Building a Better Local Food System with Erin Baumgartner

What does it actually take to make local food more accessible, sustainable, and financially viable for the people who produce it?Catherine talks with Erin Baumgartner, founder of Family Dinner, a farmers market delivery service that grew from bringing groceries to seven friends out of Erin’s Somerville apartment to serving 120 Massachusetts communities. Erin explains how Family Dinner uses data and predictive analytics to help farmers plan what to grow, reduce food waste, and reach more customers—and why buying local can have such a meaningful impact on the communities where we live.They also talk about balancing our food ideals with real-life budgets and limited time, building a mission-driven business without outside investors, resisting shiny objects, and breaking intimidating goals into manageable steps. Plus: feeding kids without expecting perfection, making dinner from whatever is languishing in the fridge, and why creativity sometimes requires doing absolutely nothing.Not From Concentrate is distributed by PRX and produced by Catherine Smart, with audio and video production by Kevin O’Connell and Asia Garcia. Our associate producer is Allie Miller, and our theme music is by Kylie Dailey.