There are two ways you could go about that through KYF. You could purchase shares through the CSA program and potentially have your own drop if you can get enough shares. Or, you could purchase bulk foods through the RSA program.

Wow, great question. The biggest two things that help us stay sustainable are participating in the CSA every season and talking about it with anyone who will listen. We typically do not have the money to spend on expensive advertising campaigns so we rely on word of mouth and “friendly gossip.”

We use what is called a bullseye approach when we source our programs. Our preference is to purchase from farms that are close enough to us to have a personal relationship with and that happens to be in a range of about 40 miles from Charlotte in general.  We do purchase from farms around the state when necessary if the supply in our own backyard is not available.  This happens for organic produce more than conventional because there are fewer organic sources in our area right now.  

We always need help from our members and volunteers.  Please contact us by phone or email and we can figure out how to get you involved.  Our email is info@knowyourfarms.com and phone is 980-225-1020.  If you are interested in helping us out on the farm tours, please visit the tour website.
Or, get REALLY involved and sign up to be an area coordinator. ACs earn our undying gratitude and are instrumental in helping us expand our service area. We rely on help from ACs to manage neighborhoods or groups of neighborhoods. Fill out our AC application if you want to help us.

You can join at any time by visiting the signup form.  

There is no commitment requirement for our CSA after your first purchase.  It is flexible and you can choose when you want to join or stop deliveries.  We encourage everyone to try the CSA for at least four weeks.  

We do regular comparisons with grocery stores and our CSA is typically a better value than both.  Here is an example of a cost comparison over two different weeks with different items in each box with a well known organic-focused grocery store who buys “local.”

Share Size	Know Your Farms		Leading Organic Grocery
	Week 1	Week 2	Week 1	Week 2
Small Share (5 items)	$18	$18	$19.01	$17.74
Medium Share (7 items)	$24	$24	$24.10	$23.24
Organic Share (7 items)	$28	$28	$24.95	$25.45
Large Share (10 items)	$38	$38	$33.64	$34.41

These prices do not reflect the FREE delivery that CSA members get with the their shares. We think that is a pretty good value considering that we bring your food to you!

We believe that supporting LOCAL, small family farms requires us to source from as many of these fast-disappearing farms as possible.  Many of these farms are not certified organic but still play an integral part of the local food system.  The CSA will have a mixture of conventional, organically grown, and certified organic produce.  We clearly indicate how everything is grown and the farm that provided the item each week.  We also have an organic only option for those who want to participate but do not want a regular share.  This question requires a deeper discussion and we are happy to do this if you contact us by phone, email, or in person.

Yes, you can sign up at anytime.  All pricing will be pro-rated based on the date of your signup.  We set the delivery dates based on what the farmers tell us will be the best times to source local food from them.

There are a few ways we add new delivery sites.  The first and easiest is if you are a small business owner and can make the decision to host us or not.  It’s as simple as asking us to use your business/building and all we ask is that you help us get the word out in your area.  There is also an incentive program for some locations if you meet the criteria.

If you would like to earn store credits and would like to help us make home deliveries, we need area coordinators who can take food orders to neighborhoods each week. The AC would meet us to pick up the food orders at the closest public drop site and then make the home deliveries.  The AC can earn store credits for member signups in their neighborhood(s) as well as free food!

Workplaces that are interested can ask us to drop at their offices.  This will require a minimum of 15 shares at all times and we rely on help from workplace advocates to help promote the service from within and maintain membership levels.  We are available to come to the workplace in person to help answer questions, build relationships, and promote the service.  We want to provide something for your employees that can help them be more productive and help you improve your employee satisfaction.  

Every delivery site needs to have a minimum number of active, paid memberships in order for us to make it active.  We create waiting lists for pickup locations that are below the minimum.  If you want to pickup at a location that is currently listed as a waiting list, please signup for the waiting list.  This will add your name to the count.  When we reach the minimum, we will contact everyone in the list and let them know we are going live.

Receive shares while you wait!  You can change your pickup location to an active site while you wait for the waiting list to become active.  Just change your location from your account after you join a waiting list.

Every delivery site needs to have a minimum number of active, paid memberships in order for us to make it active.  We mark certain sites as PreOrder pickup locations that are below the minimum.  Your order does go through and will become active as soon as we make the site active.  Deliveries are scheduled when the drop site is made active.

Friday at 11pm is cutoff for orders and delivery changes like holds/donations/cancellations.

If you did not contact us ahead of the delivery time and did not speak with us, we will have to donate your share.  We do our best to get the food to you but sometimes, it’s just not possible if we do not hear from you in time.  If you are running late, forget, or cannot make the pickup time, please call 980-225-1020 as soon as you know.  Sometimes we can reroute your box to another location or meet you somewhere.  You are still responsible for the order that week even if you do not get your food.  We do not give credits or refunds for missed pickups.

Yes, you can place holds on your deliveries.  Log in to your account and place a hold on your delivery before Friday each week.  If you do this, you will not be charged for your share.  However, if you miss the deadline of Friday, you will be charged because your share will not be withheld.  We will donate your share if you cannot find a friend/family to pick up the food.  We are not responsible for missing the deadline to place a hold.  We suggest you have a friend pickup your share if you miss the hold or realize that you will be unable to pickup your order after the deadline.

We place orders with farmers as soon as the order deadline passes and we know the correct number of shares to buy from the farmers.  Once the farmers receive our orders, they allocate resources to fill the orders.  It is simply not fair to the farmers to send them orders and then retract them after they have already spent time and resources to fill the order. Our orders are for perishable products that cannot just be put back on a shelf in a warehouse.

The cash account is your “store credit.”  The cash account also holds any refunds/credits you may receive from us.  The cash account must be used by the last week in the season or any credits will be forfeited.  If you have credits in your cash account and you sign up for a new season, the credit will automatically be applied to your purchase first.  Anything left over can be used later for addons or future shares.

There are three places you will be able to find the box contents.

• Your CSA account, click on the “What’s in my box” link
• The Blog on knowyourfarms.com
• Facebook

One of the things that make this fun is finding some uncommon veggies and fruits in your shares.  While we like to surprise you, we also want to help you “know your food.”  You will receive an email each week with the box contents.  We post helpful recipes on our blog (this site -> About Us -> Blog), Facebook, and in your boxes some weeks.  We try to post recipes for the items that will most likely cause you to break out the smartphone to search.  It’s also a good idea to check our social media pages for posts from members who like to share what they are doing with the food.  It’s amazing how many good ideas everyone has and we love seeing you all interact.

No.  The reasons for this are simple.  It adds a lot of overhead to a sustainable and community-oriented service like KYF to allow customization on a large scale.  We choose to keep our costs low and in turn keep the cost of the shares low for you in exchange for not making us assume this overhead.  What’s even more important is that putting the decision in our hands allows us to provide the maximum support to the farmers.  Since they are dealing in perishable goods that sometimes cannot go another day or week, we can provide a safety net and put things in the CSA that will really save the farm from losing an entire crop.  This simple ability that you, the CSA member, make possible means a lot to the farmers and to us.  We do our best to create awesome shares that have a lot of variety and highlight our diverse agriculture because we know you do not have choice.  There is a lot of thought that goes into the mix of produce each week to keep it interesting for you.

There is no commitment to join (although we encourage to commit to your customers!) and it’s easy to do!  All you have to do is talk to us and let us know what you are looking for and cover logistics like ordering preferences, delivery preferences, etc.  We will work with you to the extent that we are able.