Montana Platform Delivers New Farm to Fork Approach in Covid-19 Era

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Missoula, MT: March 9, 2021 - An innovative platform that offers a seamless approach for consumers to buy from an extensive network of Montana's best food producers has seen a significant uptick in business during the pandemic.

Longer Table is a dedicated Montana online platform that offers a vast network of sustainable, local, and reliable farms, ranches, and artisan food producers to quickly get their products to your table.

The portal is the equivalent of a farmer's market, but consumers can buy local produce from the ease of their armchair. By providing your location, producers and product suppliers local to you are identified, and you can browse all the available ingredients. Place your order and arrange the purchase directly with a local farmer.

"Longer Table allows you to skip the middle man and the extra fees involved, in the knowledge that you're buying quality, fresh Montana produce. You are also ensuring every dollar stays local by going to your producer," said one of the website's co-creators.

"For us, each delicious bite supports a local rancher and our rural communities. And in providing the best of local artisan food producers, we are quickly becoming a reputed one-stop-shop for everything Montanans need to stock their kitchen with."

The e-commerce solution evolved from a grant-funded project by the State of Montana through the Department of Agriculture in response to how COVID impacted food supply and local suppliers/consumers. 

The platform, designed by a local marketing agency and web development team, was initially deployed to boost sales growth for two luxury brands. Longer Table's full potential is now being realized as a solution for vendors while streamlining and simplifying the consumer experience.

"Longer Table offers not only a critical industry solution for food producers but a good, scalable option enabling them to connect directly with local consumers."

The platform ensures goods get in front of and to consumers without little to no technical knowledge, without them having to attend farmers' markets, while also stabilizing food access in food-insecure communities. It also helps create additional revenue for local food producers in a world of social distancing and limited access to restaurants or supermarket supply chains. 

Longer Table's creators hope to solve the supply-line distribution pivot in the immediate term and position local farmers for continued success in the post-Covid era. "This is particularly true as more consumers seek and demand e-commerce solutions. They have an expectation that even small concerns fulfil service and experiences similar to that of large e-commerce brands.”

If you're a producer or a consumer living in Montana and want to be a part of the project, visit: www.longertablemt.com for more details.