On July 13, 2020, King County launched Local Food Finder, an interactive map that identifies convenient ways customers can get fresh produce, berries, flowers, meat, honey, cheese, and more delivered from local farms to their doorstep, to a nearby pickup location, or picked up directly at the farm.

King County’s new Local Food Finder interactive map offers a convenient way for residents to support local farms hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic that has disrupted farmers markets and restaurant sales. Residents can have fresh food and flowers delivered from local farms or place an online order for pick up directly at the farm.

Customers can search the mobile-friendly map for farms that are located nearby and offer u-pick or farm stand sales, order pickup, or order home delivery. The map also helps customers subscribe to a farm’s Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, program where farms deliver weekly boxes of their harvest.

The website was designed to make it easy for farmers to update data on what food and product availability, new drop sites, and pick-up locations. The website is free of charge for all farmers to use and extensive outreach was conducted to local farms so that the website is accessible to all farmers across King County.

To visit Local Food Finder, click here.

Read more about pick up locations and hours using this flyer here. Please visit Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets website here for additional information.

Photo courtesy of Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets.

Numerous studies across the Puget Sound region have confirmed that there is insufficient kitchen, processing, packaging, storage space, and transportation capacity to adequately and efficiently connect local food producers with target markets. Much of the regional infrastructure needed to grow our local food economy no longer exists, is in need of improvement, or is not adequate to meet the needs of small and medium farms and food businesses in our region.

To address this infrastructure gap, King County, in partnership with local food entrepreneurs, launched a project to study the feasibility of developing a consolidated ‘Local Food Facility’ or a network of smaller facilities. The goal is to address processing, storage and distribution needs of multiple food system partners while also providing those partners with ready access to their target markets, especially underserved communities.

In May 2020, ECONorthwest released the Local Food Facility Opportunities Report that builds upon the previous work that King County and its partners have completed in exploring the viability of a local food facility, including numerous needs assessments and best practice studies. These studies have highlighted the need for additional local food system infrastructure.

The completion of the Opportunities Report is the first of a two-step process to explore the creation of the food facility in King County. The second step will dig deeper into programmatic, governance, and financial considerations. The final product of this effort will be a preliminary business concept—a concise summary of the facility idea that presents a recommended approach for its creation.

Please read the full Opportunities Report here.

Please visit DNRP's blog for a project summary. 

Help us learn about food security in Washington!

The University of Washington and Washington State University, with support from Tacoma Community College, have created the Washington State Food Security Survey to gain a better understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted economic security and food access for Washington State residents. The survey is both computer and smart phone-capable. All Washington State residents who are 18 years or older are invited to participate!

You may access the online survey here: https://redcap.link/wafood

Cheers,

Local Food Initiative team