UbrLocal Makes Finding Local Food Easy
Seattle start-up UbrLocal is set to bring locally produced food to a web browser near you. The service will connect localvores who can’t always make it to the farmers’ market with smaller producers who don’t have their own storefront. Food producers could post their wares on the website with UbrLocal taking a small percentage of each sale. Consumers would pay for items on the site, then pick them up at one of UbrLocal’s hubs around the city. There are plans to add bicycle delivery as an option to keep the local food economy as carbon neutral as possible.
How local is uber local food? “It must be produced within 10 miles of the consumer,” says co-founder Liz Smith. Smith and her co-founder Kamal Patel wanted to create a new economy among small food producers. Patel explains that this will strengthen Seattle’s local and organic food community, making the city less dependent on food being shipped in from far away and more resilient in the face of natural disasters. “If our supply lines were cut during an earthquake, a strong local food economy could save lives,” says Patel.
In the month of April, UbrLocal will explore their potential customer base with an experimental pop-up stand. Starting April 1, the company will carry a limited number of local products that can be purchased on their website and picked up at the UbrLocal stand in Wallingford Center on Wednesdays and Saturdays. “We know there are lots of local food producers who have been waiting for a platform like this. Now we need to prove that there’s a strong community of local consumers who will use UbrLocal,” says Smith.
On April 25, Smith and Patel will present their business model and the results of the pop-up stand to a group of investors with the hopes of gaining funding for this innovative start-up. Patel wants to eventually start UbrLocal hubs in cities nationwide. “It’s a win for cities on local jobs, our connection to nature, our connections to our community, resiliency in face of spiking oil prices, and, most importantly, our connection to our food.”
