tulhoma

Schools, restaurants, grocery stores, and more!

It has been an amazing month in the progress of the local food systems in Oklahoma. I wanted to share things that are happening and the places that are making it happen.

Farmers: I’ll be honest, it is still not easy being a farmer in Oklahoma right now. We are marketing more for them, we are reaching out to more restaurants, but the flow isn’t as consistent as we would hope. But the farmers are still hanging in there. It will take a collective effort to make local food streamlined, but it will happen.

Food Safety: We have 22 farmers across Oklahoma seeking Group GAP certification. GAP stands for good agricultural practices. The Group GAP is a food safety audit under the USDA. Oklahoma has never achieved a group GAP before, and we are excited to team up with both OU and OSU on this endeavor.

OKC Food Hub: The OKC Food Hub helps make buying local produce easier. Farmers can upload their inventory and buyers can shop multiple farmers at once. Buyers pay the food hub (one invoice instead of one from each farmer) and the food hub pays the farmers quickly. The safety net and marketing aspect is making it easier for farmers to move product.

Frontier Produce: Most of this would be a lot harder if it wasn’t for Frontier. They are our logistical partner and have connected farmers to buyers through much of this process. With warehouses in Tulsa and OKC, we are able to move local product across the state, including most rural areas.

Schools: As the school seasons starts, we have seen more interested in local food than we have seen in years past. We have our champions like Union School in Tulsa and Broken Arrow schools really taking a deep dive in supporting local. We also have a wide range, from urban and rural, buying local food for the first time.

What’s Next: We are far from an efficient system. More often than not, it is taking hours of effort and several meetings and reminders to have buyers consistenly source local. But if this a problem all over, we realize this is where the effort needs to be placed. If restaurants want to source locally but give up after a few months, we have to make it easier. The good news is that it is getting easier. Software, supply chain, and lots of people caring about this and making connections is going to help make this work over the new few growing seasons.