FreshSpoke is an app-based marketplace for local food. It’s designed to grow sales and simplify order, payment and delivery for local food producers and wholesale buyers. FreshSpoke is now expanding across Ontario, and has given local food producers and buyers the opportunity to learn how FreshSpoke can work for them at a 1-hour info session, held at The United Counties of SDG Administrative Building, in Cornwall on Wednesday November 22.
FreshSpoke gives local food producers a set of simple tools to create a shop on their platform and take wholesale orders and schedule deliveries. Wholesale buyers including restaurants, retailers and institutions can tap into the SDG marketplace to browse and buy, arrange delivery and track the progress of their orders – all from the palm of their hand. Their delivery system takes advantage of excess capacity giving commercial drivers that travel our roads daily – starting with our own producers – the ability to make extra cash delivering local food.
“FreshSpoke appears to have struck a chord with Eastern Ontario local food producers and wholesale buyers. The food service and retail businesses attending our information sessions made it clear that they want access to more locally produced foods. That’s why we’re expanding our platform into eastern Ontario; so wholesale buyers in this region can connect directly with local food producers using our app to manage orders, payments and deliveries,” said Marcia Woods, CEO and Co-founder of FreshSpoke.
Introduced to SDG through the Food and Agriculture Advisory Council, at the Scaling Up workshop held a month ago, Fresh Spoke CEO and Co-Founder Marcia Woods, spoke directly to participants answering questions on the next steps. The beauty of the system is that it provides flexibility and opportunity for the economic spinoff as part of the Agriculture value-chain. Additional assistance and cost savings are also available for start-up operations and food entrepreneurs.
“Growing and launching this system to the SDG region provides a key tool for the “growing” economy in the agriculture space. We are pleased to offer support to our producers and businesses through FreshSpoke, and potentially offset some of the distribution challenges that are a large challenge to getting products directly out to the consumer base,” said Terry Besner, Economic Development and Communications Officer, United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.
