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Buying Direct from Farms

Food service staff can buy directly from individual farmers. Many school food service directors from around the Washington State have initiated purchasing relationships with farmers and buy directly from those farmers. Below are a variety of farm lists and resources to help you connect with farmers you!

Statewide Farm Listings

Washington Food & Farm Finder

The Washington Food and Farm Finder is an online portal to connect with farms, food businesses, and food system organizations across Washington State. Search the Wholesale Finder using filters to search by product, delivery area, and more, including whether the producer is interested in selling to schools.
 

Native Gathered and Grown

Explore the map to discover Native food producers and Tribal food business enterprises.


Visit a Farmers Market

Visit your local farmers market to see what products are available and meet the farmers growing the food. Ask if they also sell wholesale and are interested in selling to schools. 

Local Farm Listings

Regional and multi-county farm directories:


County by County

Buying from Farmer Co-ops & Food Hubs

Food hubs can help schools and institutions find and buy from multiple farms at once, and provide distribution, invoicing, and other services for farms and buyers.
 

Evergreen United Food Hub: Produce harvested to order and delivered within 24 hours to restaurants, hospitals and cafeterias from south Puget Sound farms.
Delivery Area: King & Pierce Counties




 

Farmstand Local Foods links urban commercial customers to the diverse range of ingredients from farms in King & Snohomish Counties using a modern, convenient ordering and delivery system.
Delivery Area: King County
 





The Gorge Farmer Collective is a farmer-owned and operated online marketplace. Established in 2020 by a small group of farmers with a big vision, we strive to make shopping for locally grown products easy. 





Kitsap Fresh was founded in 2015, and provides Kitsap County residents with an online farmers market co-op dedicated to Kitsap grown goods.  The cooperative is comprised of over 50 local farms and food producers selling from one public online storefront. Customers can choose neighborhood pick-up or home delivery. Delivery Area: Kitsap County. 



LINC Foods sells locally produced fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, meats, cheeses, and eggs to schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, retirement communities, restaurants, and grocery stores from 45 family farmers. It is a one-stop shop for local, sustainable food. All of the products available through LINC Foods are grown by farmer-owners in the Spokane area in Washington State. LINC Foods also has minimally processed products (washing, slicing, dicing, peeling, etc.) Delivery Area: Spokane County

 

Okanogan Producers Marketing Association (OPMA) is six small farms working together, sharing resources, equipment, knowledge, expertise, marketing and sales of Okanogan County grown treefruit and berries. Dried fruit also available.
Delivery Area: King, Pierce, Thurston, Whatcom, Spokane Counties



Puget Sound Food Hub Co-op (PSFH Co-op) is a network of farms and partners operating cooperatively in the Puget Sound region of Washington State to market, aggregate and distribute locally produced food from farm to institutions such as restaurants, hospitals, preschools, universities, etc. as well as to grocery stores. PSFH is a farmer-owned co-op, and some member farms provide minimally processed products (such as frozen and fresh cut products) through PSFH.
Delivery Area: Whatcom, Skagit, Island, Snohomish, and King Counties.


The San Juan Islands Food Hub is an online marketplace for local food and agricultural products. Customers on Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan can buy directly from farmers and food producers across the county on one convenient storefront and receive their orders at a weekly pick-up on each island. San Juan Islands Food Hub began operations in 2020, and  aims to support the folks who feed us and provide safe access to fresh local food.



South Sound Fresh is an online marketplace of locally grown and produced food. We make it possible for farmers to work together to meet the growing demand for local, sustainable food in your area. Farmers benefit from the marketing, selling, packaging and delivering of their produce and prepared foods. Our marketplace brings fresh, healthy, locally grown and produced food to you, the buyer, in a cost-effective manner on a weekly basis.



Southwest Washington Food Hub, a pool of the Southwest Washington Growers Cooperative, began operations in 2020 at a Tumwater warehouse. The hub operates three main programs: wholesale distribution including to schools and restaurants, direct-to-consumer multi-farm boxes, and food access distribution to food banks and other aid organizations. 


Walla Walla Food Hub Online Market, a project of Hayshaker Farm, is a source for locally and regionally grown and produced food and farm goods. The WWFH online marketplace brings fresh, healthy, locally and regionally grown and produced food to you, the buyer, in a cost-effective manner on a weekly basis. 



Whidbey Island Grown Cooperative (WIGC) operates a year-round Food Hub launched in May 2020. Over 45 local and regional producers sell their products to a customer base spread across a 52 mile long, rural island. They connect growers and customers with three producer aggregation sites, four order distribution sites, and deliveries to businesses, expanding their producers’ customer bases and allowing island residents to eat food grown across the island and the surrounding region. WIGC also manages a place-based marketing brand, organizes Eat Local Month each September to promote agritourism and healthy local eating, and is building a cold storage facility for farmers to expand their fall and winter produce offerings.


395 Produce Corridor delivers fruits and vegetables from 10 small farmers in Stevens county.
Delivery Area: Stevens, Ferry, Spokane Counties

Purchasing Through a Distributor

Your distributor likely carries Washington grown producers already. Food service staff can work with a distributor to identify and purchase from local farms. Since food service directors already purchase from brokers or distributors, this allows them to maintain an existing relationship, as well as purchase other items that farmers are not able to provide. This method also allows for centralized billing, delivery and payment. But many small farmers don't sell through distributors, and it can be difficult to find or identify what products are Washington grown, or from where.

Start by contacting your current distributor(s) to talk about purchasing more local and Washington grown products from them. 

Watch this webinar from USDA Farm to School: Working with Distributors

DOD Fresh & USDA Foods

DOD Fresh can be a resource for purchasing local fruits and vegetables. The USDA Department of Defense Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (USDA DoD Fresh) is available to schools in 48 States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The Using DoD Fresh to Purchase Local Produce fact sheet provides good information on how to use USDA DoD Fresh.

See the current DOD Fresh distributors on the OSPI Child Nutrition website.

USDA Foods has a dual mission of supporting domestic agriculture and providing healthy foods to schools. Offerings include a wide variety of high quality fruits, vegetables, dairy products, whole grains, lean meats, and other protein options. Check out the USDA Foods: A Resource for Buying Local factsheet learn how USDA Foods support the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the school meal pattern requirements to make it easier for schools to prepare healthy meals. OSPI Child Nutrition - Food Distribution lists which processors and brokers are supplying various USDA Foods items to schools in Washington State.

Other Sources

There are many other sources of local foods that schools are using, including:

Contact WSDA Farm to School for help pursuing any of these options, or finding the right one for you!