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By Heather Rowntree
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) services have become available across the country, delivering fresh local produce and farm goods to homes and businesses. Fresh Life Organics is doing just that in South Florida, the result of founder Jessica Papesh’s personal struggle with maintaining a healthy diet and faced with limited selection of quality, fresh items.
Looking to start in a densely populated area of health-conscious consumers, Papesh zeroed in on South Florida. “I wanted to create a company that connects people to produce,” Papesh said. “What started as a very small delivery area with only a few zip codes quickly became an entire county, and is now expanding into more. And it all started with a dream of changing the food system.”
Fresh Life Organics offers locally delivered sustainably-sourced and Certified Organic fruits and vegetables.
Home delivery is a convenient solution to get fresh, local produce from farm to consumer. For the customer, however, it can be daunting if you are up to your ears in carrots one week, and the next you have to find recipes that entice your kids to eat turnips and eggplant.
Papesh believes she has solved this problem.
Fresh Life Organics has a choice of box sizes for desired quantity with three plans –mixed organic fruits and vegetables, all fruits, or only vegetables. What sets Fresh Life Organics apart from other programs is the ability to change orders with the online seasonal menu. Members simply swap the items they don’t want with those they prefer or need that week. Additionally, there is no contract for consumers to adhere to; weeks can easily be skipped or stopped.
Order options available on freshlifeorganics.com
In order to offer such a flexible program, Fresh Life Organics designed and built a website designed for efficiency. Emails are sent as reminders to finalize orders, as an alert on delivery day and with follow-up tips on storing the food. The company even sends a link with new recipes for the selection of produce.
The streamlined system also manages the inventory. “Online order changes get shut down at a certain time so we can source the exact numbers we need, “ Papesh said. “It leaves little room for human error, and we never have to deal with an excess supply. It helps to keep the costs manageable and the prices down.”
Fresh Life partners with Certified Organic farms in Florida, with certain items coming from out of state based on customer demand. All items are clearly identified on the menu, so a member can choose to order only local produce, or opt for more variety.
Papesh feels Fresh Life Organics’ roster of farms reflects the company’s mission. “It’s all about community, integrity, family, education, connecting, innovating, serving, giving back….and, ultimately, eating really great food,” Papesh said.
The company hopes to expand to cover the entire state of Florida, incorporate more producers and stock other organic products. They are also working on a new pilot program to offer shipping to those outside their current delivery range. This would focus on smaller, isolated towns or other cities that don’t have access to fresh organic produce.
Convenience, quality and variety of produce are the elements that are attracting customers to Fresh Life Organics, “I always hear about how a bite of corn took them back to their childhood, or the first smell of the food when they opened their box was so heavenly, or that delivery day is even better than Christmas, or that the tomatoes actually have taste to them….these are all the reasons that keep us motivated to serve our people,” she said.
