FoodHub Update:

Dear {FIRST_NAME | FoodHub Seller},

It’s one of the most powerful words in the English language and may have even compelled you to give FoodHub a try: 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 almost quadrupled since we started the test and the stories of successful connections have been rolling in…

• Sound Food (Bainbridge Island) helped a retailer on the island source USDA-certified local pork from Flying Dog Farm (Grapeview, WA) using FoodHub.
• SoupCycle (Portland) and Grand Central Bakery (Seattle and Portland) have bought local specialty lentils, garbanzo beans and split peas from Davidson Commodities (Spokane).
• Our Family Farm (Eugene) now supplies pastured chicken to the three hundred families who do their food shopping through buying club Know Thy Food (Portland).
• Gervais School District (Salem) found lettuce from Tipping Tree Farm (Colton) just six miles down the road on FoodHub!

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).

But the story goes even further for you as a buyer on FoodHub. Because your wholesale purchases from local producers and distributors literally drive the regional food economy, we want your participation on FoodHub to be effortless. For that reason, instead of rolling your membership into the free FoodHub FastStart account, we are going to roll your membership, for free, into the second new account type: FoodHub All-Access ($129 value). When the conversion happens in July, you’ll have the ability to:

• Add multiple photos in a photo gallery on your profile to tell your story in living color.
• Upload documents (such as menus, supplier paperwork, press clippings, etc.) to create an engaging profile and start interacting with potential suppliers immediately.
• Embed videos on your profile to immerse visitors in your brand and world.
• List business references on your profile to garner instant credibility.
• Collect email addresses to build your own mailing list.
• Set your Marketplace listings to automatically re-post and promote recurring needs or event reminders automatically.
• Join the multi-user beta testing group. Be the first to get multi-user functionality on FoodHub!

Thank you for your participation in FoodHub! We’re so proud to work with you and applaud all your efforts in local sourcing.

All best,

Deborah Kane
FoodHub Project Director

PS: As always, you can contact the FoodHub Help Desk anytime to ask questions, give feedback, get help or share your success stories! Contact us at meet@food-hub.org or 855-FOODHUB.