FriendsOf is a new way to support your favorite local farm and restaurant
Not a cliché but a call to action. Thanks to platforms like Substack, Patreon, and Onlyfans the creator economy is taking off in a big way. Finally artists, journalists, and other creatives are finding ways to build followers, entertain them and charge them a fee for it.
Why does it matter? First and foremost, these platforms used to sustain and promote the creatives are now global. Via Substack, a journalist from Brooklyn can reach anyone in the world with access to an internet connection. Second, there are no intermediaries, charging hefty fees for promoting and booking your work when you are just starting. Patreon gives musicians and artists tools to build their community and promote their work. And thirdly, the artist is generally his/her own best promotor. The communication with fans is direct and personal, which provides value on both ends.
But more importantly, these platforms are pulling in larger swaths of the community — they are, in a way, totally new community building blocks. The definition of a community for artists participating on these platforms is thus changing — you are no longer just a local band banging away at the neighborhood dive. Local is instantly global, and vice versa.
In comes FriendsOf, a membership program launched by Nearby focusing on local farms and restaurants. FriendsOf is a program that allows users, customers, fans (call yourselves what you will) to directly support food venues you trust, engage with on a regular basis, and would miss if they were gone tomorrow. This is a financial support program for the farms and restaurants that make up our community, empower and improve our eating experience, and ensure our food is healthy. It is a way for us to do more for our local farmers and our favorite restaurants than to shower them with daily platitudes and gratitudes. Nobody eats on gratitude. It is a way for you and me to take a direct stake in the well being and survival of your favorite farm and restaurant.
FriendsOf is the Substack of the local food world.
The program gives restaurants and farms the opportunity to build their fan base beyond just the people that show up at the local farmers’ market. It is your opportunity (farmers and chefs) to promote your talents and creations to a global audience. That’s the big vision; our long term goal. But first, FriendsOf is about nurturing and formalizing the relationships between you and your biggest local community fans, whose lives you touch and improve on a daily basis thanks to the food you produce and provide.
This month we launched the program with two of our favorite venues in Austin, Boggy Creek Farm and Lenoir restaurant. They have been a pillar and in many ways, the driving force over the years of the Austin local food scene, and it is only fair to say, their efforts and vision have touched and benefited us as consumers. Especially their vision, on what food is, should be and can be. They are improving, with each day, what we eat, how we eat, and how we feel.
This week, we are adding two more venues to our featured list: Animal Farm and F-stop farm. Another two of our local favorites, who work tirelessly, holistically, and with integrity to supply the Austin community with fresh, seasonal and sustainable produce.
Nearby FriendsOf program is now our (yours and mine) opportunity to stand by these folks, support them financially and become a bigger part of their inner circle. This, in our view, is the essence of a meaningful local food community. It is about friendships and relationships, nurtured over time between farmer and customer, chef and dinner. It is about commitment. And time. For a local food culture to thrive, these businesses need to stay around, not just for a season, a decade, but generations. Looking at the differences between Europe and the US when it comes to food, one of the bigger ones is the imprint of time. Memory of food in Europe (and pretty much all other cultures) runs deeper and is generational. In the US the roots are shallow when it comes to food culture. But we are slowly rebuilding it, one friendship at a time.
Be your best, support your best. Local food is very much a community effort, and yes, growing local food depends on our farmers, but also on us, and the stance we take in making sure it stays around.
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