Utah farmers and ranchers are tapping into technology to reach their customers using a website called Farms that are delivering.
It's essentially a database that tells you which farms deliver in your area and the early results are proving to be fruitful.
The website looks pretty basic, but the function it's providing is anything but that.
Two New Yorkers came up with Farms that are delivering while being stuck at home during the lockdown stage of the pandemic.
One of the founders, David Pham, said he wanted to come up with something that would be able to help his aging parents, who are more at risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19.
They said they were fearful of going to the grocery store and still wanted to get decent ingredients for family meals.
"When we went into lockdown, we had Chef Boyardee ravioli, we had instant ramen and at the beginning, I was content with that, but after a few days it became pretty clear that wasn’t going to be sustainable," said Pham.
The Pham family say they looked at using Instacart and Amazon Prime Now to get groceries delivered, but a lot of times there weren't any delivery times available, and when there were, they say there weren't a lot of options.
Pham's friend and Co-founder, Jason Curescu, sent a couple of links to farms that delivered in his area, giving them both the idea to set up their website, Farms that are delivering.
"When we started to think that many people could benefit from something like this we kind of took it state-by-state and started doing deep dives into each state to see what farms we could find that are delivering," said Curescu.
The website is very easy to use.
You start by entering the city or zip code you live in and it brings up a list of nearby farms.
You can then refine your search for delivery or pickup.
You can also select which kinds of items you're looking for like meat, eggs, produce, dairy, or prepared goods.
A Utahn who's benefiting from this is Taylor Skinner, a rancher at Forage Creek ranch in Ogden.
He said he checked his website and noticed that a significant amount of traffic was coming from Farms that are delivering.
"This is an incredible tool that helps us make that initial connection between our customer and the ranch itself," said Skinner.
The Utah rancher said he has also noticed an increase in demand in general with people wanting to know where their food comes from and how it's produced too, something that is helping his business stand the test of COVID-19.
If your farm isn't on the website and you would like it to be, you can reach out to Pham and Curescu via their email (david@farmsthataredelivering.com).
