Yes, the Market was just announced yesterday and it's ready to expand.
The response has been inspiring and the pleas to expand delivery to other regions and to adapt the platform to other cities has been heard.
The 'innovation' here is not an online store. It's how the technology can notify customer of delivery periods, manage inventory & notify vendors when stock is low, and make it easy for food from multiple vendors to be packaged together for easy delivery. This technology enables a complicated local supply chain to be managed.
ANY farmers' market, restaurant, independent grocery store could serve as a 'community food hub'. Vendors can coordinate to bring their product there, so that it can be packaged by staff into orders for either pickup or delivery.
In creating the Virtual Market, I configured the technology so that it could be rapidly expanded beyond just our farm serving a 'community food hub'. Proud to say that this farmer has it 95% ready and some much smarter people who are helping with the other 5%.
This is an invitation to markets, restaurants and other locations (bonus if you cold / dry storage) to serve as 'community food hubs'. The need is great. The technology exists. It's the locations & labour that are needed now to make this a reality.
This is not a new idea and definitely not my own. Many people have tried to figure out how to do this for a long time. Right now, amidst the chaos, we are being presented with a chance to make it a reality.
Yes, there will be a hiccups and a learning curve as we build this and TOGETHER we can do this.
