The creators of the local food-oriented smart phone app Share.Farm say they’ve taken a “good hit” in the midst of coronavirus-related business closures but hope to attract more individual customers who want to purchase food from farmers.

The app currently helps customers order food online and have it delivered to their business. The food comes from local farms and ranches and wholesale distributors of organic and natural foods. It is delivered the next morning.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee recently issued a “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order closing all businesses except those considered essential.

“It’s pretty substantial,” app co-founder Vincent Peak said of the closure’s impact. “Our main focus was in-house corporate dining, and bringing farmers on to deliver direct to cafeterias. That’s entirely closed down, and that was the main revenue driver of our business.”

The company is now reduced to home food delivery, but that, too, has become limited, Peak said.

The app typically attracts 50 to 75 users each day.

Peak said he is working with developers to update the app. Customers are able to use the mobile app to arrange to purchase food directly from local farmers.

Peak expects more traffic on the app as customers seek to purchase more local products.

“Utilizing something like the app, or just going out to the local farms, contacting them, getting your food from the local community — that’s a recession-proof model,” he said. “The food exists, you can always access your local economy.”

Farmers will also sign up to have their contact information included in the app, Peak said. About 500 farms across the nation are using the app, with 20 to 30 in the Spokane area.

He said he’s seen an increase in users searching for local beef and organic products. That helps Peak provide feedback to farmers about what customers want, he said.

It also helps identify new farms to bring on board, he said.

The company has low overhead, Peak said. Much of the work consists of being online, he noted.

“Regardless of what happens, the business will survive,” he said. “It will just be an uphill battle getting things back to where they were.”

https://share.farm/