Some of my fondest memories are food shopping with my grandfather in Lynn Massachusetts going from one small trusted grocer, Blatsos’ Fruit, to another. Many of us never experienced that – and those of us who did miss that relationship now.
Back in the day when you had a local grocer, you had a relationship that was personal and long term. You trusted them for guidance in selecting foods that would be good for you, taste amazing, and guarantee your loyalty and mutual trust. You also trusted and respected them to educate you on how to know the difference between excellent healthy food, and the alternatives.
With the advent of the supermarket and large box stores, that relationship has completely disappeared. The information you do get is pure marketing with the goal of getting you to buy more.
Yet, we are somewhat hardwired to want to trust those who feed us everyday – and still we confuse this pure marketing with trusted advice from someone who values your relationship and cares. But the relationship and affinity has vanished. This is why we constantly feel betrayed and confused when we discover the truth about the food we just ate to be different from the marketing.
When we started Farmers To You, our initial motivation was to help the amazing farmers create an appreciative market for their fabulous foods. But very quickly we discovered that it was equally important to re-create this missing relationship and trustworthy advice about food. Sometimes this meant making hard choices about a particular farm or producer because of a lack of transparency, or because they were not capable of producing food we would serve to our own families.
What keeps us focused on nurturing our relationship with our families is the truth that if we betray that trust, then we damage that relationship, and our small regional food system that has so much potential for healing us and the planet, collapses. The trust that holds this community together is at stake with each weekly delivery, and our farmers realize that too. Selling a few more sub-par vegetables today is never worth losing your trust tomorrow.
This is what community is all about – trust, caring for each other, and creating long term health and prosperity for all. Together we are creating one that feeds and supports families and farmers with every delicious bite of food.
Thank you for working with us to rebuild trust, and for being part of this community that is healing our essential relationships, as well as our and the planet’s health.
Yours,
Greg and the whole team at Farmers To You
