After phenomenal growth during the pandemic, Augusta Locally Grown continues to gain customers and to expand its services around the Augusta area with the newest pickup spot in Waynesboro.
“We’re getting a steady flow of new customers,” said Rebecca van Loenen, the organization’s executive director.
MORE: Farm to Table Concept Boosts Economic Health
Augusta Locally Grown links local growers and suppliers with customers through its website.
She likens the process to shopping with a major grocery store and using its pick-up shopping feature. Patrons go to the website where they will find more than 60 local producers. Among the vendors are dairy farmers, farmers who raise cattle, chickens and pigs for meat products, coffee suppliers and vegetable growers. Other artisans create items such as soaps and body scrubs.
Many products are certified organically grown or certified naturally grown. Most items are seasonal.
The website is open for orders each week from noon Friday to 8 p.m. Sunday. Products are available for pickup on Tuesdays. Augusta Locally Grown also offers a limited home delivery option through Augusta To Go. Van Loenen said she hopes to expand the home deliver as well.
During the pandemic, van Loenen said the site saw an upsurge in online orders.
“We did $1,100 one week, and the next week, we did $7,000,” she said. “We went as high as $14,000 one week.”
[adrotate banner=”19″]
Those sales generated more than $400,000 for the local farmers and producers in the area, many of whom work full-time jobs while trying to farm or care for their animals. What’s encouraging about local growers said van Loenen is that many of them are younger.
“The millennial generation is getting back to growing your own,” she said.
While there is one pickup site in Evans, van Loenen said she realized the need for an additional Columbia County site. A Grovetown site didn’t work out, so the organization opened a site in Harlem in April. Harlem has been a huge success she said, with pickups surpassing the downtown Augusta location at times.
MORE: EAT Local CSRA Offers Agritourism Passport
Van Loenen said the Waynesboro pickup has been added because fresh food options aren’t plentiful in that area. She hears reports of many people driving into Augusta from Waynesboro to buy food. The new Waynesboro pickup location is the Harvest Bright Farmers Market.
Augusta Locally Grown is a non-profit organization which began in 2008.
To learn more about Augusta Locally Grown, visit augustalocallygrown.org. To order products, go to alg.localfoodmarketplace.com.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
[adrotate banner=”41″]
