Founded in 2016 by seven Southern Illinois farmers, the Little Egypt Alliance of Farmers (LEAF), had two goals in mind: to make ordering local food easier for busy customers; and to support small farmers by providing an online marketplace to sell their goods. The group adheres to naturally grown and organic standards as a peer-to-peer regulated organization, aiming to make fresh, local food attainable for everyone. Their motto: “RESPECT: for farmers, sustainable practices and the land.”
We had the opportunity to speak with Liz DeRuntz, active member and director of LEAF, about the development of the food hub and its impact on the food system at large.
LFM: Hello, Liz! Could you tell us a little about yourself, and how you got involved with LEAF?
LIZ: Right now, I’m a graduate student at Southern Illinois University, getting my MBA. (This is only about 20 years after I got my undergraduate degree!)
I found the members of LEAF three years ago. I took a class that was offered by a local not-for-profit for local food, and my husband and I wanted to start a farm. (Sadly, that farming dream has not quite come to fruition yet.) Some of the farmers that were in the class with me kept talking about how can we all work together? Southern Illinios is about 350 miles from Chicago. The largest town is St. Louis, and that is about 2 hours away. Truth is, our area may as well be another state!
We thought, how can we aggregate food? It was a huge topic we kept coming back to. That is basically how LEAF was born!
Being the only member of the group that didn’t have a farm, I was given and entrusted with the task of finding the correct technology for us to use. I was also in charge of implementing the technology, all of the customer face-to-face, and marketing for it.
We started a little over two years ago in 2016, and began working with LFM pretty much right away. Since then, we’ve had a 10% increase – which is more than we expected! We have more than doubled our customer base, so that’s exciting. We are also now looking at new ways of reaching more people in our area. Fingers crossed we will be able to offer the use of SNAP soon with our online market!
LFM: As a food hub, what are your sales’ outlets?
LIZ: We have our CSA customers, and we also have local restaurants and a small green grocer that’s in St. Louis. We are also a distributor to restaurants in the St. Louis area.
LFM: How many producers are you currently working with?
LIZ: Right now we have 9, and it’s a variety. One guy does berries and beef, another is eggs, chicken, pork. There’s a mushroom producer, a honey producer, vegetables, herbs, flowers.. We just brought on, recently, a baker! She grows her own sourdough. It’s pretty exciting! We also have a coffee producer!
LFM: What was LEAF like before using LFM?
LIZ: I did maybe two months of digging around trying to find what I thought was the best option. As most of our farmers are over the age of 50, it was the struggle to find something that hopefully we could teach everyone how to use. But, it would also have to be intuitive to use, and needed to really streamline the whole process.
When we first talked about doing this, I said to the group “I’m not going to run this like an etsy store. I’m not going to run this like a website.” There are too many variables, too many things changing!
Once I found LFM, I thought “this is it.” I thought, “The reports, all the accounting is integrated – it’s almost too easy!”
LFM: What do you appreciate most about LFM?
LIZ: I can remember we went to the local business incubator to show producers LFM, and some of them didn’t even have g-mail accounts. They didn’t know how to use Facebook, and some didn’t even have computers at home. Several were really afraid of the technology.
Then came the “a-ha! Moment” of “I can do this!” It was giving them this amazing tool. It made our farmers feel empowered. So that was one of the best moments for me with LFM.
A lot of our farmers do sell at our traditional outdoor market and our winter market, as well. Most of our growers are certified organic, follow the standards, or naturally grown certification. Our regular market is like a mafia – only one organic, non-traditional grower per week. Our growers felt pushed out, but since using LFM, some of them don’t even bother going to the winter market anymore. They are making enough money now that they don’t have to go to 4 or 5 different markets. It has reduced the financial anxiety for a lot of our farmers.
LFM: Do you have a specific feature of LFM that is your favorite?
LIZ: Honestly, I think the fact that it’s just completely integrated is what does it for me. Our farmers think it’s so easy and intuitive!
Every week, a farmer will do their walk-throughs in their fields on Sunday before we go live. If it rains or if they have bug damage, the farmer can go in and adjust things immediately in their account. We can credit things – it’s just that easy integration. It’s not: ok now I have to go over here to do this, and now over there to figure it all out. It’s just streamlined – that’s what makes it fantastic.
When I do have a problem or I forget how to do something, and sadly for Nick it’s a lot (laughs), Nick always sends me a nice e-mail. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s just who I am or if I’m getting older, you need to help the people out who help you. Seriously, if we did not have LFM, we would not be doing this. Or we would have done this for one season, looked at eachother, and been like “this is too hard, and we are done.” It makes me smile getting the opportunity to use this.
When you think about local food and how hard it is for the producers, it’s just a struggle every day for them. Most of our producers, except for three that are retired, are the young ones: I do this every single day more for the young farmers, so they won’t leave farming. Most have second jobs to make a living. So I do this because I don’t want it to all end up being big farms.
It’s hard to think about agriculture continuing to become big as opposed to going smaller. Big ag has killed everything, and it continues to do so. In some ways, I feel like I’m making a bit of a difference, that LEAF is making a bit of a difference.
LFM: What would you say to someone interested in pursuing LFM?
LIZ: Honestly, that they’d be foolish not to!
