Image via Harvie Instagram
By now you’ve likely heard of food delivery services. Whether you’ve heard of meal delivery services like Hello Fresh and Freshly, or grocery delivery like Instacart and Thrive Market, these types of services are becoming more and more common. With these services, you are offered the convenience of not having to go to the grocery store and deal with the hassle of finding time and energy to walk through the aisles and plan out the ingredients you need. Now, what if you could get the convenience of this service while still supporting local and responsibly sourced businesses? ENTER HARVIE. Harvie is a Pittsburgh-based grocery subscription box that offers goods from responsibly-sourced farmers and producers. In a short few years, they have made their mark on the city of Pittsburgh.
Image via Harvie Instagram
Let’s get into the details of what exactly Harvie offers. Each week you can select a completely customizable box of goodies. Harvie makes it super easy to select the items you want by emailing you a few days before your delivery is scheduled to go out. The email asks you to confirm the items randomly selected for your order generated via your set preferences, or to swap and select items of your choosing. If you’d like to select specific items, you will be directed to Harvie’s website where you will see hundreds of items broken down by category: grains, dairy, snacks, fruits, vegetables, and more. Just like shopping at a grocery store, each product is given a dollar amount and you can select as many items as you want. Treat yourself! It’s all for a good cause!
Image via Harvie Instagram
The menu of items to choose from includes raw ingredients like honey crisp apples, carrot bundles, select steaks, seafood, etc. These are perfect for those who are looking for some ingredients to chef up a nice meal from scratch. Other items that are available for selection are some snack-like items and prepared goods. Best Ever Granola, Ohio City Pasta, and Gosia’s Pierogies are some of the items that come prepared frozen or ready to snack! Our favorite is the spinach fettuccine from Ohio City Pasta. It takes less than 3 minutes to cook after the water boils and pairs perfectly with the jarred sauces you can order from Harvie!
Image via Harvie Instagram Image via Harvie Instagram
While Harvie offers incredible and convenient options for a reasonable price, that isn’t the main focus of Harvie. The true reason Harvie was created was to connect small producers and consumers. Owner Simon Huntley said, “it is very difficult for smaller producers to find a market for what they produce and it has traditionally been difficult for consumers to buy this food.” With the help of Harvie, these products are getting the recognition they need. Growing up on a farm in Greene County gave Huntley the background of farming, however, he always found himself drawn to technology. He found the best of both worlds when after attending college he developed the technology used by farms across the US and Canada. The technology that Huntley developed is a version of what they use today to track logistics at Harvie. While initially working with these farms, Huntley learned that less than 1% of households got their produce from community farms. He wanted to use his technology background and passion for local farming to raise support and awareness. After working for 15 years to find the best way to provide these local goods to local consumers, Harvie as it is today has come into the picture.
As beforementioned, Harvie provides the convenience of grocery delivery while also supporting local businesses. The hope is that because Harvie does the work of finding the local farmers and producers, consumers will be more likely to “shop local.” Finding local produce can often be hard, especially if you live in the city, and Harvie alleviates that burden. It truly is just as easy as ordering from Amazon or other grocery delivery services. With Huntley’s technology, routes are calculated with the delivery order for heightened efficiency. As they continue to grow, they hope to expand to even more routes in surrounding areas.
Image via Harvie Instagram
Currently, they are supporting local cooperatives through the approximately 500 individual products they stock. More items are on the way, Harvie is just prepping for a move to a larger distribution space before adding those. These items make their way to over 2,500 consumers throughout Allegheny County and surrounding areas. This being said, we think it’s safe to say Simon Huntley is achieving his goal of increasing the number of consumers that are using local goods.
Image via Harvie Instagram
This is only the beginning for Harvie. While they have already made such an impact here in Pittsburgh, they aren’t stopping now. They aspire to be the best way to buy groceries in Pittsburgh by being convenient and continuing to source locally. Not to mention the impact they have through their donations of food that is nearing expiration to The 412 Food Rescue. While the profit margins are small at Harvie, it is due to the fact that they spend much more on the dollar than the traditional grocery store to obtain their goods. In turn, these local producers are able to make more money by selling to Harvie and stay in business! This is exactly why we are getting the word out now! Tell your family and friends about this incredible delivery service and let’s get more support rallied around this amazing Pittsburgh-based business that supports other small business sustainability!
This content was provided by a local, independent contributor to Made in PGH, a lifestyle blog.