GM participates in local food cooperative
Melissa Miller, president of the Lake-to-River Food Cooperative, shows some of the locally grown produce picked for General Motors Lordstown employees.
LORDSTOWN
A group of local farmers is taking an extra step to peddle its wares.
The Lake-to-River Food Cooperative has developed partnerships with several local businesses, including General Motors, Humility of Mary Health Partners and Youngstown Business Incubator, to deliver orders to employees on site.
The goal is simply to try to sell more local food, said Melissa Miller from the cooperative.
“The site is set up so, just like Amazon, you can come on and choose what you want,” she said.
The cooperative also offers a seasonal basket that provides whatever foods are fresh at area farms, Miller said.
Farmers own the cooperative, and members don’t have the ability to go out on their own and sell the products in a number of locations, she said. The cooperative provides the member farmers with a larger market for their products.
The cooperative operates differently from a Community Supported Agriculture venture because it gives the option to choose what you want, Miller said.
“With a CSA, you get a portion of a farmer’s or farmers’ crop every week, but if you’re on vacation that week, [the foods can go to waste],” she said.
Tom Phibbs, who is director of sales for the cooperative and runs The Lettuce People, one of the cooperative’s producers, said setting up partnerships with businesses is simply good economics.
“If we could get everyone in the [Mahoning] Valley to spend $20 a week on local fruits and vegetables, that would be millions of dollars a year in the local economy,” he said. “It would be helpful to all of us because we live and work here.”
As an owner, Phibbs said this type of effort is great because it provides new markets for the products. It’s a good way to grow the business.
The hope is that these types of programs will continue to grow within the area, he said.
GM wants to be involved in programs such as this one to give their employees additional options to improve their health, said Tara Martin, who oversees wellness for the United Auto Workers Union in several states, including Ohio.
“If we’re able to deliver it right here to them, it makes it more convenient as well,” she said.
The expectation is that this program will start slowly and grow as people begin talking about it, Martin added.