Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Curry.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Chris started as an executive chef looking to create recipes using local and seasonal items for his farm to table approach. Around this same time, Chris and his wife Cora had their first child (a son) who had some major health issues. Chris describes this time as one of the most frustrating and upsetting moments of their lives as he said they did everything they could. They listened to all the doctors and followed the instructions only to hit wall after wall with zero results. As they struggled at home with this situation, at work Chris discovered how many farmers markets weren’t truly sourcing from farms but rather buying from big box warehouses and just reselling it. Talking with farmers he found out only a small handful of farmers actually sold at farmers markets because they couldn’t compete with resellers at these small farmer market events.
Back at home Chris and Cora were fed up with the systems, both medical and food systems, because they did everything they were told to. After doing more research on their own combined with Chris’ understanding of food quality they decided the change they needed to help their son was to change his diet. This was the change they were praying for. After feeding their own child local, seasonal and clean foods their lives did a 180, especially their sons well being.
Chris started working with farmers directly and started putting together the first farm bags and selling them to friends and family sparking the birth of Local Fare Jax. Established in 2011 the growth was small but after the pandemic more families took advantage of the farm to door approach LFJ offered leading to new growth.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The first few years were many late nights of Chris repairing vans for delivery, finding partners/farms, quality issues, navigating an uncommon business as first time entrepreneurs, personnel issues, building culture and marketing what local fare was/is and the importance in a culture built on fast food convenience.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Chris was also a pastor at Elevate Life church in the beginning days of Local Fare. He was there for a number of years until Local Fare grew to a point where it was allowing him to now provide for his family as his sole provider.
Pricing:
- Basic Farm Bag: $31
- Standard Farm Bag: $36
- Large Farm Bag: $45
Contact Info:
- Website: https://localfarejax.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/localfarejax/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LocalFareJax/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/localfarejax
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@localfarejax
