Keeping It Local: Pittsburgh food delivery service 'Harvie' helps local farmers
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - From concept to humble beginning, a local business has exploded and it's designed to put the freshest locally-produced food on your table.
Specializing in shortening the farm-to-table interval, Harvie, is an online-only grocer that delivers to your door.
The founder grew up on a farm in Greene County and wants to grow the demand for locally-produced food.
Under a non-descript, sprawling Lawrenceville warehouse roof it happens - the orders come in and Harvie's helpers pack the boxes.
"Truly, for us, it's about building the local food economy and building better relationships between local food producers and local consumers," said CEO Simon Huntley.
Huntley's baby just turned three years old.
In the first week, according to Huntley, they delivered 30 boxes and about 20 different products but now, they're delivering around 2,000 boxes per week and about 700 different products.
All of it comes from local farms, local producers, and local restaurants.
"It helped our local communities, it helps local businesses, it also reduces the amount of miles driven for food, which is a good environmental thing," Huntley said.
He said without the transport time, consumers get food that has been freshly picked and right to their plate the next day.
"We're getting lettuce right now from Yonyx Farm, they're in Indiana, Pennsylvania, so that's coming from Indiana to Pittsburgh rather than California through a really long supply chain," he explained.
As the company grows, so does what it can offer - always keeping the emphasis on local.
When it comes to pricing, Huntley said they're in the Whole Foods/Market District range.
While it's not easy for local farms to compete with corporate-owned farms, that's the goal of Harvie.
Hutley said their other goal is to build an economy where consumers buy the food to help farmers and they reach out to local producers for everything from lamb, beef, chicken, eggs, flowers, vegetables, milk, and cheese.
Now that the company has grown, they've added a kitchen.
"Also, [we] do meal kits, if you want to also do salads, we do prepared salads and prepared soups," he said.
Even the beef is local - the company now sells quarter and half cows.
"This kind of food really isn't available anywhere else, so it's something that's completely different," Huntley explained.
Once you sign up, and it's free to sign up, you are told the delivery day in your area based on your zip code and you place your order the day before. While some things are limited, they carefully select providers that share the same mission - to help farmers - and they tell you the source right on their website, with everything going out being around 80-percent from our region.
To learn more - head to their website at this link.
