Today we’d like to introduce you to Shelly Herman and Irv Cernauskas.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Shelly and Irv. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
We have raised our kids Miles and Lia here in the Midwest, cooking and eating the bounty of our hard working farmer friends. We are passionate about good food and good health, both for our own family and all communities.
When we met at MIT pursuing our MBAs, we envisioned using our new business skills for social good—healthier people, healthier communities, and a healthier planet. Shelly went off to work in community economic development for 20 years investing in underserved areas. Irv became involved in nonprofit environmental activities and creating markets for local farmers.
Why We Started Fresh Picks: Our farmer friends work hard to grow good food; food with no chemicals, no hormones, no antibiotics, no GMOs. They wanted to spend more time farming and less time marketing, packing and trucking their food. We also realized that people needed an easier way to get this fresh healthy food in a convenient year-round way. So we started Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks(R) to grow a better food system, one that supports our small independent farmers and feeds all of us.
New in 2017, Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks launches the Fresh Picks Farmer Alliance! The Alliance is a collaborative group of local, sustainable produce, meat and dairy farmers. Along with Angelic Organics Learning Center, a leading nonprofit farmer training organization, we are growing a robust membership of farmers interested and ready to sell wholesale into the Chicagoland market. We are creating efficiencies in post-harvest handling, transportation, distribution and traceability to connect businesses with the best farms in the region! Our efforts are supported by funding from the USDA and the Food: Land: Opportunity Program of the Chicago Community Trust and Kinship Foundation.
Great, 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?
Our biggest challenges have been promoting our farmers and business in the competitive grocery and food delivery market. As a small social enterprise, we don’t have the marketing and advertising budget like a Whole Foods or Amazon Fresh. We have a wonderful dedicated customer base who care about great fresh food and supporting sustainable farmers and we look forward to continuing to spread the word and making our healthy local and organic foods more accessible to more people!
Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The mission of Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks is to make healthy food accessible to more people in urban areas through connection and support of local farmers. Since 2006, we have worked to help build a local food infrastructure, increase the supply of local organic food and connect people in the Chicago region with sustainable farmers that work to protect our health and the environment. (www.freshpicks.com)
Fresh Picks offers internet ordering and delivery of local and organic fresh foods to individual households, businesses and institutions in the Chicago region. The Fresh Picks warehouse successfully operates as a Food Hub for local food aggregation operating the necessary logistics for ordering, cold storage, handling, packing and delivering product.
We specialize in the freshest seasonal produce from Midwest farms, as well as grass-fed organic meats, farm-fresh eggs, dairy, seasonal vegetable and fruit boxes, and other local artisanal items. Customers order online and then we deliver to their home or business. We are known for our top quality and great customer service.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There are so many! We are very proud to receive several awards and grants over the years to support our mission, but the greatest validation of all our hard work was at our first Open House at the Fresh Picks warehouse. Over 400 people came to meet us and our farmers and thank us for providing such wonderful products that they can trust are grown sustainably and humanely.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.freshpicks.com
- Phone: 8474100595
- Email: answers@freshpicks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irvandshellysfreshpicks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irvandshellysfreshpicks/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/FreshPicks
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/irv-and-shellys-fresh-picks-niles-4
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