(Photo | Courtesy of Home Farm Foods)
Adapting to the market disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackson’s Corner, a neighborhood farm-to-table restaurant in Bend remains open for business and committed to serving food from local high-welfare and sustainable farms.
Jackson’s Corner has essentially switched overnight from a full-service restaurant to a takeout service and grocery store, with products and meals made with ingredients sourced from local farms. By flipping their business model, the restaurant devised a creative solution to continue to offer traditional take-out meals, along with the option of purchasing high-quality pantry staples, fresh baked breads and prepared foods for customers to stock up on, including produce boxes, bone broth, marinara soup, fresh pasta, and other ready-to-go items.
After consolidating two locations into one due to the impact of social distancing and reduced tourism, partners Parker Vaughan, Jay Junkin and Aaron Christenson are now running both business out of the Westside location until further notice. The restaurant has had to lay off part of their staff and switch to shorter business hours, but remains dedicated to serving three meals a day of fresh, local, nourishing and delicious food to the community.
Dedication runs deep at Jackson’s Corner. It’s also been the restaurant’s longstanding mission to source the highest quality ingredients direct from the farms in the region, and that commitment does not waver even in these uncertain times.
“We believe that it is possible for a sustainable food system to exist,” said Parker Vaughan, co-owner of Jackson’s Corner. “It is so easy these days to take advantage of the industrial farming system and reap the potential benefits for profitability, but we are dedicated to supporting our local farmers — and we know that what’s hurting us right now is also hurting the farms that supply our restaurants. Just like farmers, restaurants are resilient and it’s not in our nature to take the easy way out. We’re going to try to keep going and keep these farmers in business, too.”
Along with many other local farms in the area, Jackson’s Corner purchases Certified Animal Welfare Approved by A Greener World (AGW) pasture-raised products from Home Farm Foods and Windflower Farm. These two farms have attained the respected Animal Welfare Approved certification by A Greener World, which verifies their high-welfare and sustainable livestock management practices for their customers. For livestock farms, animals need to be fed and cared for and there are high daily costs, whether product is being sold or not. After the closure of many area restaurants, these have been very challenging times for farmers experiencing rapid market changes.
“In the last few weeks, we’ve faced a huge loss due to restaurant closures, and so we sincerely appreciate the continued support we’ve received from Jackson’s Corner,” said Cameron Gunther, owner of Home Farm Foods. “As they continue to purchase products from us to serve their community, they are local farms’ best chance of staying in business. Farmers all over the country are facing these same losses and wherever possible, they need the support from restaurants like Jackson’s Corner to stay afloat.”
