Local Foods Direct will form in January of 2017 with food delivery operations starting with ground beef in January of 2017. The company will employ 1 person to start, with the addition of 2 more by April of 2017. Local Foods Direct will offers year-round home delivery in the Pueblo County area of local and organic produce, meat, dairy products, eggs, baked goods and more. The company will partner
with sustainable producers to increase the fair trade supply of local food and reach new customers in a way that protects our health and the environment. Customers order online choosing whatever items they want, including an option for a choice of CSA boxes that provide an assortment of the best in season produce. Orders can be scheduled to come every week, every two weeks, or as needed. Food will come from several sustainable producers in Colorado as well as Kansas, supplemented by produce from outside the region when local products are not available, and always obtained from farms the least distance from Pueblo. The company’s will deliver 4 days per week to selected zip codes. Each neighborhood is served one day per week, and routing software will be used to minimize miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. Local Foods Direct will use the software in an effort to, reduce the miles that would otherwise have been traveled by their customers. The potential for this proposed project is high, Local Foods Direct will be a growing company that needs to identify an increased volume of local food to serve its customers. Rather than producers having to first market and sell their products into Pueblo County, identify sufficient volume and then figure out a way to aggregate, store and transport the food, Local Foods Direct will add its capacity for marketing and distribution throughout Pueblo County. This project will result in a solid design for regional distribution in which Local Foods Direct will help to create the demand needed for success.
