Schools and food pantries can be some of the steadiest customers a food hub or farm will ever have. The volumes are bigger than a farmers market, the orders repeat week after week, and the money usually comes from a budget that’s already set aside for food. The catch is...
Release 5.06 brings customizable storefronts to Local Food Marketplace. Tailor the content, communications, and checkout experience for each group you serve, all managed from one admin site. You already talk to your customers differently. The way you greet a Saturday morning shopper isn’t the way you talk with a chef...
When Dave Prather joined Local Food Marketplace in 2025, he brought 17 years of food hub leadership with him. His path started even earlier though: “I grew up helping my grandfather in his garden and developed a love for getting my hands dirty from him.” Before LFM, he ran Western Montana...
The North Coast Growers’ Association has been connecting Humboldt County with local food since 1978. In 2023, they launched the Harvest Hub, a food hub that sources from roughly 50 regional farmers throughout the year. Hailee Nolte, the Hub’s Coordinator, and Megan Kenney, its Director, sat down to talk about...
A short look at what’s shifted in email marketing for local food, plus a free guide that walks through each fix in detail. Email is still the highest-leverage marketing channel for most farms, food hubs, and CSAs. It outperforms social, paid ads, and SMS on return-per-dollar. And for a business...
The local food industry is navigating one of its most challenging periods in recent memory. Shifts in federal funding, changing grant landscapes, and tighter operating budgets are putting pressure on farms, food hubs, and markets across the country. We’ve felt it in our conversations with prospective customers, and we’ve heard...
Whether you’re running a farm, managing a food hub, or both, you keep track of your numbers. But keeping track and having true financial visibility are two very different things. Most of the operations we work with aren’t struggling because they’re bad at business. They’re struggling because a few key...
Planning ahead just got a whole lot easier. With Storefront Pre-Orders in LFM’s latest release, you can start selling products before they’re available, giving your customers more flexibility and helping you plan with confidence. Whether it’s seasonal products, special events, or large buyers planning ahead, Pre-Orders make it simple to...
It’s a familiar moment for many farms and food hubs: CSA season is approaching and your shares aren’t quite full. At this stage, the strategy shifts. What works in the off-season (brand awareness, storytelling, audience growth) won’t move fast enough now. We spoke with Anna Larsen, a marketing strategist who has...
In 2020, the entire economy shifted for local farmers. For one community in Oregon, that shift became the catalyst for something new. Building a Local Food Hub in a Time of Change Moondog Farm began with simple roots, growing food and serving its local community. But during the COVID-19 pandemic,...