Site Updates

FoodHub is now easier and more robust than ever! Every major functional area of the site has been lovingly massaged by our dedicated team of engineers to make finding connections and doing business faster, more efficient and more intuitive. Here’s the complete rundown of improvements, details below:

• Updated primary navigation
• Advanced product search
• Improved Marketplace
• New distance slider
• Enhanced profile features
• Upgraded memberships
• Advertising & promotional opportunities
• New FoodHub Knowledge Base
• Expanded Help (more…)

It was announced to FoodHub Members this morning: FoodHub will always be FREE!

We started offering free FoodHub memberships in February to test whether eliminating the fee significantly increased membership, and therefore connections, for everybody in the community.

Good news, it worked!

Membership in FoodHub has tripled since we started the test and the stories of successful connections have been rolling in…

• SoupCycle (Portland) and Grand Central Bakery (Seattle and Portland) have bought local specialty lentils, garbanzo beans and split peas from Davidson Commodities (Spokane).
• Sound Food (Bainbridge Island) helped a retailer on the island source USDA-certified local pork from Flying Dog Farm (Grapeview, WA) using FoodHub.
• Pd Farms (Eastern Oregon) and Eat Oregon First (Portland metro) have forged a mutually beneficial distribution partnership after meeting on FoodHub.
• Our Family Farm (Eugene) now supplies pastured chicken to the 350 families who do their food shopping through buying club Know Thy Food (Portland).
• Wahluke School District (Mattawa, WA) connected to Bella Terra Gardens (Zillah, WA) and is planning regular deliveries of tomatoes and cucumbers for the school’s salad bar this fall.

FoodHub Fast Start

So we’re declaring “mission accomplished” on the test and rolling out a permanent FREE membership next month called FoodHub FastStart. This membership includes ALL the features and functionality available now, plus some great improvements slated to roll out in the July launch (details on those coming soon).

All FoodHub Members will automatically roll into the free FastStart account, no data or history will be lost. All 2,225+ Members will continue to have full access to the Member Directory and Marketplace and pay NO fees, ever.

FoodHub Advantage

Also coming in July will be two new account types. FoodHub Advantage is a monthly membership that helps Members stand out from the crowd and get found faster. Advantage Members will get:

• Member listing highlighted in color in the Member Directory and in all product search results, plus all Marketplace posts highlighted to stand out from the crowd.
• Add multiple photos in a photo gallery on their profile to tell their story in living color.
• Upload documents (such as recipes, price lists, certification paperwork, event registration forms, etc.) to create an engaging profile and start interacting with potential clients immediately.
• 10% discount on all promotional bookings.

The Advantage account is only $14.99 per month and requires no long-term commitment.

FoodHub All-Access

The second new account type, FoodHub All-Access, provides just what the name implies: everything FoodHub has to offer! The All-Access membership helps not only get found quickly and easily, but also get down to business faster. All-Access Members will get:

• Everything in Advantage, PLUS
• Embed videos on their profiles to immerse potential contacts in their world.
• List business references on their profile to garner instant credibility.
• Collect email addresses to build their own mailing list.
• Set Marketplace listings to automatically re-post so they can stay top of mind, effortlessly.

The All-Access membership is by far the best value, at only $129 for the whole year! Satisfaction will be guaranteed, so there’s no risk in giving it a try.

FoodHub has amassed a truly incredible group of local food professionals as Members. We’re so proud to work with them and very excited to offer a permanent free membership so that everyone in the region can use FoodHub!

In our ongoing quest to make FoodHub the fastest, easiest, most efficient and friendliest way to connect wholesale food buyers, sellers and supporters online, we rolled out an update to the profile format today.

FoodHub profiles now:

(more…)

You can now add flowers to the list of products that you sell in your FoodHub profile so that potential buyers can find you!

We had received ample feedback from our members that we needed to include cut flowers (even though they aren’t food) within our product listings—and so, just in time for spring, we’ve added both cut and edible flowers to the FoodHub “taxonomy.” Currently, we have not listed individual flower varieties, but instead the larger categories.

We also recently added micro greens to the FoodHub product list. Anyone else suddenly hungry for a salad of greens and spicy nasturtiums!?

FoodHub will continually evolve to meet your needs, so please tell us if you can’t find a product that you buy or sell; if we’re missing an important certification or business type; or if we don’t list your farmers market or distribution partner. Let us know your request by either clicking the green Feedback button of the left side of the FoodHub screen or sending an email to connect@food-hub.org.

Photo by Taylor Schefstrom

At the very core of FoodHub is an extensive database that contains many moving pieces. When they are all in sync you can quickly and easily find the buyer or seller you seek to satisfy your needs for anything from dried basil to double-paper wrapped beef. One of the biggest pieces of that database is a hierarchical listing of products we affectionately call the Taxonomy.

When we launched FoodHub in Beta we had approximately 800 products in the Taxonomy. They only included meat, seafood, vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices. Now, thanks to the incredible support of our beta testers, intrepid interns and supportive partners, you will find nearly 1300 products, including beverages, grains & beans, baked goods, condiments and specialty products. Each of these products is married to a set of attributes so that, for example, you can find dried gala apples in a cello bag in addition to raw apples.

Our work is not nearly complete, however! Every other Friday we’ll be updating FoodHub with new products. Although it would be lovely to add them the moment you bring a new product to our attention, the database is a fragile thing. First, to ensure that we don’t jeopardize any of the data already in the system, we will batch additions and test them thoroughly on a development server. This means that we ask for your patience after you suggest a new product.

We’ve taken great care to make sure that specific varieties of fruits and vegetables are called out in the Taxonomy. However, we understand that scrolling through dozens of varieties when you enter products you buy or sell can be a cumbersome process. We’re working on a solution that will let you select a more general description—like Sweet Corn—and we’ll keep you updated on our efforts to streamline that process.

Please keep using the Feedback button or send an email to connect@food-hub.org with your product additions and suggestions. Your input guides our future improvements!

NEW ON FOODHUB

Marketplace – What had been our “product requests” feature is now “Marketplace.” Use this section to promote products you have for sale or, conversely, products you are interested in buying. (‘Marketplace’ is accessed from the tab above or from your personal ‘Dashboard’ page.)  This section works best when entries are time sensitive. For example:

• Sellers might promote a time limited special on winter squash or let buyers know that the window for locking in forward contracts ends on a certain date.
• Buyers might want to post information about product needs for an upcoming event or alert sellers to an item you consistently need but still can’t find (such as eggs in the case of Grand Central Bakery).

HotSheets – What had been “fresh sheets” specific to produce are now Hotsheets that accommodate information on all types of products for sale within FoodHub. Use this feature to let customers know what is “hot” or “special” on any given day or week. (Hot sheets are accessed from your personal ‘Dashboard’ or from the ‘My Products’ tab above.)

Delivery Range – It is no longer possible to name cities or locations in the delivery range box; you can only list delivery range information via miles from your principal location. (Delivery range information exists in the ‘Edit my Profile’ section accessed through your ‘Dashboard.’)

Welcome Idaho! – We’ve updated our list of farmers markets and distributors to include Idaho. (Information about which farmers markets and distributors you are associated with exists in the ‘Edit my Profile’ section accessed through your ‘Dashboard.’)

We’ll be making system improvements on a continual basis and will use this section of FoodHub as our principal means for letting you know what has changed.  Please don’t hesitate to send us your feedback at any time. We always love to hear from our members.