From the Dirt to your Doorstep: Behind the Scenes with The Produce Box

By Anonymous -

TGIF... Menu Planning! 

Just when your week is winding down and you’re gearing up for the weekend, our team is gearing up too… for next week’s delivery! Late in the week Joe, Boomer (how's that for a great nickname!) and Jake are calling farmers to find out what they’ll have in at the beginning of the upcoming week so we can make our weekly menu and publish it each Friday. Our chefs design a menu for each Box based on what’s soon to be available, making sure to provide variety and great recipes each week.

Have you ever had an idea for a specialty Box made from local, in-season items we offer? E-mail us at info@theproducebox.com. We've had a lot of fun this year with our Italian Dinner Box, Stir Fry Box, Soup & Salad Box, Veggie Soup Box, Tailgate Box and more!

Monday morning - on the phone!

Early Monday morning, after our members have chosen a Box, more calls are made. (Did you know that 99% of our farmers do NOT work by e-mail or computer - we call them and they manually record the order - usually, in fact, they are talking to us on their cell phones from the field while working!)

Nothing stays in our warehouse more than a couple days during the week, and farmers are paid in full when their deliveries are made. That is a BIG deal to them. It means that instead of waiting at a farmer’s market for his produce to sell, a farmer can get up, make a delivery, and drive home knowing he sold all he brought to market that day.And unlike a grocery store delivery where the farmer has to wait up to 90 days to be paid, they drive home from our office with check in hand! 

Check, check, check!

At our produce hub during the week, things are kept running smoothly thanks to our production manager and line supervisors. They make sure everyone is wearing gloves and they look on with care to make sure each box is made correctly. There are two main production lines that handle almost all the Boxes that go out each week. The people on those lines are responsible for using every sense (well, except taste of course!) to be sure the produce they are packing is TOP quality for our members - feel it, smell it, be sure you don't hear anything gushy in that melon, etc!

Out for delivery

Once the Boxes leave our warehouses in our Produce Box trucks, they go straight to our neighborhood coordinators - these are the awesome moms and dads who deliver the Boxes to homes and offices near where they live. The truck has a list of all the items so nothing gets lost, and this list is checked with the neighborhood coordinator to ensure they have everything they need to deliver. Swap and add-on items are listed with each Box that needs it and are added to the Boxes by the neighborhood coordinators, replacing any items that were damaged along the way. Once they double-check that they have everything, they put in a newsletter and then they’re off and to your door! Deliveries happen every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and then the process starts all over again.




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