Box over the last five years, and now connects growers and producers to restaurants, businesses and the community.
“We’re more than an online delivery service,” says Danny. “The core of our business is helping farmers get their products to market, and the delivery service is just one means of directselling products to customers. We have a wholesale and packing division with a storage and processing space and we have delivery and pickup options for restaurants.”
The Organic Box website encourages customers to access information, such as whether the product is fair trade, Canadian-made or GMO free, as well as containing short producers profile, telling the story behind the farm.
“Each product is vetted by our grocery team to meet our strict standards,” says Danny. “When a producer says they’re organic, we need to see the certification from the Canadian Organic Regime. Our definition of local means that the Groceries to Go people who grow the food own their land, pay their workers a fair wage, and that the profits stay in that community, whether that’s in Edmonton, in B.C. or in Peru. We focus on sourcing products from here first, and if a product is out of season, we will try and extend the season by freezing fresh berries, for example.”
Turner explains that should a conventional producer want to supply the Organic Box rather than being turned away he will help that producer move towards organic production.
“For example, someone who makes tortilla chips might approach us; however, they don’t use organic flour,” says Danny. “Rather than turning them away we will help connect them with an organic corn flour supplier because we want to grow the industry.”
As for selection, the Organic Box offers only the best items from a category. “When you go to a grocery store today,” says Danny, “you have to choose from hundreds of different varieties of potato chips. At the Organic Box, we pick out the best local and organic products from that aisle and provide it to our customers.”
The Organic Box’s delivery schedule could make it difficult to accommodate customers’ delivery preferences, but if a customer requires their order to be delivered on a different day, they offer an express service at an additional cost.
The Organic Box believes that “we need to be conscious of where our food comes from and act as stewards of our planet so that future generations can live healthier lives.” In order to meet that commitment, they’ve teamed up with Bullfrog Power and Carbon Farmer to become carbon neutral. The process involves understanding and measuring, reducing and offsetting their carbon footprint, by changing their warehouse lights from florescent to LED for example.
“We have an agreement with Carbon Farmer to contract the trees in an Edmonton Area Land Trust Reserve (EALT), using that as our offset for the next couple of years,” says Danny.
SPUD (SPUD.ca)
SPUD (Sustainable Produce, Urban Delivery) is the new kid on the block, having just set up shop in Edmonton. The vision was an online delivery service to give busy people the opportunity to get quality, healthy, local and organic products without having to take time out of their day to go to the store.
SPUD started in the USA and expanded to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. The CEO, David Van Seters, was born in Edmonton, and with our relentless winters and the rise in interest in local food, SPUD saw a great business opportunity. At SPUD, customers pay for items individually. As for cost, Corbin Bouree, managing director of SPUD in Edmonton explains, “We’re very comparable to Blush Lane or Planet Organic. For any products that we carry that come from the farmer’s markets, you won’t pay more.” Bouree also finds that customers who use the service feel they spend less because they can more easily plan ahead by scanning the fridge before placing an order and are not tempted with in-store impulse buys.
SPUD has very strict criteria their vendors must follow to be able to supply their customers, including practising sustainable growing methods, having a commitment to the local community, and being GMO-free. They bring in third-party auditors and regulatory agencies to ensure that the criteria are met. If not, those vendors are no longer welcome to supply customers through SPUD. SPUD’s definition of local is products must be grown or made within 800 kilometres of the warehouse. When local products are not available or out of season, SPUD will source them outside of the local region. Items that do not grow in Edmonton, like bananas or avocados, are sourced from the closest geographical location to us.
Just like the Organic Box, using SPUD’s online store is simple. Customers can browse their categories and click on specific products for more information. Each product page offers details such as whether it’s GMO, wheat and gluten free, and provides a short write-up about the producer.
SPUD takes measures to ensure that their products are perfect when they arrive at their customers’ doors, such as using insulated bins and refrigerated trucks, and packing frozen items in dry ice.
“When the product is not perfect, SPUD has a 100 per cent money back guarantee,” says Corbin. “Another benefit is that customers don’t need to sign a contract or a membership to use SPUD. This is something our customers really appreciate.”
According to Corbin, the disadvantage to shopping with SPUD is that with online shopping, a customer doesn’t get to meet the farmer at the market or smell the fresh bread at the bakery. With that in mind, SPUD only delivers between Tuesday and Friday, so whether you value or loathe the shopping experience, you can have the choice between both worlds.
Sustainability is at the very foundation of how SPUD functions. (It’s in their name, after all.) From purchasing postconsumer paper for business operations to tracking food miles on products, SPUD doesn’t pay it lip service. They are B Corporation Certified, meaning that they’ve undergone a long operational audit process to prove their commitment to environmental, economic and social sustainability. “It’s all about making conscious decisions throughout our entire business process,” says Corbin.
Whether you’re a hard-working young entrepreneur, a busy mom or a housebound senior, we are fortunate to have two choices that deliver local and organic food right to the door.
Jacquie Lycka spends her Saturdays shopping local and Sundays crafting culinary concoctions in her Parkallen home kitchen. She’s got a freezer full of harvest fruit, and she’s not afraid to use it.