The closure of small-town grocery stores across the Midwest leaves communities with a hole to fill. A family in rural Benson is building a way to help.
Lauren Reedy remembers walking rows of corn and soybeans on her grandfather's farm as a kid and being confused that she couldn't grab and eat fresh produce off the stalk.
“I just thought ‘okay, when I get a chance to steward, I really want to grow food that I can eat,’” she said. “I can pluck it. I can grab it out of the ground and I can feed myself. I can feed my family.
Now, Reedy’s sister Corrie Scott lives on that farm with her own family. Together, they’ve made several acres surrounding the farmhouse a flourishing field of elderberries, asparagus, beets, potatoes, carrots and more.
“We, again, intentionally planted a lot of products that we knew we could kind of bulk harvest. Things that all come due at the same time,” Scott said. “Potatoes are ready to harvest all at the same time. Beets, same thing. We don’t grow tomatoes that require daily tending and harvesting.”
There's a few reasons for this. First, the farm is almost entirely staffed by family, with just one part-time staff member. Second, they're growing for more than just the family. They're growing produce for the surrounding communities.
Together, Scott and Reedy run Farm Family Foods — an online marketplace of produce, meat, dairy, soaps and more with weekly pickup locations scattered across Central Illinois.
Grocery stores are closing in nearby communities like Roanoke. The nearest options for rural Illinoisans end up being a forty minute drive away or more.
“For folks to have to drive weekly, so far, to get the basics, just it feels, it feels almost unfair,” Reedy said. “There’s got to be a better way.”
It's important to the sisters that the rural communities have access to fresh types of produce they may not choose to buy during weekly grocery runs. Scott also points out potential health benefits.
“We’ve got a lot of doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses who are all saying ‘I’m recommending my patients come buy their groceries from you, because I know it’s better for their health,’” Scott said. “So that’s a cool thing. It’s like an added bonus to what we’re offering.”
Not all of these products come from the one family farm. Since starting online sales last year, Corrie Scott and Lauren Reedy have partnered with around 20 farms and a few small businesses in a 40-mile radius to sell their products.
They're also members of a Fairbury-based farmer-to-farmer marketing and delivery service called Down at the Farms. They cite the group's co-founder Marty Travis as a mentor and inspiration for Farm Family Foods.
Travis is a vocal advocate. He says there's not enough groups helping farmers collaborate.
“I had one of our farmers, on another interview about a month ago, they asked him ‘how long would it take you to get where you are today if you didn’t have this collaborative group?’” Travis said. “He said, ‘about 10 or 15 years.’ He’s been one of our farmers for three to four years.”
Travis says the group sweeps business and distribution issues out of the way, so farmers can do what they do best for as many people as possible.
“Everybody is really, really committed to providing the absolute best quality that they can,” he said. “And this is an experience where we continue to have opportunities to grow.”
Back in Benson, Farm Family Foods is pursuing their biggest opportunity to grow yet: a brick and mortar grocery store. Scott and Reedy acquired a building that was a downtown Benson grocery store decades ago in a tax auction last year.
Since then, Reedy says they've put well over $100,000 into bringing it back to its former glory, including a new mural of Benson landmarks.
“And we’re not halfway yet,” she said. “So we’ve kind of just been bootstrapping it and still hoping for some other grant opportunities. Yeah, we’ll see where that heads.”
In the meantime, Scott says interest is always growing.
“Every week we’re getting inquiries from other small towns,” she said. “They’re saying: ‘hey, what about Toluca? What about Minonk? What about El Paso?’ You know, so it’s really cool to see the attention is growing and people are asking for it.”
The goal is to have the store in Benson open with additional staff later this year. Scott and Reedy plan to continue the online model with weekly pickups as well.
