Chef Farmer Project

In January of ‘09 Grow VI brought farmers and restaurants together to break bread in celebration of their partnership in a pilot project that is designed to introduce the utilization of more local, organic produce into our island restaurants.

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This project gives the farmers and the restaurateurs an opportunity to collaboratively develop a successful business model for the farmers. The goals of this project are to support our farmers in pursuing new markets, increasing their yields, educating our community about what foods are grown here and to eventually make local organic produce a regular item on our tables, in our markets and at our local restaurants. 

Expanding into this new market brought many obstacles for both the farmer and restaurateur.  It required a concerted effort of time and energy to develop an organizational infrastructure for pricing, grading, ordering, invoicing and delivery which was greatly helped by Richard Pluke of Fintrac and Carlos Robles of UVI AG extension.   

Additionally,  farmers had to supply restaurants with weekly produce sometimes without irrigation in place or a cold storage/staging facility to store their freshly picked produce or a refrigerated delivery truck to ensure freshness. To complete the picture of how great a challenge this was, you have to know that all of the food delivered to the restaurants is organically grown. This means that the participating farmers are not using pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers on their crops which translates into intensive time put into weeding and organic pesticide management.  It has been a true feat. 

Restaurateurs have needed to educate themselves about the trials and tribulations of major food production on St Thomas so that they meet each trial along the way with patience, understanding and grace. Weekly meetings with the farmers, Fintrac and UVI AG extension were required.  Each restaurateur was also asked to initiate a composting program within their restaurant to supply the farmers with healthy soil additives and to ask their employees to volunteer with the farmers to learn more about where the food comes from that they prepare and serve.

The success of this project is a testament to the power of a small group of people who believe in something and the energy that belief gives in the shape of patience, communication and endurance.

The participating restaurants from last season are :
Barefoot Buddha, Oceana and Theos Catering, which will all be continuing with the program this year.  Grow VI has invited two more restaurants and two more farmers into the program for this season.

Contact

Farmers - For more info please contact Chloe at chloe@growvi.org

Restaurants - For more info please contact Shanna at shanna@growvi.org