DUMBO — A social media company in DUMBO is bringing the farmers market to the break room.
Carrot Creative now includes access to community supported agriculture (or CSA) in its benefits package, and the company said 80 percent of employees are participating.
The presence of locally grown, farm-fresh food in the office is made possible through a partnership with with Farmigo, a tech start-up that recently launched an online farmers market that serves cubicles in New York and California.
“Starting a Farmigo food community was a perfect opportunity to stand out by offering a health and wellness benefit to our employees that is unique and aligned with our company values,” said Mike Germano, Carrot Creative's CEO. “Everyone is impressed with the quality and variety of the farms and food, and how easy and convenient it is to order and coordinate.”
Each week, Farmigo delivers bags of food to the Carrot Creative suite on Main Street. Employees leave their desks to see what’s been growing on the farm. Packages include grass-fed beef, pasture-raised whole chickens, sausage, apple cider, yogurt, sweet cream butter, granola, herbs and sourdough bread. Requests can be made for an entire pig share if desired.
Some Carrot Creative employees store greens, eggs, and yogurt in the office refrigerators to eat at work. Others take their bags home to cook there.
Adam Katzenback, an executive producer at Carrot Creative, likes the greens package.
“What I do is keep the whole bag here at Carrot, and then when lunch comes around, I go ahead and make myself a salad,” he said. “It actually makes my day a little bit more efficient.
Almost weekly, Carrot employees break the locally baked bread together.
“Sharing food helps build a company community,” said Carrot Creative spokeswoman Gabrielle Schaefer. “It’s also our way of helping the local community.”
And Carrot Creative isn't alone. Etsy and Big Spaceship have also signed on with Farmigo to receive office-based farmers market deliveries. The Greene Hill School recently jumped on the bandwagon. And according to Farmigo spokeswoman Kallie Weinkle, several new Brooklyn company sites will be launched in 2013.
“The idea is catching on,” she said.
Farmigo CEO Benzi Ronen agreed.
“There has never been a better time to disrupt the status quo, and [we are] poised to fundamentally change the way food is purchased and distributed,” Ronen said in a statement.
