Join The Club!
Created by local farmers for:
For Farmers and Makers
Farmers & Food Makers:
I think we agree that it is time for a change
Are you tired of making the best food for our community only to struggle with lifestyle and financial challenges that the 'going at it alone' approach creates?
Let's face it, traditional Farmers' Markets take you away from your family most nights and weekends and they are typically not a good financial return.
- Pickup sites are impossible to manage and result in driving all over the place. Furthermore, they are not a good service for our supporters who have to pickup at a specific day and time.
Why are we creating these artifical barriers for our better made products to get to the households who crave them?
Even the most 'local focused' retail stores are limited in their ability to work with independent makers. They are under contract to buy 90-95% of their product from the big distributors who outsource food production.
Retail stores don't have the storage space needed to work with local farmers and even if they did, they don't want to deal with dozens of independent makers.
Let's face it, they mostly just want our marketing photos on the walls and are unable to create the change that our local food system needs.
- It is simply time for us to make the change.
Together, we will change the entire food system, starting right here in Minnesota.
Join the club!
How The Club Works For You
Club vendors get access to our shared infrastructure:
- Tempature controlled storage
- Order picking and inventory service
- Delivery right to customers' homes
- E-commerce access (dedicated private site or shared)
- Cooporative marketing with other club vendors
- Your most valuable asset is your customers.
You've made something amazing for the community.
Your customers care about you because you are an artisan nourishing their household in a way that no grocery store or delivery service ever could.
Generally your customers activly dislike the big-ag grocery system. Nobody wants to support Amazon or Walmart, there just hasn't been a good alternative for them.
They want to support you instead...
Your customers also want more than just your amazing products. They want to support others too!
They would also rather buy their value-priced organic grocery from you than from a store that only tangentally support local farmers and makers.
When you join the MN Food Club as a vendor, you become the store they want to support.
In addtion to your own items, customers will purchase other local and organic national items from your store. They will help you share in the revenue their purchases creates for our group... and they will benefit by saving money on their grocery and enjoying convenient access to more local food.
Option 1: Shared Marketplace
This option is best if you want:
- Access to thousands of local conscientious consumers through the MN Food Club vendor websites
- Ability to deliver to 60% of Minnesota's population
- To focus on your craft and customer relationships
- To earn revenue for your recommendation of other great local items.
This website, MNFood.Club, is the shared marketplace site
MNFood.Club vendors list their items on this site for any member of the public to purchase, but items will also be listed on independent websites which are also part of the MNFood.Club system. Two examples of these are our founding farm, TC Farm as well as Nelson Grass Farm.
To learn more about an independent site, see the next section.
- Being part of the marketplace site is the fastest and easiest way to get started.
Cost:
- Initial setup: $100
- Monthly Cost: $10/SKU*
- Platform Fee: 35% (includes all handling, storage, customer support & delivery)
Includes storage for 2 weeks worth of sales, if you require additional storage, more is available.
Revenue:
- Initial 4% revenue share for anything your customer orders
By supporting other great makers, you can build your business enough to earn a rebate back from the group every month.
* Fee waived for first six months for makers who list all their products and market to their customer email list and social media once a month.
Responsibilities
You are responsible for having a high quality product that is fully transparent and to answer any reasonable questions customers ask about your production methods and standards.
MNFood.Club will not buy and resell your product, so you are responsible to ensure that prior to being received at our facility, your item is handled properly and follows all food safety protocols and is fully legal and properly inspected as required for you to sell directly to the consumer.
Responsibilities
You will receive restock notifications on up to a weekly basis and you are responsible to deliver the items needed to fulfill orders on time.
When delivering to our facility, your items will need some sort of scannable barcode. If your packaging does not have this, one will be provided for you to add to the individual items or case if needed.
Your items should clearly display any sell by dates and be tracable to the consumer for any possible recalls. MNFood.Club can track which household receives which items and if you apply unique lot number barcodes, this can be traced to the consumer as well.
Option 2: Independent Site
This option is best if you who want all of the marketplace benefits plus:
- Full control and ownership over your customer relationships and which products are offered to them
- A fully independent website with integrated email/SMS campaign ability
- Real time visibility of inventory, sales and other metrics or reports
- Accounting software integration
- Option to frequently ship items out of state
With a fully independent site, you will have your own domain name, branding and your customers will visit your own website to place orders instead of MNFood.Club
You gain access to the logistical support of the MNFood.Club for all your inventory and your items can be offered on the shared marketplace site as well as other independent sites as you choose.
MNFood.Club will still provide customer support for all logistical and payment needs.
Setting up your own site can occur in as little as two business days, but typically more planning is recommended.
Cost:
- Initial setup: $500
- Monthly Cost: $400/mo, includes storage for 20 SKUs
- $7 for additional SKUs
- Platform Fee: 19% (includes all handling, storage, customer support & delivery)
- Credit Card Fee: 2.9%
Includes storage for 2 weeks worth of sales, if you require additional storage, more is available.
Revenue:
- Initial revenue share of 4.5% for anything your customer orders (including your own items)
By supporting other great makers, you can build your business enough to offset your logistical costs and earn a net rebate back from the group every month.
Responsibilities
You are responsible for having a high quality product that is fully transparent and to answer any reasonable questions customers ask about your production methods and standards.
MNFood.Club will not buy and resell your product, so you are responsible to ensure that prior to being received at our facility, your item is handled properly and follows all food safety protocols and is fully legal and properly inspected as required for you to sell directly to the consumer.
Responsibilities
You will receive restock notifications on up to a weekly basis and you are responsible to deliver the items needed to fulfill orders on time. You will have access to view your inventory via your dedicated e-commerce site
When delivering to our facility, your items will need some sort of scannable barcode. If your packaging does not have this, one will be provided for you to add to the individual items or case if needed.
Your items should clearly display any sell by dates and be tracable to the consumer for any possible recalls. MNFood.Club can track which household receives which items and if you apply unique lot number barcodes, this can be traced to the consumer as well.
- Responsibilities
You will need to have an independent Klaviyo account so that you can run your email marketing and SMS campaigns, which will be integrated with all delivery notifications and other customer service communication.
This ensures all messaging to your customers stays under your brand and control.
You can purchase additional marketing and e-commerce apps to add on to your store for a range of purposes like any self fulfilled shipments you want to continue offering. You will have full control over the store itself.
The MNFood.club will not own or market to your customers through the MNFood.Club site or email system. You can choose to collaborate on messaging from your own store and branding with the club or directly other vendors in the club.
For more information, please fill out the form below:
Shared Kitchen
Our inspected commercial kitchen is available for local farmers and makers to use!
As a shared kitchen user, you are welcome to join the food club and offer your products through our system if you choose.
If you love your current shared kitchen, you are still welcome to be a food club maker and help us build a better local food system!
- Shared kitchen rental starts at $150/mo + hourly usage and storage
Rates range from $15 - $35/hr depending on the amount of hours and time of day.
Access is 24/7 with pre-reserved time slots.
Our kitchen is 1,100 sqft and has the following equipment available in addition to smallwares:
- Range
- Steam kettle
- Food processor
- Food dehydrator
- Blast chiller
- Food slicer
- Induction cooktop
- Tilt skiller
- Convenction ovens
- 40qt mixers (dough and stand)
- Vacuum Sealer