PORTLAND, Ore. – Now through the end of the year, Food Services of America (FSA) is offering all of its restaurant and K-8 school customers throughout Oregon an incentive to join FoodHub, the new online directory and marketplace designed specifically to connect wholesale food buyers and sellers. FSA will underwrite 20 percent of the cost of an annual $100 membership in FoodHub for businesses and organizations using the FSA distribution network.
FoodHub, a social venture business of the nonprofit Ecotrust, is designed to increase food trade in the Pacific Northwest. It is the only network of its kind that accommodates food producers and food buyers of every scale and production type across such a significant geographic range. This special discount for FSA customers sweetens the deal and brings an annual FoodHub membership down to $60 when combined with the introductory discount offered by Ecotrust now through the end of the year. Explore the service and register at food-hub.org
FSA is the latest agri-business organization to recommend the recently launched FoodHub service. To support ambitious recruitment goals in the first year of operation, additional partnerships and strategic alliances have been formed with organizations active in Northwest food buying and food selling circles, including agri-business councils, food product commissions, grocery retailers, chefs and restaurants, farm to school programs, Oregon Tilth, Gorge Grown Network, the Washington State Department of Agriculture, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, among many others. View FoodHub’s complete list of funders and collaborators at food-hub.org/supporters.
“The generous discount that FSA is extending to its Oregon customers makes a membership in FoodHub a low cost investment and provides buyers and sellers with a new way to connect in the New Year,” said Deborah Kane, vice president of Ecotrust’s Food and Farms program. “FoodHub is designed to be a one- stop-shop for the chef who needs a case of local artichokes, the school foodservice director who needs 10 cases of pears, or the hospital looking to localize its egg supply.”
About Food Services of America
Food Services of America is the nation’s 6th largest broadline foodservice distributor serving customers in 15 western and mid-western states from nine regional distribution centers. Customers include independent and chain restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels, cruise lines and government foodservice operations – anywhere people dine away from home. FSA is thefirstbroadline foodservice distributor in the nation certified for sustainable business practices by Food Alliance. In addition, the company’s “SNOR” – Sustainable, Natural, Organic and Regional – program serves to identify the array of sustainably produced products available to customers. The program also allows diners to connect with restaurants that have a story to tell about their own SNOR initiatives.
About Ecotrust’s Food and Farms Program
FoodHub is an Ecotrust project made possible by the generous support and contributions of many. Ecotrust’s mission is to inspire fresh thinking that creates social equity, economic opportunity, and environmental well being. With regard to our Food and Farms program, we improve public understanding of agriculture and the challenges it faces and work to increase the market share of locally grown, processed and manufactured foods. Whether by introducing a farmer to a chef or food processor to an institutional buyer, Ecotrust has been making connections between food buyers and sellers in the Pacific Northwest for a decade. Learn more at ecotrust.org
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Editors note: Contact amyb@seed-pr.com for guest password and temporary access to a demo account. Images of FoodHub screen captures are also available.