Hoosier Harvest Market food hub to begin taking online orders

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Consumers interested in buying Indiana-grown food products can begin placing their orders online Friday (May 31) through the Hoosier Harvest Market food hub organized by Purdue Extension.

Complementary to farmers markets, Hoosier Harvest Market is a cooperative through which consumers can order locally produced foods at any time on a website.

"In a way many of our neighbors in surrounding states already enjoy, Hoosiers will now have the opportunity to access preferred foods locally and support their local producers directly through a virtual marketplace," said Roy Ballard, Purdue Extension educator in Hancock County and an organizer of the service.

In a food hub, farmers and other producers maintain their product availability and prices weekly in an online marketplace. Consumers shop on the website and fill their orders with products from the farmers of their choice and pay online. Farmers then deliver their products to an aggregation point for sorting and packaging, and customized individual market baskets are delivered to a pickup point that the consumer selected.

Consumers can go to www.hoosierharvestmarket.com to learn about membership, place orders and determine their closest delivery site. 

Producers who want to sell their local products also can find more information on the website and join the food hub.

Based in Greenfield and delivering throughout central Indiana, Hoosier Harvest Market will have a ceremony for its first consumer delivery on June 6.

For more information, contact the market's manager, Michael Morrow, at Michael.Morrow@HoosierHarvestMarket.com, or Ballard at rballard@purdue.edu.

Writer: Keith Robinson, 765-494-2722, robins89@purdue.edu

Source: Roy Ballard, 317-462-1113, rballard@purdue.edu

Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Keith Robinson, robins89@purdue.edu
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