ABOUT OPEN FOOD NETWORK
Software designed for food
The Open Food Network software platform allows farmers to sell produce online, at a price that works for them. It can be embedded in your own website, or hosted on ours. It has been built specifically for selling food so it can handle tricky measures or stock levels that only food has – a dozen eggs, a bunch of parsley, and a whole chicken that varies in weight, anyone?
It’s a great shopfront to sell food through as an individual enterprise, but where it really gets exciting is when there’s a community of farmers working together.
Collaboration made easy
Food producers can create an online shop, collect payments, and sell through other shops on the platform. Wholesalers can integrate with existing systems, manage buying groups and supply your produce through national or regional networks of food hubs and shops. Communities can bring together producers in your area to create a virtual farmers’ market, building a resilient local food economy.
People have used the power of this platform to create food collectives, manage food hub stock, or to take their farmers’ market online with pre-purchases to give stallholders more secure sales.
Open source for a better food system
And what’s just as important as the software itself, are the values that underpin it. If you’re trying to build a new food system – as a farmer, farmers’ market, or food hub – then why would you choose software that isn’t also contributing to a fairer food system? By working collectively rather than competitively, we share the costs of developing new software, and we ensure that our project is more resilient than the many other proprietary models that have fallen over since we started!
WHO ARE YOU?
Hubs, Producers, Groups
An online shopfront
At its most simple, the Open Food Network gives you an e-commerce solution designed specifically for food. It can handle multiple order cycles per week with different delivery or pricing options, subscriptions, and more.
Your business, your branding
You can choose to host your shop on our site, or you can embed it in your own external site. You can share your story, social media links, and upload photos of your own products.
Build your customers
Where Open Food Network gets exciting is when you work with others. We can help you aggregate from multiple producers through one online shopfront, or enable you to sell to multiple shopfronts.
Integrate and automate
Open Food Network can integrate with other systems such as Xero and Mailchimp, and we can set up automations that make your life easier.
Monitor and understand
Monitoring your sales data can help you evaluate products, marketing, and more.
Reduce your admin
Open Food Network allows you to easily update your stock based on what you’ve produced. It can generate reports, packing slips, and help you avoid a tangle of spreadsheets!
Eaters
These are the things we care about:
Global Commons
Everyone in the community co-creates and shares responsibility for our global commons (the OFN platform, but more generally, the air, water, soils, etc.).
Relationships
We realise that the nature of our relationship with our food is at the foundation of our relationship with life itself, and that this relationship reflects the spirit of our existence.
Ecosystems
We support farmers and producers moving towards regenerative forms of agriculture, that (re)build resilient natural systems, taking into account the soil, air, water and biodiversity of our planet.
Transparency
We believe in transparency, both in the platform we build and the organisation that supports it.
Empowerment
Our project empowers people to create the life they want for themselves; and gives people a real say in their food system.
Subsidiarity
Problems are best solved at the lowest appropriate level of subsidiarity.
People First
We build a people system. Care and empathy for each other lie at its heart, celebrating solidarity, diversity, inclusivity and tolerance.
Constant Evolution
We live in a perpetually evolving world, which requires constant adaptation and agility.
Volunteers
Who we still need?
- Someone who can help us with a social media campaign – contact us
- Marketing – contact us
- Fundraising – contact us
Networks
Why could the OFN be just right for your community?
- The OFN is a tool to help bring transparency in your regional food system.
- Small scale producers and vendors gain visibility
- Everyone who is part of the regional food system becomes visible and can connect themselves more easily
- You become part of an international community with years of experience in creating an alternative food system
- We offer guidance and support in how to work together in a more connected food system
- Everything that is created is part of the Commons – doesn’t belong to a single entity, but instead to a community
PRICING
THE TEAM BEHIND OFN SWITZERLAND
Martina Brun
Luisa Quarta Kubioka
She focuses on enhancing sustainability and equity within food systems. Thereby, she is committed to alternative marketing strategies and community – based initiatives to support smallholder structures and their resilience.
Mikel Cordovilla Mesonero
Working on alternative food supply chains from a technical expertice and a community focus. Mikel has being active in multiple Community Supported Agriculture projects linking communities with technology and it is currently involved at : OpenOlitor ; Sunu
Bettina Scharrer
Bettina is a researcher at the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern and works on agriculture, agricultural policy and sustainable food systems. She is also involved outside of research in the development of alternative and sustainable food systems and is co-founder of Circuit Court Switzerland.
PARTNERS
