1. LOCAVORE FOODS, MICHIGAN
SoCap Food Systems Track 2010
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Prepared by Melanie Cheng & John
Fisk
Night-before disclaimer

2. 2-SECOND HISTORY
 Eric Hahn + investors founded Cherry Capital
Foods in MI with a 100 mile radius mandate
 Very successful
 Eric asked to advise ag departments across country
to replicate
 Eric believed 100 miles was limiting; how about
24-hour radius?
 Eric: Yay
 Investors: Nay
 Eric left and founded Locavore Foods 2009
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3. LOCAVORE FOODS SNAPSHOT
 One of most successful local-food “distributors”
for schools in country
 Serves Detroit, Chicago, neighboring counties:
 70%: 900 public schools via contract
 15%: Restaurants
 10%: Stores
 5%: Distributors, Institutions, Farm stands
 Serves ~ 100 farms from 1 to 600 acres
 18 mos. old with $1.2M sales, soon to grow
with…
 New partnership with established “conventional”
distributor to meet schools’ logistical needs
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4. LOCKING VOLUME BY MEETING SCHOOL NEEDS
 Schools need local product
 Some schools part of Farm-to-School program =
mandate to source locally
 Some schools are “USDA Grant Schools” = >80%
kids’ family income qualifies for reduced-cost or free
school lunches = receive gov. funding to subsidize
purchase of fresh fruits & vegetables
 Schools not appealing to other distributors
 Hard to find farms who meet USDA sizing and price
requirements
 Hard to find farms who meet insurance, food safety
standards
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5. SCHOOLS ARE APPEALING TO LOCAVORE FOODS
 Established relationships with farms
 Already knows who has HAACP and GAP
certification
 Engages them at prospect of big volume school
contract
 Educates them on exact [typically smaller] size,
pack, price
 Secures large volumes ahead of time across multiple
small/medium farms
 Eric Hahn former life as Chef
 Menu-planning with “school lunch ladies”
 Manually shifts demand to seasonal supply
 Example: iceberg lettuce mixed with 80% seasonal
greens 5

6. LOCAVORE AS FULL SERVICE PARTNER TO
FARMS
 First in: school contracts
 selling farms’ small sizes for USDA kid portions
 “leftover” med/large sizes not acceptable to school
portions
 Friend for life: help moving “leftovers”
 Distributors and other wholesale buyers prefer
med/large anyway
 Education on pack and pricing
 How to plan, pick, wash, pack, price
 Pick-up service
 Locavore picks up from farms; allows smaller farms
to reach larger channels
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7. LOCAVORE AS CHEF CONSULTANT & FORAGER
FOR RESTAURANTS
 Menu-planning
 Seasonality
 Produce education
 Marketing ideas: ex – “pastured chicken night”
 “Contracts” with farms for standing orders
 Access to special items
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8. LOCAVORE AS “REGULAR” DISTRIBUTOR TO
OTHER WHOLESALE PURCHASERS
 Standard order processing & deliveries
 Pricing on par with other local-food
distributors
 Only competitive with mainline commodity
prices if farms choose to set their price at
that level
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9. LOCAVORE FOODS MAGIC FORMULA
 Farmer relationships
 Knowledge of who does and can grow what
 Knowledge of who has insurance, GAP ahead of time
 Holding trust in guaranteeing school sales
 Pickup service
 Education
 Farms about pick, pack, price, plan
 Schools about working within USDA guidelines
 Restaurants about seasonality & produce
 Efficiency
 Helping farms move all product to diversified customers
 Picking up from farms while making deliveries to
customers
 Expanding by using physical assets of larger distributors
 Opportunity here! 9

10. STARTUP & FINANCING
 Day 1: 1 man, 1 van, 1 plan
 Loans
 Personally funded
 Today: 3 staff, 3 trucks, 3 warehouses
 Imminent partnership with established distributor
wanting to incorporate more local = 15 more trucks
 Partner wants more local
 Locavore can now provide bananas, winter produce
to schools
 Profitable now
 Break-even estimated 5 years
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11. MORE INFO
 Eric Hahn
emhahn1@msn.com
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