This summer, Vashon’s own version of online grocery shopping will be tested thanks to a grant-funded Vashon Island Growers Association project called Vashon Fresh.

The program is modeled after Amazon’s click-and-collect grocery store, Amazon Fresh, and Safeway’s grocery pickup windows that allow customers to pre-order and prepay for groceries before picking them up. Vashon Fresh will allow islanders to order and pay for local fruits, vegetables and prepared foods like they would find at the farmers market, online. Personal shoppers will gather and package the goods for pickup at the Village Green with the idea that commuters will be able to pick up the groceries on their way home from the ferry, and those who work on the island can stop by the green after work in Vashon town. Home deliveries are also expected to be available for an extra cost.

From June to September, Vashon Fresh will run as a trial project with two pickup days every week to start. There is a market survey underway now that islanders are urged to take to gauge interest in the project.

“The concept is we can marry local, small-scale farming with high-tech smart devices,” Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA) board member, local farmer and Vashon Fresh innovator Dan Carlson, said. “We wanted to pilot this concept since more and more people are ordering items and food online, but we can’t do that on Vashon. Amazon is doing exactly what we’re trying to do.”

He said the website is currently being developed and will allow each vendor to manage their own part of the website. Customers will then be able to see what is available, find out about the farm or vendor and purchase what they want. Payments will be handled through the site as well.

Currently, VIGA accepts food stamps, via electronic benefit transfer cards, and subsidizes those customers with MarketBucks at the farmers market as part of VIGA’s Food Access Partnership. Carlson said he hopes this access will continue with Vashon Fresh, but “making that work online may or may not be as easy as we think.”

“Those are the kinds of things we want to try and make work and learn from,” he said. “We want to learn in this project. It’s an opportunity for Vashonites to have greater access to local, healthy food.”

After the three-month pilot, an evaluator, a professor from Portland State University, will provide feedback on whether it can be a sustainable program.

“That’s our hope, we hope it demonstrates validity of concept,” local farmer Abby Antonelis, of Limping Duck Farm and Vashon Fresh project manager, said.

For the past roughly six months, she has been designing the website, talking to local vendors and gauging interest from islanders. Reached last week, she said she believes the only way the program will be a success is if vendors “feel like they own the process.”

“It’s only going to work if it works for everyone involved,” she said explaining that Vashon Fresh is Carlson’s vision, and she’s just implementing it.

She also said she is excited about the potential growth it will create for small island businesses.

“A lot of these businesses are women-owned and run. There’s a lot of people like me who are stay-at-home moms. If they can ramp up and have some extra money, that’s pretty exciting,” she said. “I think that people spend too little money on local food. It’s not easy, it’s not convenient, it’s easier to go to the grocery store, so we will do anything to … facilitate people getting local food and those growing local food to get it to consumers.”

The Vashon fresh project is being funded by a $41,300 grant from the King Conservation District that was awarded to VIGA in October. The grant is part of the conservation district’s Regional Food Systems grant program, which aims to help local farmers remain economically viable and expand local food production in King County.

The idea for Vashon Fresh was born after VIGA’s idea for a food hub — an aggregation and processing facility for local food — turned out to be unattainable due to financial constraints.

VIGA received a grant for the food hub in October of 2015 and had a study conducted last year by Northwest Agriculture Business Center to determine whether the hub would be possible. Carlson said the study determined VIGA would need to provide $60,000 for initial costs.

“While feasible, it required some financial stretch. Our board felt we didn’t want to take that kind of risk,” Carlson said. “The basis of a food hub is that you have an aggregation facility to deliver to larger markets. This (Vashon Fresh) is the way of implementing the food hub.”

Goods will be picked up from local vendors and brought to a cold storage trailer before being packed for pickup.

“There aren’t a lot of things like this,” Carlson said. “It’s sort of on the leading edge. Vashon’s good at that.”

Survey

VIGA’s Vashon Fresh project manager is conducting a survey to help gauge interest in the program.

All islanders are invited to take the survey here