Recently, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, What Chefs Want, a local wholesale food distributor with headquarters in Louisville, and Locals Food Hub & Pizza Pub announced a brand-new grocery box delivery service.
Using money that comes directly from local producers and is awarded to the KDA by the USDA, Locals buys food and distributes it among 400 grocery boxes every week. These $30 boxes, which contain necessities like fresh milk, eggs, meat, cheese, and produce from the area, are given away for free to families who are disadvantaged in Louisville and Frankfort.
Local farmers in Kentucky are significantly impacted by this program, which is called the Local Food Purchasing Agreement. To fill these boxes, Locals spend about $12,000 a week on locally grown food, paying farmers full retail value for their produce. This boosts Kentucky’s local economy by providing farmers with a weekly, steady, and dependable market for their goods.
As well as emphatically influencing ranchers, this award attempts to expand admittance to nearby food and give local area individuals who are encountering food instability a steady wellspring of new, neighborhood food for nothing. Working with various nearby associations whose missions are based on local area care, Local people has recognized families all through Frankfort and Louisville to get these containers, with a particular spotlight on seniors and youngsters. In Frankfort, Local people is working straightforwardly with Family Asset Center agents from region and city schools, the Lodging Authority of Frankfort, Wanda Joyce Robinson Establishment, Lords Little girls Senior Living Lofts, Franklin Province Ranchers Market, and numerous others. In Louisville, Local people has collaborated with Change Today Change Tomorrow, La Casita, Sister Guest Catholic Causes, and Feed Louisville to assist with working with food admittance to families working with these associations.
Locals arranges for the weekly packing and delivery of the boxes as well as the ordering, storing, and delivery of farm products in collaboration with What Chefs Want. This program, which is presently in its pilot stage, will run until the end of 2023 and may be extended until May 2025. This is a fantastic chance for Locals to fulfill its mission of providing local farmers with a steady and profitable market for their produce and expanding community access to delicious, nutrient-rich food that is produced locally.
The Grocery Box Program encourages the community to shop at Locals, a Frankfort, Kentucky grocery store that sources all of its products locally and presents families to local food options. Locals accepts SNAP/EBT cards, which can be used with the Kentucky Double Dollars program. Under this program, SNAP recipients can get $20 free to spend on groceries when they use their card to make a $20 purchase.
The Locals Food Hub & Pizza Pub concept, a brainchild of Birch Bragg, Michelle Bragg, Joseph Fiala, and Taylor Marshall, aims to strengthen the local food economy, improve community access to locally sourced foods, and assist the area’s diligent food producers. The original Locals Food Hub & Pizza Pub is located at 863 Wilkinson Blvd., and in the summer of 2024, a second location is planned to open in Louisville’s Smoketown neighborhood.