For Chefs: Resources for Buying Local Food
Are you a chef, restaurant owner, caterer, or other foodservice professional interested in using local food in your business? Heartland Food Network can help you find farmers, answer questions, and network with other chefs with experience using local food.
Local food is booming in Minnesota and across the country, and as more food service establishments start using food purchased directly from farmers, they have questions: How do I find farmers? Is it legal to buy directly from farmers? What about planning a menu with seasonal ingredients?
At the Minnesota Project and the Heartland Food Network, we have heard many of these questions from restaurants and food service establishments over the past few years. With support from the USDA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant program and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Minnesota Grown Program, we created a guide “Buying Local Food – for Food Service in Minnesota” to answer these questions and more.
This guide is intended for those that may be new to using local food, but have questions about finding farmers, creating menus, and the logistics of working with local food. We hope that it inspires and attracts many new chefs to the joys of working with the freshest, most flavorful and delicious food from our local farmers.
We are very proud of the restaurants that we were able to highlight in this guide and want to thank them for their participation. We know that there are many more successful farmer-to-chef relationships that we could have included, and every day those relationships grow. The demand for locally grown food is only going to grow in the coming years, and we are excited to be a partner in this movement.
To receive a printed copy, please contact: Dave Glenn at 651-789-3325 or dglenn@mnproject.org.
Download Guide Now
Information and Resources for Using Local Food
Please see our written summaries to help you get started using local food in your restaurant or institution.
Tips and Best Practices for Using Local Food in Your Restaurant
Please see our handout “Tips and Best Practices”
This document includes notes and tips from a panel of expert chefs and farmers presented at an event we hosted in March 2010 at the Craftsman restaurant for chefs interested in using local food.
Please see the article the Heavy Table wrote about the Craftsman event—it also includes a useful summary of the information presented.
Sources of Local Food
Please see our handout “Sources of Local Food” for a list of farmers, food distributors, and farmer-cooperatives that provide local food to restaurants and food service.
Some of the sources from this document include:
Cooperative distributors: Cooperative distributors can be a “one-stop-shop” for finding year-round local product.
- Co-op Partners Warehouse: Offers a full array of local produce in season, and year-round organic produce, meats, cheeses, and more. Andy Wright, (612)-710-2445
- DragSmith Farms: A variety of fresh produce from organic and sustainable growers (715) 537-3307 Gail and Maurice Smith.
- Hidden Stream Farm: Chemical-free beef, pork and produce with no chemicals or antibiotics www.hiddenstreamfarm.com (507) 876-2304
- Southeast Minnesota Food Network: Delivers in southeastern Minnesota, southwestern Wisconsin, and the Twin Cities metro area. They offer online ordering. www.southeastmnfood.com
- Whole Farm Co-op: Delivers along a route that includes Little Falls, Brainerd, Aitkin, and Duluth; as well as to drop sites in the Twin Cities metro area. www.wholefarmcoop.com
Lists and Directories of Farmers:
Learn More
What is Local? Learn the Language of Local Food. Sustainable Table.
Why Use Local? Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
Fact Sheets on Rules and Laws related to Buying Fresh Fruits and Vegetables from Local Vendors Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
Guide to Serving Local Food on Your Menu. Glynwood Publication.
Additional Food and Farm Directories. Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture.
Bringing Local Food to Local Institutions. ATTRA National Sustainable Agriculture
Information service.
Join HFN
We can work with you to help you find local farmers, develop educational and promotional materials for your staff and the public, and bring fresh, delicious foods to your customers. We work with caterers, colleges, and restaurants and more. Please see our Join Now page.
For more information, please contact:
Local Food Coordinator
heartlandfoodnetwork@mnproject.org
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