Note: I’ve submitted this post to Food Renegades Fight Back Fridays

Last week I blogged about a story out of Seattle about a company called Sound Food that had hooked up with local farmers to sell fresh, local and sustainably-raised produce on the ferry’s to commuters. An elegant solution to a common problem in urban areas, where often people cannot make it to weekday farmers markets. That day, I spoke with Carolyn Goodwin of Sound Food and she graciously offered to answer some questions. I reprint the results of our email interview here:

1. First just please tell a little about your organization and the impetus for this program.

Sound Food is a group of individuals dedicated to local food and farming on and around Bainbridge Island, Washington. We do it for the love of food, our community and the land.

Sound Food began with a Sustainable Bainbridge farm mapping project designed to answer the question: “How do I find local food in the Puget Sound area?” As we gathered information for the Sound Food Map, we found our vision expanding to include community gardens, pea patches, and backyard gardens. So we created a Sound Food website to share ideas and information.

We discovered that one of the challenges in connecting people to local food was that so many islanders commute to the city via the ferry and don’t have time to go to a local farm or farmers market, especially during the week. So we decided to take the farmers market to them, and open a Ferry Farm Stand right at the ferry terminal between the terminal building and the buses that move people from the ferry to locations all over the Kitsap Peninsula. There are approximately 2,000 passengers on each of the two main commuter ferries coming back to Bainbridge Island every weekday. We thought that offering them quick and easy access to local food on their way home for dinner would be a great way to introduce a new audience to the joys of local food.

2. How many farms/ farmers are involved?

Last year there were about six or seven farms involved, we hope to increase that number this year and bring in some of the smaller farms. All of the farms use organic methods, even if they are not certified organic. Meat and dairy are difficult – there are so many rules and regulations that get in the way, and we don’t have refrigeration.

3. Is this year round service, or just seasonally?

This year the Ferry Farm Stand will be open on Wednesdays from the end of June to the end of September. If there is interest from farmers and customers in extending it in the future, we may do so. We’ve also been asked to consider adding an additional day each week.

4. What was typically in a “grab bag?”

Most of the bags contained a single type of vegetable, just packaged in $5 increments. A large carton of strawberries, a couple of heads of lettuce or a large bag of salad greens, or a multicolored assortment of carrots, for example. We also had $5 flower bouquets.

5. If you can tell us, how many “grab bags” did you sell last year, how many do you hope to sell this year?

We sold about 2,500 $5 bags last year over the 12 weeks we were open, somewhere over $12,000. The first day we sold out of what we thought we would need in the first 15 minutes. All of the proceeds went directly to the farmers. This year we may deduct a small percentage to help cover marketing expenses.

6. Were there bigger options, $10 or $20 bags if people wanted to feed their family?

No, to keep it simple everything was $5. But people started bringing their large shopping bags, and many customers bought 4 or 5 bags of different types of veggies each week.

7. Are you hoping to open any more locations? This could work very well in NYC, for instance at several busy subway stops. Have you reached out to anyone in NYC about doing this?

We have talked to other ferry communities around the area about opening Ferry Farm Stands at other ferry terminals – there are several in the Puget Sound Area. If another community is interested, we would be happy to offer whatever advice we could to anyone wanting to set up a similar program. But our group is a very small one, so the Bainbridge Island stand is as much as we’ll be able to manage. It seems like a concept that would work well at any major transportation hub – bus terminals, subways, train stations, even park and ride lots.

8. What is the customer reaction? Are they curious? Are they annoyed, cause they’re just trying to get home? What’s the feedback like?

The commuters were really happy to see us. We worked hard to design the setup in a way that was easy to access but didn’t get impede the normal flow of foot traffic. We used brightly colored tablecloths and umbrellas, and all wore bright yellow Sound Food aprons to make the Farm Stand fun and vibrant. I saw the same customers come back every week, and they were so excited each time a new crop arrived. The first fresh berries, tomatoes, and corn on the cob sold out in a hurry. I know that we introduced a lot of people to local food, and that they’ll be back this year for more. The farmers were also thrilled by the project. They had tried to get a Wednesday farmers market to work for years in town, but it never succeeded because people were just too busy to make a detour on their way home from the ferry. The Ferry Farm Stand solved that.

In closing, I would say that the less well-understood reason for an outlet like the Ferry Farm Stand is that most small farmers can’t make a good living by selling their produce at wholesale prices, which are often at about 50% of retail. So there is a need to set up distribution points that allow the farmers to sell at full retail price, or close to it, yet are convenient to the average consumer. The Ferry Farm Stand is a very low overhead operation – the space is donated, the staff is volunteer, the setup is temporary and inexpensive. So we are filling a real need to close the gap between the price that the farmers need to get for their products, and the convenience that the consumer wants.

What a beautiful great idea. Here is to hoping for the continued success and growth of Sound Food’s program. And an extra big thank you to Carolyn Goodwin of Sound Food. For more information, check out their website here!