Best Practices

Buyers’ Best Practices: Five ways to find quality, relationships that last

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 by Megan

David Anderson at Genoa and Accanto
Chef David Anderson. photo courtesy Accanto

When David Anderson became head chef at Genoa and Accanto in Portland he was tasked with building unique, seasonal, locally-sourced menus for each restaurant– a perfect fit for a Northwest chef eager to broaden his connections in the region’s ever-growing local food network.  Now, two years later, Anderson is a local sourcing pro and shares some of his recommendations for making, keeping and advancing connections with producers.

1.    Search FoodHub every week.
Anderson took his post at Genoa and Accanto in 2010, the same year FoodHub launched, and it became clear that the site was the perfect place for him to broaden his sourcing horizons. In that first year, Anderson made a connection with Creative Growers out of Noti, OR, and still works with them today (Read more about Creative Growers’ recipe for working successfully with local chefs here). Even after two years of using FoodHub Anderson says he still finds value in what the site brings to the table and that there are a few key ingredients for using it successfully.

“Have fun, search, pay attention to the miles away and be realistic,” he says. “Searching is the best function on FoodHub. I browse the site at least once or twice a week and I’ll spend anywhere from a half hour to an hour on it.”

Anderson also noted that buyers should update the product section of their profile to include those local products that they’re looking for and read the weekly Fresh Sheets that send product alerts and marketplace updates straight to buyers’ inboxes.

“We change the menus really often and being micro-seasonal is a big part of that,” Anderson says. “Since taking over here at Genoa I’ve been getting more involved in finding and developing connections. FoodHub has helped me do that for sure.” (more…)

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Sharpen Your Pencils: Five Tips for Making Local Sourcing Pay Out

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 by Megan

Chefs from Bon Appetite meet with a local organic farmer.There are far-reaching social, environmental, economic and health impacts that go along with creating a more regionally centered food economy. But apart from that (and what we hear from you buyers ALL the time) is that the local ingredients that come out of it just plain taste better!

Local ingredients do need to be sourced and priced out with some special attention and effort in order to fit into a profitable business model, but doing so can offer your restaurant financial benefits, especially if you pay attention to the following five recommendations for how to make local sourcing pay out…

1.    Start with the easy stuff. Begin the transition to local products by capitalizing on ‘low hanging fruit’, or local products that can be sourced in large quantities for minimal cost. Utilize local suppliers for dairy products, potatoes, onions and other year-round goods. You could also start small: Source local lettuce or kale for a salad or create a special using a new ingredient that you’ve found from a local farmer. Just remember, even if it’s an ingredient that you use otherwise – let’s say sausage for pizza – the fact that it’s LOCAL sausage is important, worth mentioning and can be grounds for a higher price-point.

FoodHub Tip: Have larger quantity needs? Use the FoodHub Marketplace to look for a producer – or group of producers – who can help supply your local sourcing needs. Creating a post is easy and takes only seconds. (more…)

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5 Reasons to Upgrade your Membership Today!

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 by Megan

Hey FoodHubbers! It’s me, Megan. We’ve been getting a lot of questions about why folks should upgrade their memberships. This video covers the top 5 reasons. Check it out, and click here if you’re ready to be highlighted on FoodHub!

Top 5 Reasons to Upgrade from FoodHub on Vimeo.

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FoodHub Advertising 101

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 by Megan

FoodHub Media KitRight now, you might be prepping for the upcoming planting and growing season, but have you taken some time to think about how you’re going to market all that beautiful bounty once it’s out of the ground? FoodHub can help with that.

FoodHub is designed to be an all encompassing marketing tool. That includes using your Profile and the Marketplace to spread the word about your products, services and business practices. However, taking advantage of one of FoodHub’s many advertising opportunities puts the cherry on top of your marketing efforts, increases your standing in the community and kick starts connections. But where to start? And how to ROS ads work anyway? What the heck is a Member Spotlight and why do I want one?

Keep reading for answers to those questions and more …

What is a Member Spotlight?
The Member Spotlight gives you arguably the most bang for your advertising buck. When you buy a Member Spotlight you appear in front of the audience of your choice (either buyers or sellers OR both!) not only on their dashboard (that page you land on right when you log in), but your ad ALSO goes out in the Fresh Sheet – FoodHub’s weekly Member newsletter delivered straight to Members’ in-boxes every Tuesday.

What does ROS mean?
ROS stands for Run of Site. When you buy one you get a package of 3 ads that could appear on any one of the hundreds of FoodHub pages at ANY time including the Marketplace – arguably the most-visited section of the site!

Can I buy an ad that stays in one spot?
The short answer is ‘Yes’! These are called ‘banner ads’. We have lots of spots, but we can show you what each one looks like, how big your ad should be and what it will look like once it’s live on the site.

How do I appear at the top of the page when a buyer looks for my product?
Easy: buy a search term. For example, if you buy the word ‘apple’ you’ll always appear at the top of the page. There are three spots available per search term so you and two other Members will share the spotlight. Don’t worry: we rotate the Member who shows up at the top so you’ll have your chance to be king of the mountain. At $4.99/week per search term this is one of the easiest (and cheapest!) ways to appear in front of buyers at the height of the season.

There’s so much information I don’t know where to start! Can you help?
Absolutely. Give us a call (855-FOODHUB) or send us an email (meet@food-hub.org), tell us when you want to start your ad campaign and we’ll work up some specs for you that work with your budget. If you’d like to start crunching some numbers for yourself we have them right here in our Media Kit.

Pssst … I want to save some money on advertising? Can you cut me a break?
Didn’t you know FoodHub is the land of ‘yes’? With an upgraded membership you can save 10% on all advertising. Even better, with a month-to-month Advantage membership, you can save money on advertising, spruce up your profile (click here to see an example of an upgraded profile with all the bells and whistles), cancel your upgrade when the season is done, and then – when you want to be highlighted again NEXT year – all that hard work is saved and appears automatically when you renew at the Advantage or All-Access level.

Do I have to be a Member to advertise on FoodHub?
Nope. As long as you’re a food-related seller or service provider you can advertise on FoodHub. (However, it’ll be WAY easier for folks to connect with you if you’re a Member … and it’s FREE so go ahead and join!)

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Get Saved: Search results in seconds

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 by Megan

Save your searches, save time when you look for local food on FoodHub

At FoodHub we’re all about making it easier and more efficient for you to find what you’re looking for. One of the best ways you can save time is by saving your searches. If you’ve found yourself searching for the same product or same kind of producer over and over again, saving your search will bring you one step closer to making the connections you need right when you log in to the site.

It’s easy – run your search, filter your results, and once all your parameters are defined, SAVE THIS SEARCH. Once you’ve saved your search you can come back to it time and time again and get the latest results in seconds.

Check out these five ways you can save searches and save time in the process:

1.    Search by product: There are hundreds of products in FoodHub’s taxonomy. Search by specific variety or general category – you’ll find  storage, sweet, cipollini, or just plain old onions. Product search is at FoodHub’s core and it’s easy – type whatever product you’re looking for in the search bar at the top of the page, then filter your results based on geography, certifications, or other attributes. Tip: Keep your searches broad for more results.

2.    Search by business type: There are lots of different kinds of sellers on FoodHub – farmers, ranchers, dairies, fishermen, breweries, distilleries or other specialty producers. Whether you’re a school searching for your first farm connection or are a food cart looking for a small producer who can cater to your nimble needs, there’s someone worth finding on FoodHub. Go to Member Directory and select the kind of seller you’re looking to find by clicking the relevant Business Types in the left sidebar.

3.    Search for local products already carried by your distributor: Find your distributor in a list when you scroll to the bottom of the navigation bar and click the truck icon under Distribution Method. Once you’ve selected them, your search results will filter to show only those sellers whose products are on their trucks.

4.    Search by what’s in season now: Building a local AND seasonal menu is increasingly valuable in most food service settings. Creating that seasonally-sourced menu is just a few clicks away when you conduct a product search and filter your results by Availability. Just use the check boxes to select the month you’re looking for.

5.    Search for potential partners: Sourcing locally can be challenging, but it’s easier when you work together. Use FoodHub’s search to find other businesses in your area with whom you might collaborate on group buys, overcoming distribution hurdles, or sharing success stories. Just go to the Member Directory, filter by your desired partners’ business types and then sort by distance to find those Members who are close to you.

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Give Back when you Plan Ahead

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 by Megan

Often, in soup kitchens, pantries, and food banks, staff and organizers don’t always know what to expect or when to expect it. That goes for how many people they will need to feed as well as what kind of food they will be serving and where it comes from. Now, emergency food assistance organizations are using FoodHub to take some of the guess work out of gathering fresh food donations.

“We’ve got a really good model that makes it easy for growers and processors to work with us,” said Executive Director John Burt, of Farmers Ending Hunger in Oregon. As part of his job, Burt reaches out to producers year after year, recruiting new growers and facilitating donations with those farmers who have been with the program for several years. (more...)

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Forward Contracts are the CSAs of Wholesale Food

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 by Amanda

Happy New Year! We at FoodHub believe 2012 will be the year BUY LOCAL jumps from bumper sticker to business practice. We are particularly excited to support chefs at local restaurants making the leap – they have customers who care about where their food comes from, and the flexibility in their menus to take full advantage of each season’s harvest. (more…)

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Faster Connections on FoodHub: Six tips for getting what you want without getting sucked in!

Thursday, September 29th, 2011 by Megan

FoodHub offers a bevy of ways to interface with a whole community of wholesale buyers and sellers. What’s the best way to engage without eating up half your morning? These tips for getting started are ranked from LEAST time required to most engaged – all designed to help you get everything you can out of the time you’ve got:

1. Scan the Fresh Sheet (2-3 minutes): Every Tuesday FoodHub buyers, sellers and distributors receive the FoodHub Fresh Sheet – a rundown of what’s on the FoodHub Marketplace this week. If you don’t have time to visit the Marketplace regularly, the Fresh Sheet brings it to you. See a good fit? Just click and connect. (more…)

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How-To FoodHub: Sending Hot Sheets

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 by Leora

Did you know there’s a quick and easy way to keep your connections informed, invite specific members to do business with you, and promote weekly or seasonal specials or needs? There is, and it’s called sending a Hot Sheet.

You can find the Hot Sheet tool by signing in to FoodHub and going to [My FoodHub] and clicking on [My Hot Sheets] in the drop-down menu. You will then see all of your products (if you need help adding products to your profile, watch a tutorial video on how to do it), and from there you can simply check the boxes next to the products you want buyers to know about. When you’re finished, click the blue [Update Hot Sheet] button.

You can send a Hot Sheet to any of your contacts on FoodHub. If you don’t already have contacts in your contact list, adding them is easy. Just visit the profile of a business you want to communicate with and click the [Add to my contact list] button. When you go to send a Hot Sheet, or any other message, the contact will be in your contacts list.

Click [Send Hot Sheet] and the products you want to advertise will automatically appear in the body of the message.  You can fill in pricing information, quantity, availability, delivery schedule, and any other pertinent details. Choose a Hot Sheet recipient from your contact list and click [Send]. The Hot Sheet will be sent to their FoodHub message center and their regular email.

Using Hot Sheets is a great way to personalize connections, and reach out to buyers on an individual basis to increase your chance of positive responses.

Need a little help? Watch a tutorial video on sending Hot Sheets, or get in touch:

FoodHub Help Desk

Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm

meet@food-hub.org

Toll-free: 855-FOODHUB

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How-to FoodHub: Visit the Member Directory to Find Connections

Monday, August 22nd, 2011 by Megan

Whether you’re a food buyer, seller, distributor or associated you probably joined FoodHub to get a piece of the action in local food. If you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t have joined! But we know that the term “local” means different things to different people. That’s why we’ve made the Member Directory – the complete list of FoodHub Members – searchable in so many ways including by distance. Use the Member Directory to proactively search for businesses that may be good potential partners for you by clicking on [Member Directory] in the main navigation bar from any FoodHub page. From there, filter and sort the list of all Members according to Member type, business type, distance, or Members that work with a particular distributor or association. You can also search for a specific member by entering their business name into the member search bar. Want a visual of where other Members are in relation to you? Just select the Map View and you will see the FoodHub Members you searched for clustered on the map.

Satisfied with your search? Save it for later and reuse it to look for Members that fall into the categories or distances you’re looking for. New buyer, sellers, distributors and associates are joining every day so take a couple minutes each morning to see if there’s anyone new to meet in your area! To save a search, click [Save the search] and give it a descriptive title.

Need a little help? Watch a tutorial video on using the Member Directory, or get in touch: meet@food-hub.org or call toll free at 855-FOODHUB.

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