The Common Market

The Common Market works to scale regional food systems through efficient aggregation and distribution infrastructure that connects farmers to fair and transparent markets while democratizing the accessibility of good food for all people. Their service provides an efficient delivery system for local institutions and retailers to procure from multiple farms throughout the regions we serve. Most small and mid-scale farms simply cannot efficiently or affordably get their products to large scale markets, let alone promote those items to the end consumer. The Common Market provides transportation services for small and sustainable farmers via a fleet of refrigerated trucks, and aggregates their products in our warehouse. Chefs and cafeteria managers from across a metropolitan area can order the region’s freshest foods from multiple farms—including vegetables, fruits, grains, beef, poultry, eggs, dairy and a number of value-added products—and receive it safely and reliably in one wholesale delivery with one invoice.  Their customers include public and private schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, retailers, food cooperatives, community based organizations, workplaces, restaurants and value-added producers. The Common Market serves a wide range of institutions, but deliberately seeks out relationships with those that serve low-income and vulnerable populations, whose constituents are most at risk for diet-related illness.

It took The Common Market six years before their operations were large enough to break even in Philadelphia, and they believe they can decrease that period to 3 years for new chapters through accelerated start-up operations. By having operational systems in place on Day 1, as well as relationships with food service companies that operate cafeterias for hundreds of institutions in every major city, each of The Common Market’s new chapters will reach a large enough scale to become self-sustainable. They have piloted replication in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, while expanding their reach in the Mid-Atlantic to Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC.