MilkRun delivers farm-to-doorstep groceries in Portland and Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)

The coronavirus pandemic is rapidly changing consumers’ grocery shopping habits and creating a big opportunity for startups like MilkRun.

Demand for the Portland-based company’s farm-to-doorstep groceries has been surging since the outset of the pandemic, allowing MilkRun to expand to its first new market. Three weeks ago, MilkRun launched in Seattle and the startup is eyeing expansions to additional cities by the end of the year, with a mission to put more money in the pockets of struggling farmers and provide communities with locally produced food.

The pandemic is exposing long-eroding weaknesses in the large supply chain that feeds most Americans and creating a new appetite for services that allow consumers to get groceries without risking exposure to COVID. It’s an opportunity that MilkRun was poised to seize, less than two years since launching.

I tested MilkRun’s service in Seattle and after some minor hiccups, received a big bounty of organic produce and sustainably raised meat on my doorstep.

A bounty, after some bumps

I wasn’t able to order from MilkRun when it first launched in Seattle but after about a week, the service area expanded to my neighborhood, Greenwood. Despite the expansion, my second attempt at ordering was just as fruitless. Most of MilkRun’s items were sold out, underscoring the high demand for grocery delivery from customers wary of traditional stores.

(GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)

On my third attempt, I succeeded in placing an order for a box of pasture-raised meats that cost $55 and organic fruits and vegetables that cost $35, with free shipping. Prices are slightly discounted for customers with recurring subscriptions.

Other available items (which I skipped) included a loaf of bread for $6, 12oz of coffee for $15, eggs for $8, and Organic Valley milk for $5.75.

When my boxes arrived a few days later, I was surprised by the variety and quantity of items that $90 bought. The produce box included artichokes, rhubarb, spring onions, squash, lettuce, carrots, beets, blackberries, potatoes, cherries, chard, and salad mix. We also received herbed bacon, sausage links, ground beef, and a whole chicken, all raised organically on pasture. The photo above shows the entire haul.

The meat items came frozen. We defrosted the herbed bacon and enjoyed it right away. The rest went into the freezer for future meals. The fruits and vegetables arrived fresh, unbruised, and tasty.

Now that MilkRun is up and running in Seattle, I would definitely recommend it to a friend. Prices were reasonable for the quantity and quality of food we received and the selection is wide enough to replace a trip to the grocery store. It also feels good to support food producers in our backyard and reduce our carbon footprint by purchasing produce that doesn’t have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles.

MilkRun CEO and founder Julia Niiro. (MilkRun Photo)

MilkRun sells items from more than 100 farmers to more than 3,000 customers in the Portland and Seattle regions. MilkRun founder and CEO Julia Niiro is a former farmer who started the company in 2018 when she discovered there were very few channels for food producers to sell to their neighbors.

“Every day, we vote with our dollar and the kind of food that we choose to eat, and the people that we choose to support, and the practices behind that system impact everything,” Niiro said.

Niiro drew inspiration from the milkman model, which delivered dairy to customers widely before the industrialization of the nation’s food system.

MilkRun estimates that 70% of the purchase price goes directly to farmers. By contrast,  farmers recoup just 7.8% of the dollars Americans spend on food on average, according to the USDA.

A boom in farm-to-table delivery

MilkRun is one of several startups using technology to connect farmers with customers in their communities that have cropped up in the past few years. The coronavirus crisis has accelerated their businesses as consumer demand for more sustainable food collides with the urgency of the pandemic.

In Seattle, MilkRun competes with services like Salmonberry Goods and Pacific Coast Harvest, which offer grocery delivery from local farms. In Eugene, Ore., there’s Local Food Marketplace, which provides farm management software and a consumer-facing website where customers can buy products from local farms.

While those companies are seeing a surge in orders, the pandemic is also driving customers to industry behemoths for food delivery. Demand for grocery delivery from Walmart, Kroger, Amazon, and other big companies has surged alongside the upstarts. Instacart’s valuation soared to nearly $14 billion this year and Uber appears to be eyeing the grocery delivery business too.

Related: As local farmers embrace technology, coronavirus crisis could change our relationship to food forever

Since the outset of the pandemic, MilkRun has seen demand increase by 12 times, according to Niiro. MilkRun responded to the uptick by hiring 28 people from the restaurant industry, which has been hit hard by shutdown orders. MilkRun is also bringing on food distributors, who are pivoting from restaurant delivery, to help ferry groceries to customers’ homes.

“We outgrew everything in order to rise up and meet this demand from farmers who overnight lost their sales channels, from the restaurant industry who overnight lost their jobs, and from consumers who really now needed a safe outlet to continue to eat well,” Niiro said.

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