Local Flavor

A Harvest box from Freshlist includes seasonal produce from local farmers.

LOCAL FLAVOR Hub for Grub

Mother Earth Food’s local grocery delivery has been wildly successful in western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. Can Freshlist find the same success in Charlotte?

BY ALLISON BRADEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN MEAL travels 1,500 miles before it lands on your plate. “Garden-fresh” salads are sourced from as far away as Chile, and your appetizer probably has more passport stamps than a graduate on a gap year. This has unsavory implications for food freshness and our carbon footprints. But it also severs our connection with our neighbors and the land we share. Local food hubs o er an alternative.

Despite decades of activism, the local food movement’s success stalls in distribution. Mother Earth Food, founded in Asheville in 2012, is what’s known as a food hub: The company complements farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture programs by aggregating local products and delivering to doorsteps in the Asheville and GreenvilleSpartanburg areas. Customers log on each week to order not only produce but local bread, chocolate, cheese, meat, and more. “It’s about people really trying to support each other,” says CEO Janelle Tatum. “It’s a broad network of many people and a lot of products that cross over in these beautiful concentric circles of holding each other’s hands.”

In 2018, the company expanded into Charlotte—but ceased operations here last fall. “We didn’t get the response we were looking for in Charlotte at the time,” Tatum explains. “Who knows what the di erence would be now?” COVID has exposed shortcomings in global food distribution, and demand for delivery services has exploded.

Freshlist co-founder Jesse Leadbetter believes Charlotte is ready. He and childhood friend Brad Chapman launched the digital platform in 2013 to connect farmers with chefs here. It soon evolved into a wholesale distributor that pro-