Nanaimo Foodshare's Sara Drew at the organization's farm site at the Cline Agri-Health Centre. (submitted/Craig Evans)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

ONLINE SHOPPING

Nanaimo Foodshare production booms while expanding online farmers market

Aug 23, 2020 | 7:47 AM

NANAIMO — Rapid expansion has been a constant theme for Nanaimo Foodshare during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group, in conjunction with Growing Opportunities Farm Community Co-op have doubled their farm land and quadrupled the volume of subscriptions to a popular food delivery service.

Prior to the pandemic Nanaimo Foodshare filled between 200 and 350 of its Good Food Boxes every month, a subscription program which now completes the same number of orders each week.

“To go weekly, it sort of makes it easier because you know that whatever’s ripe that week you could pick it and put it in the box,” Craig Evans, Nanaimo Foodshare director, said. “We deal with thousands of plants, we really produce a lot of food.”

Orders are organized Wednesday’s with farmers picking the produce Thursday morning ahead of delivery later that day. Evans said it’s “about as fresh as you can get.”

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Foodshare’s explosion in orders falls in line with similar services, including the Farmship Growers Co-Op which doubled its subscriptions this year.

The partnership with the co-op has also allowed Foodshare to reignite an online farmers market where local goods are available for online shoppers.

Produce from Foodshare along with soup mixes, seasonings, coffee and other local products from different vendors can be selected, purchased and delivered every week throughout the city.

Nanaimo Farmers Market Online also provides a direct avenue for smaller producers to get their goods to customers.

“With the pandemic, there’s been less volume at the farmers markets,” Evans said. “Some of them have had to restrict which growers can be there just from the sheer number of people you’re able to have at an event.”

The market has seen a steady increase in order since coming online in late June. Foodshare intends to continue fulfilling orders through the fall growing season, with a shift to packaged, frozen or dried goods through the winter months.

Orders through the Nanaimo Farmers Market Online can be made through their website.

alex.rawnsley@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley