Farmer Spotlight: Provision Family Farms
Luke and Caitlin started Provision Family Farms after hearing Joel Salatin lecture about small, direct-to-market Farms. That was 8 years ago, and now the West Michigan Farm is raising grass fed beef, lamb, pastured pork and chicken which they sell direct-to-market online for home delivery. They’ve stayed ahead of consumers shifting expectations and have continued to grow through the pandemic.
“We started direct delivery 5 years ago,” Luke shared. “We had a website that a friend helped set up. We realized that farmers markets were probably not the future of local food.” They began taking orders and coordinating convenient options for customers to receive their products. “But, we have needed something more robust for quite a while. After learning about Barn2Door—I discovered it was less pricey than other options and had the features we needed to sell proteins online.”
In Spring 2020, Luke signed up with Barn2Door. “We started the Onboarding Process and were done within a month. We signed up before the quarantine hit because we knew we needed a better system. We ended up selling 20 whole and half animals this year. It’s usually about 7.” Luke attributed the spike in bulk interest to food security concerns due to the pandemic, as well as having the whole and half steer items at the top of their online store.
“We also sell USDA processed by the cut, with a $10 delivery fee and minimum order. We offer delivery once a week. Customers leave coolers outside, we drop their order and go! Inventory was one of the attractions of Barn2Door. Now, I don’t have to manually change the inventory every time I sell something, and managing deliveries is a lot easier.”
When asked what he appreciated most about working with Barn2Door, Luke answered: “The people at Barn2Door are the best part. The entire team that I’ve worked with are interested in and believe in a local food system and regenerative agriculture. The amount of professional time I’ve gotten for what I paid for is incredible. I get support for any problems using the system, and can easily connect my customer list to MailChimp.”
We asked Luke what advice he has for other producers looking to sell direct, connect with more customers and make it convenient to order.
“My email list is gold. Our website is fairly high on search results when people are looking for local food in the area, so they find us and then join the email list. I send a newsletter out weekly with a picture update of the Farm, news updates and a reminder to order.
We have an active social media presence as well—on Facebook and Instagram. There’s a real uptick in people online, so we’re investing in a community that isn’t always local, but still helps people invest in farming dreams and value local food.
Something that really helped us early on was getting connected with a nutrition group in Grand Rapids. I’d recommend that to any grass fed beef producer— connect with health and nutrition communities!”
In closing, Luke shared, “I’m so grateful Barn2Doorhad this vision and remains committed to supporting local Farmers. We can’t compete without collaboration, and it’s nice to work with a company that shares and supports our dreams”
We are grateful to Luke and his family at Provision Family Farms for sharing their story, and thrilled to support them as they grow their business online. If you’re curious to learn more about how Barn2Door can help, watch this 5 min video.