The TWO wholesale projects are funded through a two-year USDA grant as part of the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP).

The Santa Fe Alliance’s Logistics Manager will oversee the FARM TO RESTAURANT pilot distribution DELIVERY project that includes regional food producers from a 300-mile food shed providing product to “committed” Santa Fe restaurants via a value-chain, standing order process to ensure a year-round food system. The distribution entity will be the responsible party for all ordering, invoicing, payments, delivery and any problem solving that occurs entailing a 12% to 20% distribution charge. The distribution entity will provide boxes and labels to all participating producers and will preserve the identity of product from each producer sold to restaurants.

The Santa Fe Farmers’ MARKET TO MENU Wholesale Depot will provide a DROP OFF/PICK UP system for the vendors/members of the Santa Fe Farmers Market. Farmers will provide a list of wholesale products reflecting a 20-40% discount from retail prices. The Project Manager will communicate to interested restaurants via e-mail/fax with the product list and farm contact. Participating restaurants will place their order directly to the farmers and the farmer and restaurant will work out the invoicing, payment, pick up or delivery among themselves. The SFFM Project Manager will be the responsible party for questions or concerns.

Our intention is that both wholesale methods will complement the needs of the farmer and restaurant and facilitate an easy, accessible and mutually beneficial relationship between them to achieve the goal of providing high quality products, produced sustainably by regional farmers and ranchers to Santa Fe restaurant customers.

Restaurants who participate in the distribution project may or may not also participate in the marketing campaign. It depends on their current local buying initiative.

“I think the (pilot distribution) program has great potential. I’m sure there will be kinks to work out and some restaurants may be more forgiving than others, but hopefully everyone will remember the “big picture” and realize that this is such an important project to get going and can be a great model for others to build on. You guys deserve a lot of credit for getting this going.”

- Kim Muller, Chef at Real Food Nation