Seattle Startup Delivers Discounted Local Produce To Low-Income Families

The Seattle startup Pacific Coast Harvest, which connects local farms and home delivery, is now offering a discount program to assist low-income families, GeekWire reported Sunday (Sept. 15).

The company, which launched in 2011 and has four employees, works with 250 Northwest farms to deliver fresh fruits and vegetables right to people’s kitchens. The startup recently teamed with the city of Seattle and area preschools to give low-income families the same service at a discount.

Seattle’s Fresh Bucks to Go program lets select families choose locally-grown fruits and vegetables from an online menu and have the items delivered to their children’s preschools, the article said. Last year, 1,473 families received produce through Fresh Bucks to Go.

“Consumers can get access to higher quality, more sustainably grown fruits and veggies than they can from a traditional store,” Christopher Teeny, managing owner of Pacific Coast Harvest, said.

Regular prices are “on par” with premium grocers and less than farmers’ markets, Teeny said. Organic items are less expensive than from higher-end markets.

Teeny recently launched a pilot with 250 low-income families, giving them $15 of Fresh Bucks credits for produce, and a 15 percent discount for anything above that.

“Chris and Pacific Coast Harvest have really been the ones to use technology to transform this program,” said Natalie Thomson, senior food and nutrition planner with the city of Seattle’s Human Services Department.

The gig economy combined with the growth of eCommerce, digital payments and app-based enterprises, make it possible to help farmers get their products into the hands of consumers who want them. eCommerce delivery services are connecting consumers with local farmers as well as producers as they digitize the farmers market. Aside from Pacific Coast Harvest, startups like the Midwest’s Market Wagon and Florida’s Front Porch Pickings are among those linking local farmers to both consumers and restaurants.