When we need to stock our pantries and fridges, most may head to the nearest grocery store; however, most of the food in our grocery stores is not locally sourced.
Acme Farms & Kitchen is a Bellingham-based meal kit delivery service.
“Acme Farms & Kitchen is a different kind of meal delivery service, committed to the health of the community, its people, the planet and making good food accessible to everyone,” Revolution PR intern Delaney Sevens said.
Revolution is the public relations agency that represents Acme Farms & Kitchen.
“Most people don’t realize their food dollars don’t stay within the community,” Sevens said
Farmers received 14.3 cents of every dollar sold as of 2019. This USDA statistic shows farmers aren’t making what they should from the food they provide, according to Sevens.
“At Acme Farms, we envision a world where everyone lives on fresh, deliciously tasty food that has been produced locally and regeneratively,” Acme Farms & Kitchen co-CEO Jeff Bos said. “We envision our farmers, makers and bakers to be paid fairly for the work they do, so they can continue producing amazing food.
Acme Farms & Kitchen sources its food from local farmers and food purveyors.
“Our relationships with our [food] producers are critical to our vision and our collective success,” Bos said.
According to Bos, Acme Farms & Kitchen works with producers in three main ways: connecting with producers to understand their needs, having flexible payment terms and working with producer’s surplus food.
“We need more local people spending more of their food dollars on food that is sourced locally, so we can create larger local markets for our farmers, makers, bakers and ranchers,” Bos said. “We need more local producers producing foods that work with a variety of cultural diets to meet the unique needs of people in our community and for more of these foods to be produced with organic regenerative practices.”
Some of the Bellingham food purveyors that are partnered with Acme Foods & Kitchen include Cascadia Mushrooms, Grace Harbor Farms, Bellingham Pasta Company and Golden Glen Creamery.
Another one of the food purveyors partnered with Acme Foods & Kitchen is Lummi Island Wild fishery.
“Acme is a great partner in supporting sustainable fishing,” said Lummi Island Wild fisher and President Ian Kirouac. “We operate one of the most selective and sustainable fisheries in the world [using] reef netting.”
Reef netting is fishing with a net suspended between two boats anchored off of a reef.
“We haul the fish in, gently roll them in a pocket, into our live well; immediately sort any non-targeted or protected species back into the water to swim,” said Kirouac in a YouTube documentary by Patagonia. “Then the fish we do keep, one-by-one, we’ll individually handle, bleed and immediately put into slush ice.”
According to Bos, the conventional agricultural system is fundamentally broken.
“Shopping locally helps your neighbors who create these goods; it keeps our local economy thriving, and since the pandemic, it is apparent that this is crucial,” said Senior Manager of Acme Farms & Kitchen Bellingham Hub Operations Haley Basim. “Big corporations constantly threaten the livelihood of local businesses which directly threatens local jobs, land and environment.”
According to Bos, buying locally sourced food keeps money flowing in our community, reduces carbon emissions by reducing transportation, encourages environmentally-friendly production practices and supports local food system resilience.
“When we buy locally sourced food, we help build and sustain a more resilient local food system that benefits us all,” Bos said.
To learn more about Acme Farms & Kitchen’s services, you can visit their website.
Jake Isomis a city life reporter for The Front and a third-year visual journalism pre-major at Western Washington University. His work focuses on health and wellness within local communities. You can contact him atjakeisom.thefront@gmail.com.
