Here is the formal news release, which offers the more positive spin that Green Beans and Grasshopper are "consolidating efforts"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2013
Green BEAN Delivery and Grasshoppers Distribution Consolidate Efforts to Scale Local Food Delivery Common values underscore acquisition LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Dec. 4, 2013) Grasshoppers Distribution, LLC, a company that has provided local and sustainable foods to over a thousand families in the Greater Louisville region since 2007, is announcing today it is ending its food delivery service to the Louisville community.
In order to continue the availability of its service to the Greater Louisville community, Grasshoppers Distribution has inked a deal in which Green BEAN Delivery, LLC will acquire its customer and supplier list.
“Deciding to discontinue Grasshoppers Distribution has been a difficult process for each board member,” said Caroline Heine, board chair of Grasshoppers Distribution. “Ultimately, we decided to reach out to Green BEAN Delivery as we felt it was best for our clients, farmers and artisan partners. The founders and board members of Grasshoppers Distribution take great pride in our past accomplishments, and we are confident that our farmer and artisan network will continue to thrive with the help of Green BEAN Delivery.”
Grasshoppers Distribution’s network includes more than 70 local farms and artisans. Since inception, Grasshoppers has paid more than $2.25 million directly to Kentucky and Southern Indiana family farms.
“The economics of the local food distribution business require scale in order to make these services viable for the consumers, producers and distributors in the long-term,” adds Heine, who helped facilitate the deal with Green BEAN Delivery. “With the opportunity to serve Grasshoppers customers on Green BEAN Delivery’s much larger distribution infrastructure, the opportunities for increasing the overall amount of local food made available to people and businesses in Louisville grows.”
Husband and wife team Matt Ewer and Elizabeth Blessing founded Green BEAN Delivery in 2007 to make organic produce and natural groceries convenient, affordable and accessible to Midwest communities. The company has been serving the Louisville market since 2010, focusing on sourcing from as many local and regional sources as possible, while also offering a full range of nutritious, natural products for customers who are seeking healthy foods for their families. Green BEAN Delivery offers home delivery of all its products to people throughout the Louisville area. It also supplies wholesale customers through its subsidiary company, Tiny Footprint Distribution.
“We are excited to have a chance to add Grasshoppers’ loyal customers to the Green BEAN Delivery family,” said Ewer, president of Green BEAN Delivery. “We have always felt that we shared the same values as Grasshoppers, and our conversations confirmed this belief. First and foremost, Green BEAN Delivery’s mission is to support family farms and to make it convenient for people to access local, healthy and nutritious food. Grasshoppers’ decision to reach out to us shows its continued dedication and sincere commitment to local and sustainable food. The local and sustainable food movement is much greater than the sum of its parts. We are honored to carry out Grasshoppers’ tradition and mission.”
Since inception, Green BEAN Delivery has invested more than $7 million into local food economies throughout the Midwest. Focused on home delivery of organic, local and sustainably grown foods, the company is now serving the Midwestern communities of Louisville and Lexington, Ky, Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Ind., Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, and St. Louis Mo. To date, Green BEAN Delivery has donated more than 350,000 pounds, or 175 tons, of fresh produce to hunger relief agencies in these states.
For more information on Green BEAN Delivery, visit their website at
www.greenbeandelivery.com or follow them on Twitter at @GreenBEANKy.
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About Green BEAN Delivery
Green B.E.A.N. is a dynamic food company that takes a multifaceted approach to building local food systems. B.E.A.N. is an acronym that represents our core initiatives; Biodynamic, Education, Agriculture, and Nutrition. Our goal is to make healthy and sustainably grown local food affordable, accessible, and convenient to the Midwest communities we serve. We serve our mission by building food systems and businesses that address our communities’ greatest food challenges. We work with a network of local farmers and artisans that have both urban and rural roots. Visit
http://www.GreenBEANDelivery.com.
About Grasshoppers Distribution
Grasshoppers Distribution paid over 70 family-scale producers in Kentucky and Southern Indiana more than $2.25 million since its founding in 2007 by four Kentucky farmers. Grasshoppers specialized in offering locally grown produce; meats raised on pasture without prophylactic antibiotics or added hormones or steroids; goat and cow cheeses; and dairy products from butter to milk to cream from over 70 local family farms and artisans in Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
