As large industrial farms continue to dominate the agricultural market, small farms are overshadowed despite serving an important role in providing local, sustainable food and building personal, and social connections with consumers. Especially in Romania, where our project takes place, small farms are still ubiquitous and struggle to expand their markets. To compete in this market and reach local customers with healthy farm-grown food, some small farms are pooling resources through cooperatives, selling their products in local farmer’s markets, and devising systems to deliver fresh produce to customers’ homes, including weekly “food boxes.” In collaboration with HighClere Consulting and the SolBun Cooperative of local farmers, we sought to expand the cooperative’s food box customer base in Brașov County by developing an online marketing platform. To do this, we analyzed other well-established websites, interviewed local farmers, and obtained relevant information from potential customers through intercept surveys and focus groups before developing a prototype web platform. We found that supermarket consumers value price, convenience, and diversity of products. Meanwhile, free market shoppers valued quality, personal connection with producers as well as low prices. We determined that current supermarket shoppers would be most likely to purchase from a food box, which resulted in us highlighting convenience in our final prototype. We also determined it beneficial to highlight personal connection between farmer and consumer when designing our prototype. Using this information we developed a website using personalized farm profiles aimed at producing meaningful, long-lasting connections between farmers and their consumers. Additionally, we developed a biweekly newsletter template from which the food box would be ordered to facilitate a convenient consumer experience.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Eldridge, Aidan
• Hurst, Bora
• Mattimore, Ava
• Thai, Samuel
• Morin, Allison

Subject

• Culture
• Environment
• Sustainability
• Food

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 121858
• E-project-042624-023441

Mot-clé

• cooperatives
• Romania
• food box
• local agriculture

Advisor

• Higgins, Lorraine D.
• Bosin, Yury

Year

• 2024

Center

• Bucharest, Romania Project Center - IQP

Sponsor

• HighClere Consulting

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 3 - Good Health and Well-being
• 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

Date created

• 2024-04-26

Resource type

• Interactive Qualifying Project

Source

• E-project-042624-023441

Rights statement

• In Copyright