SLO Farmers Coop was founded in 2014 to help small farmers in northeast Wisconsin sell more of their produce and meat locally. The cooperative includes eight family farms and manages two customizable CSAs — a weekly vegetable share and a monthly meat share, both of which are year-round. SFC also sells to several wholesale accounts, including restaurants, caterers, schools, and other food hubs.

Keeping track of the many moving parts in the customizable CSA is a challenge — especially since SFC’s program has seen significant growth since 2024, with an overall increase in subscribers of 43%. Local Food Marketplace provides SFC with many tools to keep the program running like a well-oiled machine. Here are a few of their favorite features.

Ability to Track Inventory and Just-in-Time Products

SFC keeps pantry staples like bread, pasta, and cheese in inventory, but fruits and vegetables are harvested to order. “Local Food Marketplace has the flexibility to track inventory as well as harvest to order,” said General Manager Heather Toman. Depending on how the item is sourced, Local Food Marketplace automates producer pick lists for items that are harvest to order and automatically allocates inventory for items in their warehouse.

Improved Workflow for Producer Pick Lists

Once the customization window has closed for the week, Heather pulls up a product summary in LFM and reviews everything that was ordered for that week. Once she reviews this, Heather sends each producer their pick list for the week. (Heather has the option to schedule these pick lists automatically, but she likes to review them beforehand.) She can do this work on her desktop computer or her phone if she gets called out of the office.

Streamlined Customer Payments and Communication

Because all CSAs are fully customizable, member payments vary from week to week. Heather’s workflow is made much easier by the fact that Local Food Marketplace enables customers to store payment information on their account. “We batch run card payments a few days after they get their share, so if there are any credits or anything we have to change, we can just charge people what they owe and we don’t have to give them a refund,” she said.

Occasionally, SFC will offer a product in the CSA that doesn’t arrive from the farmer due to a crop failure or other issue. “Local Food Marketplace enables us to batch swap things or remove things and email customers with an update,” said Heather. “To provide that level of customer service would be pretty impossible without Local Food Marketplace.”

Local Food Marketplace enables us to batch swap things or remove things and email customers with an update. To provide that level of customer service would be pretty impossible without Local Food Marketplace.”

—Heather Toman, SLO Farmers Coop 

Easier Route Management with Routific Integration

Taking customer orders is one thing; making sure they get their orders is another major task. SFC has eight pickup locations and makes home deliveries along two different routes over the course of several days.

Heather uses Local Food Marketplace’s integration with Routific to make routing and scheduling deliveries easier. She is able to schedule home deliveries in between drop-offs at the various pickup locations and can easily print packing lists in order of route right from Local Food Marketplace.

Learn How Local Food Marketplace’s CSA Software Can Help Your Business 

Are you curious how Local Food Marketplace’s CSA software can benefit your business? Request a one-on-one team with our team.