Grey County food hub steps up delivery schedule

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

by JIM ALGIE

A Grey County-based, local food service for southern Ontario restaurants has opened a distribution centre on Highway 10 just north of Flesherton.

As a result, Chefs’ Forum now maintains twice a week pickup for delivery mainly to Greater Toronto-area restaurants, project coordinator Linda Reader said in an interview, Thursday. One vegetable grower and a Markdale-based, mushroom producer are currently shipping both days while others among 35 member farmers are using the new, Monday and Wednesday, transportation service less frequently, Reader said.

Doors opened Aug. 25 at the new centre in rented space in the former Delphi Centre near Flesherton. Reader expects to take delivery of a cooler for the space within a week. The location became possible with a $22,000 grant from the Ontario Green Belt fund. It matches funds and in-kind donations from both Grey County government and Chefs Forum members, although Reader said she expects the project to be self-supporting financially within 12 months.

The new hub represents the latest expansion of a service begun 18 months ago by eight Grey County area farmers and a group of well-connected chefs. Current shipments involve fresh produce only. The group has plans to introduce shipments of frozen and fresh meat, likely by January, Reader said.

“That’s a huge opportunity, maybe even larger than the produce,” Reader said, referring to seasonal limits on fresh produce sales from area farms which don’t apply to livestock production.  Since it began, Chef’s Forum has grown from eight farmers to 35, established an interactive, online market place and completed distribution arrangements with Toronto-based broker Paul Sawtell of 100 kilometre Foods Inc.

In June, the group organized a trial, weekly direct-to-consumers farmers’ market for members at the Ossington Ave. restaurant of chef Paul Boehmer in Toronto. It wrapped up after six weeks.

The challenges of weekly commitments to a Toronto farmers’ market and the transportation involved for active farmers during the growing season convinced participants to concentrate on their original model of direct, business-to-business arrangements among farmers and chefs, Reader said.

“The consumer model is a whole other ball of wax and we will attack that at some point,” she said.

Last January, the forum announced arrangements with 100 Kilometre Foods. Sawtell’s seven-year-old firm has grown quickly from himself and his wife, Grace Mandarano, to a staff of 10 and a fleet of five trucks.

From sales of $250,000 in their first year to more than $2 million in 2013, Sawtell has ridden the local food phenomenon into a serious, long-term business connecting small scale growers with high end restaurants from Toronto to Niagara.
Sawtell is also guest speaker at a planned Sept. 22 meeting hosted by Chef’s Forum at 7 p.m. in Maxwell and is expected to outline current needs of his customers. The event is also to feature a panel discussion among participating farmers and chefs.

The Flesherton hub also serves restaurants in the immediate Grey County area, including Collingwood and Owen Sound through separate distribution arrangements with transportation costs paid by buyers.

“Our farmers aren’t having to pay any distribution,” Reader said. “They’re getting paid for product directly from buyers whether it’s up here or in the city,” she said. BF