Site Updates

How-To FoodHub: Managing your Notifications and Alerts Preferences

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013 by

Just in time for our third birthday we’re giving more power to our Members to customize their FoodHub experience. Now, rather than showing the same information to everyone, you can choose the information you want to see on your My FoodHub page and in your inbox as the FoodHub Fresh Sheet – now made fresher in a digest format.

Setting up your Notification Preferences
Changing your alerts and notification preferences is easy. The first step is to log in to FoodHub. You’ll be taken immediately to your My FoodHub page where the ‘Notifications’ tab shows what’s been happening on the site since your last visit.

From there, click the ‘Notification Preferences’ tab and simply check or uncheck any of the boxes to start customizing your content. The boxes you leave checked under ‘Email’ will determine the type of content you see in the FoodHub Fresh Sheet. Those that you leave checked under ‘Dashboard’ will indicate what you want to see front and center when you log in.

Setting up your Communication Preferences
We’ve made it easy for you to tell us WHAT you want to see with Notification Preferences, and it’s just as easy to tell us you want to get emails in the first place. There are only two categories to manage: Emails and Fresh Sheets. You can find them both here on your account’s Communication Preferences page.

What kinds of emails would I get from FoodHub?
There are several valuable notifications that FoodHub sends as single emails including …

  • Notifications from your Message Center
    While you can choose to see if you have any new messages waiting for you in your FoodHub Message Center from your dashboard, choosing to receive emails from FoodHub means that you’ll get an alert  direct to your inbox.
  • Recommendations
    When someone recommends you as a great person to do business with, you get an automatic alert that enables you to accept the recommendation and allow it to appear on your profile for the rest of the community to see.
  • When another Member has indicated that they do business with you
    If you’re a partner, association, distributor or farmers’ market that is both a FoodHub Member and included in our list of affiliates (like the Portland Farmers Market or Charlie’s Produce) you can receive an alert every time someone adds you to their profile.
  • When you get a Marketplace post response
    Not sure if your Marketplace posts are being seen? Electing to receive email alerts from FoodHub is a good way to make sure you’re not missing any potential business opportunities.

What’s in the FoodHub Fresh Sheet?
The brand new Fresh Sheet is a completely customizable alert optimized to show only those updates that are relevant to you. You can choose what you see in the Fresh Sheet from the Notifications Preferences tab on your My FoodHub page. If  you opted OUT of receiving the Fresh Sheet, but would like to take advantage of the weekly digest format to keep you up to date, visit the Communication preferences page and select the ‘yes’ radio button under ‘Would you like to receive the FoodHub Fresh Sheet?’.

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FoodHub Awarded ODA Specialty Crop Block Grant in Support of Cracking Distribution Dilemma

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 by

Earlier this month, Ecotrust was granted more than $50,000 in funding through the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant program for a project focused in part on researching regional scale distribution solutions for specialty crop producers, while leveraging the FoodHub network.  Specialty crops are defined as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and nursery crops.

Throughout Oregon, the USDA granted nearly $1.5 million to 22 projects ranging from food safety training from the Oregon raspberry commission to a native bee pollination program to assist with the pollination of specialty crops. Nationwide, the USDA is investing $55 million in grants to be distributed in support of projects that strengthen markets and expand economic opportunities for local and regional producers.

“These investments will support local and regional markets, and improve access to healthy food for millions of children and supply thousands of farmers markets, restaurants and other businesses with fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables,” said Secretary Tom Vilsack as he announced the final grant awards in Madison, Wisc.

Since 2006, the USDA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program has awarded $240 million. The program is part of USDA’s integrated approach to programs and policies that stimulate food- and agriculturally-based community economic development.

Take the ODA Specialty Crop Block Grant Survey

The ODA is reevaluating funding priorities for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program to ensure the program is best meeting the needs of Oregon’s specialty crop stakeholders.

This survey should only take about 10-15 minutes of your time and your answers will be completely anonymous.

Link to survey here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ODA_SCBGP_2013

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Katie Pearmine, Specialty Crop Block Grant Program Coordinator at kpearmine@oda.state.or.us

Check out www.ams.usda.gov/scbgp to review the 2012 project summaries and view a list of awards by state.

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New in the Knowledge Base: Farm to School Start up Kit

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 by

WSDA created this Farm to School Start-Up Kit in partnership with Kent School District to assist schools as they consider their options and begin farm to school efforts. In 2010, Kent School District’s commitment to providing tasty, affordable, healthy meal programs was recognized and they were selected to participate in Public Health-Seattle & King County Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant. The grant provided funding to launch a farm to school program in the district, and WSDA worked with them to increase the use of seasonal, fresh, Washington-grown foods in the meal and snack programs. The project team developed documents, templates and resources to use in Kent School District. The Start-Up Kit is designed to share those tools and resources for use in other districts.

The Start-Up Kit provides step-by-step guidance, with links to open the individual tools and resources along the way. Whether you’re new to farm to school, or are interested in resources to support specific aspects of your existing program, it’s worth taking a look. The kit is organized by topic for ease of use.

Find it now in the Knowledge Base!

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New in the Knowledge Base: A School’s Guide to Purchasing Washington Grown Food

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012 by

Still confused by geographic preference? Looking for bid templates? The Washington State Department of Agriculture recently published A School’s Guide to Purchasing Washington-Grown Food: Using Geographic Preference to Strengthen Farm to School, which provides three different models for applying geographic preference including worksheets with specification examples and sample geographic preference language. While written specifically for Washington state schools, this guide also provides generalized information that has broad relevance.

Find it now in the FoodHub Knowledge Base

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FoodHub Connections: Mapping the Local Food/Tech Landscape

Thursday, September 27th, 2012 by

Today, we’re excited to announce the release of our Local Food/Tech Landscape – an interactive guide to innovation at the intersection of local food and technology.

 

If you’ve been paying any kind of attention to local food, you’ve probably noticed an incredible proliferation of start-ups and innovators in the local food and technology space, all working to create an alternative, regionally-based food system in this country.

We’re junkies. We’ve become obsessed with learning about these projects – their differences, their similarities, their core audience, and how all the puzzle pieces could fit together.

To gain some clarity, we started keeping a running list of all the players in the space, and then realized others might find it useful, too! (more…)

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How-To FoodHub: Four Great Messaging Features to Help You Connect

Monday, April 23rd, 2012 by

Getting in touch with other FoodHub Members is easier than ever with the newest round of updates to the FoodHub Message Center. Check out these four easy ways to communicate and connect.

Take Advantage of One-to-Many Messaging:

Now, just like your regular email inbox, you can send a single message to multiple contacts with just the click of a button.

From a new message click Add Recipients or, if you know exactly who should be on the list, just start typing their name in the ‘To:’ box.

From your contact list, select the contacts you want to message and click ‘Add to Message’ to continue editing your email.

Sellers: Use this feature along with FoodHub’s Hot Sheet builder to quickly communicate product availability to your connections! What’s a Hot Sheet? Watch this video to learn more. (more…)

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New Search Tool Helps Buyers Find Local Ingredients in a Flash

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 by

This past September FoodHub launched it’s Member survey. When we got the results back from our buyer Members the feedback was almost unanimous: Make it easier to search for and find local food. We started working right away to make search easier, more intuitive and faster than its ever been and we’re proud to roll out what we came up with.

Now, we know that change can take some getting used to so, to help you get started, here are the top five must-use features of FoodHub’s new search function:

1. Search right from your dashboard.
It’s big, it’s green, it’s beautiful – it’s the product search box at the top of the page right when you log in. Just type and go or select one of your saved searches to find new producers.

New search helps you find local ingredients right from the dashboard

(more…)

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How-To FoodHub: Using the Marketplace

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 by

Create a PostThe FoodHub Marketplace is a buyer’s best friend for fast local foraging! Take advantage of great deals, see what’s ripe right now, and scope potential forward contracts. Looking for something specific? Post a “Wanted” listing and let sellers come to you. It’s easy – log into FoodHub, click on Marketplace and use the filters on the left side to narrow the listings to those most relevant to you. Click the “Create a Post” button to let sellers know what you need.

Sellers: use the Marketplace to move perishable product quickly! Post a “For Sale” listing to move product you’ve got a lot of right now, give buyers’ a head’s up about what’s coming on soon, or take advance orders for product available later in the year. Just log into FoodHub, visit Marketplace and click the “Create a Post” button to get started. You can also filter the listings to view just the “Wanted” posts to find buyers looking for what you have. Need help with transport or distribution? Post what you need in the “Transport” section of Marketplace to look for potential collaborators.

FYI, Marketplace isn’t just for food products, it’s also a great go-to resource to post or learn about events, workshops, and other services to support your business. Visit the [Transport] tab to find out about potential load-share opportunities. Check out the [Services] section for non-food posts such as animal feed and farm implements, restaurant supplies and other business services. The [Events and Announcements] tab is the perfect place to find or promote events, classes, workshops and meetings.

Need a little help? Watch a tutorial video on using the Marketplace, or get in touch:

FoodHub Help Desk

Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm
meet@food-hub.org
Toll-free: 855-FOODHUB

Posted in Best Practices, Misc Morsels, Site Updates | 2 Comments »

FoodHub 3.0: What’s New

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 by

FoodHub is now easier and more robust than ever! Every major functional area of the site has been lovingly massaged by our dedicated team of engineers to make finding connections and doing business faster, more efficient and more intuitive. Here’s the complete rundown of improvements, details below:

  • Updated primary navigation
  • Advanced product search
  • Improved Marketplace
  • New distance slider
  • Enhanced profile features
  • Upgraded memberships
  • Advertising & promotional opportunities
  • New FoodHub Knowledge Base
  • Expanded Help (more…)

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Improved Profile Format Launched!

Friday, July 1st, 2011 by

In our ongoing quest to make FoodHub the fastest, easiest, most efficient and friendliest way to connect wholesale food buyers, sellers and supporters online, we rolled out an update to the profile format today.

FoodHub profiles now:

(more…)

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