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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

CropSwap

Online Grocer Cropswap Launches New Feature to Help Food Insecure Families

“Farm-to-phone” grocery platform Cropswap today announced a partnership with Nourish LA to bring healthier food donations to underserved residents of Los Angeles.

Food insecurity, which the USDA defines as “the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways,” has increased over the last year. Los Angeles county alone estimates that “nearly 1 in 4 residents” in that county has suffered food insecurity since the COVID-19 pandemic started. 

Cropswap, which launched during the pandemic, connects its users with local farmers via an app. In June of last year, the company also launched a subscription service through which customers can get delivery or pickup orders of produce, seeds, and other items on a regular basis. 

For the Nourish LA partnership, Cropswap as added an in-app donation feature that lets users give a seasonal Harvest Box to those in need for $50. The box is filled with organic produce from Sow a Heart Farm, in Fillmore, California, and contains what Cropswap says is enough to sustain a family for one week. Users can simply add the donation to their existing total. Cropswap and Nourish LA handle the actual process of getting the food to its recipients. 

Given that they’re a relatively easy way to encourage giving, in-app donation buttons have surfaced in multiple different areas of the food industry over the last twelve months. Uber Eats last year set up an in-app donation button to help struggling independent restaurants. Also last year, Delivery Hero partnered with the United Nation’s World Food Programme’s Share the Meal program. Users can donate a meal via the regular Delivery Hero app interface.

A $50 box of food is obviously more costly for the giver than, say, donating a few bucks or a single meal. However, online grocery has seen a surge in new users over the last year, and consumer enthusiasm for buying from local farms has also increased. Those two factors working together means there’s a much bigger potential audience for Cropswap’s self-proclaimed “Instacart for local produce.” That in turn means a wider pool of those able to and/or willing to donate a week’s worth of food to those in need.

Farm-to-Phone App CropSwap Launches Subscription Box Service

Thanks to the pandemic, we’ve seen a surge in online grocery shopping and a rising demand from consumers to know more about where their food comes from than they’d traditionally get from a big-box grocery retailer. At the same time, local farmers are struggling to make up revenue lost during shelter-in-place mandates that closed restaurants and farmers markets.

All of that makes it an apt time for CropSwap, an app that connects customers with local farmers and food growers, to launch a new subscription service. Today, the Los Angeles-based startup announced CropBox, its direct-to-consumers subscription service through which customers receive boxes of produce, seeds, and other items from nearby farmers.

CropSwap bills itself “the Instacart for local produce.” Launched in April — smack in the middle of the pandemic — the app was originally developed to cut down on the food waste that happens along the supply chain between farms and consumers. Customers can browse items, view inventory in real time, and communicate directly with farmers.

The addition of the CropBox means customers can also now sign up to receive curated boxes of produce, seeds, honey, and other items from local farmers. Based on their location, users can choose from several types of boxes as well as set the quantity of the box and how often they want to receive one (e.g., weekly, monthly).

Right now, CropBoxes available to consumers in NYC, Hawaii, LA, and Miami, FL. 

CropSwap, and now CropBox with it, join a growing number of companies trying to connect more consumers with local farmers, from bean marketplaces to online flour sellers. And in April, CSA deliveries were up 405 percent, according to data from Foursquare.

The big question right now is whether this increased demand for local produce will survive past the pandemic. For the sake of local farmers and food growers and their businesses, let’s hope so.