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Agricultural Connections, a distributor of local farm and ranch products as well as select regional foods, will offer home delivery in Bend, Redmond and Sisters.
Closures due to COVID-19 have greatly impacted the livelihoods of Central Oregon farmers and ranchers. Home delivery is a way that Agricultural Connections can ease household access to food staples as well as support sales for Central Oregon farm and ranch businesses.
There are two ways for households to use the service. One way is Agricultural Connections’ (agriculturalconnections.com/) Produce Box service, which offers a CSA-style box of mixed produce and the ability to add on selections of Central Oregon meats, eggs, produce and an expanded list of bulk-sized bags of regionally sourced staples. Agricultural Connections is also offering its full list of wholesale products in bulk package sizes to the general public with a minimum order of $100. Delivery fees and aggregate minimums for out-of-town deliveries apply.
Central Oregon farmers and ranchers have been deeply affected by the near full stop in restaurant sales. As stated by Cate Havstad of Casad family Farms, “If farms like ours, and all of our peers growing food for our region, lose the business because they go under, we will struggle to continue growing food for our community. We are currently seeding and preparing our fields for this year’s crops, with great uncertainty as to where our buyers will be this summer and fall.”
Elizabeth Weigand, owner of Agricultural Connections, built her company on knitting our communities together from soil to plate. “In these strange and scary times, there is evidence of the importance of our local food-shed perhaps now more than ever. We will continue to be part of the effort to create safety and security in our food system economy for Central Oregon’s and Oregon’s farmers and ranchers, and for all of us who eat. Food is our thread; we are all in this together — we will work for what we believe in.”
