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As avid supporters of food hub initiatives across BC, we’ve been thrilled to work with the team from Kitchen Connect in Victoria. They engaged us to develop their business plan, establish their brand and website, plus a market research project that ultimately led to a marketing planning initiative.
Farm Food Drink is proud to nurture our relationship with the Capital Regional Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CRFAIR) and the Victoria Community Food Hub Society (VCFHS), who work hand in hand to promote healthy and sustainable food systems on southern Vancouver Island.
They oversee two food operations that we’ve had the privilege of working with – South Island Farm Hub (SIFH), and Kitchen Connect (KC).
We initially worked on the branding and website for SIFH to help them establish their presence in the Capital Region. Their focus is to collect produce from local farmers, then aggregate and distribute the local community and to vulnerable folks who can’t always afford healthy, local food.
Then came Kitchen Connect, a commissary kitchen and so much more, created to provide a shared-use facility that enables small food businesses to operate and grow efficiently and to link the farmers to food processors. This then helps to bring more value-added food products to greater Victoria and further build a reliable and safe local food system.
Together the two entities are extending seasonal availability for fresh food with charitable and reduced cost food support for schools and other projects in the area.
The Project
Although we worked on the branding and website project a couple of years ago, Kitchen Connect officially opened their doors in the Fall of 2023. Initially, planning had started during the COVID years, so any initial research or planning had to be revisited. Farm Food Drink developed a market research project, and with the resulting data, further coached the KC team with a marketing plan.
The Approach
INITIAL BRANDING
To distinguish the client’s position, Farm Food Drink went through a naming exercise, brand identity development, full logo creation, and a starter website to establish Kitchen Connect presence and relationship to SIFH.
It was a challenge to create something that represents all they do, and yet keep it simple. SIFH handles the produce and farmers, and KC has the shared-use production (commissary) kitchen and safety aspect.
For the name, it needed to attract processors who need specialized food production equipment and facility. The overall business purpose is to be a connection to the community as a positive contributor supporting local business.
Kitchen Connect rose to the top of the name list.
For the logo and brand elements, the client was looking for something bold, colourful, and simple.
Our creative team decided on natural colours brown, green, and red. One background colour presents a backdrop to highlight a spade and a spoon icon that connect the farming to the kitchen.
WEBSITE
We designed a bold, yet simple layout with essential brand elements. The Wix platform was used so it could be easily expandable and managed by the KC team as they grew. We helped them with simple copy to start, and icons were selected to represent kitchen equipment and tools instead of something food-specific.
Their team has since been able to expand and keep it updated on their own, enabling them to adjust to ever changing environments and opportunities.
MARKET RESEARCH
Because KC’s facility was initially established during COVID, the market data they had was outdated. Businesses they had previously spoken to had either changed focus, moved, or completely shut down. KC called on Farm Food Drink to guide them through a market research project to help with their decision making for next steps.
As a collaborative effort, we provided direction on creating a research process, the language and structure for a survey, and how to analyse the data collected. Farm Food Drink’s coaching of the KC Marketing and Sales Coordinator gave her the knowledge on how to continue this work and reach out to more people for ongoing research.
This affordable approach delivered through email and social media, was targeted to a mix of food processors, food services, and farmers, who would each value different things and thus answer questions with a different focus.
The data collected was valuable, but the project also produced a relationship building opportunity to continue positioning Kitchen Connect as a valuable resource in the Victoria food community.
MARKETING PLANNING
With more coaching for the KC team, Farm Food Drink demonstrated how the new data pulled from the market analysis survey could help them determine their next steps.
A key research objective was to have a more clearly defined target audience. With that goal achieved, the resulting data influences the communications and marketing approach needed to attract new processors to the facility. A primary message is to promote collaboration and community and how members cook together, learn from each other, and have access to important resources.
Attracting the right companies that VCFHS wants to support at KC, also helps to support their other partners in SIFH and the integrated food hub. This enables a full concerted effort to grow a sustainable food system for the local community as well as underserved people in the Victoria region.
The Result
In just a few months, Kitchen Connect has already signed 14 processors and there is a growing list of applicants. At South Island FarmHub, they have a roster of more than 60 farmers, fishers, and food producers, many who can take advantage of services at KC.
Their outreach to attract partner processors and ability to grow their website and communications effectiveness has been a great benefit to the KC team.
KC is seeing more people reaching out asking for info and tours and how they can get their business involved with this initiative, including start ups and those ready to scale up.
Using their individual strong brands and impactful messaging, both Kitchen Connect and South Island FarmHub are building the food security community they envisioned. Using the tools we developed for both charity initiatives, they are better able to create awareness, and attract donations to provide vulnerable people, through partner charities and schools, with access to much needed healthy food.
Client Reaction
The greatest feedback we received on all these projects was the value of the coaching that Farm Food Drink provided for Kitchen Connect. That experience for their specific situations allows them to move forward with more impact based on what they’ve learned.
They appreciated how more effective they can be in their communications, to reach out to more targeted people, and to really showcase who they are and how partners and the community at large benefit from their organization.
Laura Gair, the Director of Food Security and Resource Development at CRFAIR mentioned that she respects the experience and knowledge that Farm Food Drink has with the BC food industry, with government, non profits, food hubs, and promoting small food-business owners.
“We’re a women-led charity and we appreciate Farm Food Drink’s focus on supporting women food entrepreneurs,” says Laura. “It aligns with our values and desires to do the same.”
Our food systems are both precious and vulnerable. At Farm Food Drink we commend the people in this network for the work they’re doing to aggregate local food and local ingredients, encourage environmental respect, regenerative agriculture, and carbon food print reduction, all with a passion and collaborative approach.
What’s Your Story
Are you working on a passion project starting the food business you always dreamed of? Or maybe you’ve got some traction in your current food venture and are ready to take it up a notch or two.
Market research, business planning, marketing planning – Farm Food Drink can help you with any of it. Reach out to find out how your business can start moving forward quickly!
If you're a good person doing good things with food, we want to hear from you!
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