Growing Local Food Online

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“I really like the way OFN works and it seems that our customers find it easy to use too.”

Ashley Wheeler – Trill Farm

What we do

Software designed for food

The Open Food Network software platform allows farmers to sell produce online, at a price that works for them. It has been built specifically for selling food so it can handle tricky measures or stock levels that only food has – a dozen eggs, a bunch of parsley, and a whole chicken that varies in weight, anyone?

It’s a great shopfront to sell food through as an individual enterprise, but where it really gets exciting is when there’s a community of farmers working together.

Collaboration made easy

Food producers can create an online shop, collect payments, and sell through other shops on the platform. Wholesalers can integrate with existing systems, manage buying groups and supply your produce through national or regional networks of food hubs and shops. Communities can bring together producers in your area to create a virtual farmers’ market, building a resilient local food economy.

People have used the power of this platform to create food collectives, manage food hub stock, or to take their farmers’ market online with pre-purchases to give stallholders more secure sales.

Open source for a better food system

And what’s just as important as the software itself, are the values that underpin it. If you’re trying to build a new food system – as a farmer, farmers’ market, or food hub – then why would you choose software that isn’t also contributing to a fairer food system?

By working collectively rather than competitively, we share the costs of developing new software, and we ensure that our project is resilient – Community Supported Software

Share Knowledge and Skills

We work with dozens of food enterprises across the UK and we know that there are great ideas and solutions out there. We also know that every community, town and region is different and needs unique enterprises.

We facilitate group coaching and gatherings to enable food enterprises to learn from each other and exchange experience. Our online training, blogs and resources in marketing, accounting and more help food enterprises develop the skills they need to succeed in this challenging sector.

OFN Software Platform

Software Features

Our growing global community is adding new features all the time. Click the links belwo to visit the user guide and learn more.

A Range of Shopfront Types

Set up as a producer, food hub or farmers’ market

Detailed Reporting & Downloads

Export your data as CSV and view online

Set up Recurring Subscriptions

For recurring customers such as box schemes

Integrate with Accounting Packages

Integrate with Xero, Quickbooks, Quickfile and Wave

Collaborate with Other Enterprises

Independent producers through the same shopfronts

Import your Products and Inventory

Import existing products from a file

Testimonials

Sara RockTamar Valley Food Hubs

OFN helps us at Tamar Valley Food Hubs to bring the freshest and tastiest local food to our customers enabling us all to support the local economy and ensure that our growers are paid a fair price for their produce. The software has helped us to streamline our admin so we can grow in every sense of the word. We love being part of the Open Food Network; it’s so much more than an online platform; being part on an international community of like minded people who are passionate about local food feels really exciting.

Reuben ChestersLocavore Founder

I am very pleased to be part of the growing Open Food Network. It is exciting to see so many new producers registering on the Network across the country and then to see the links being set up between these producers and shops like mine as well as various types of markets, food hubs and food co-ops – all making use of the same online system to build distribution and retail networks that would never have happened without OFN.

Olivier de ShutterIPES Food

Open Food Network is an essential tool. t helps connect these eaters directly with local producers, enabling them to support the emergence of local agrifood systems. This virtual highway is a common resource, using the potential of digital media to connect these communities of eaters and farmers – working together for food sovereignty. It’s absolutely essential for these alternative systems to develop, gathering connections and strength, until finally it is the new mainstream agri-food system.

Register now to start using the OFN

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