Food

Naked Farmer switches to digital farmer’s market during Coronavirus pandemic

by Alexandria Ebron

Naked Farmer owner Jordan Johnson wanted to open a healthy restaurant in Downtown St. Petersburg but the Coronavirus had other plans for him. He pivoted to a digital farmer’s market so farmers can still sell their products to consumers who weren’t able to get healthy foods at their local grocery stores.

Johnson plans to open Naked Farmer in St. Pete soon. For now, customers can order online and have food delivered or designate a pickup location. A bit about the digital farmer’s market:

“The novel coronavirus created a lot of changes within the Tampa Bay restaurant community , but it caused one to switch up its entire look.

Naked Farmer founder-owner Jordan Johnson’s initial idea was to open a brick-and-mortar. Those plans came to a halt when recently he pivoted to a digital farmer’s market to combat the effects of the pandemic . He says healthy, fresh foods should be accessible at affordable prices, no matter the circumstances. 

“Working in the food industry, I realized how broken the food system is. I think Naked Farmer is the answer to fixing it,” he explains. 

When food is scarce at some grocery stores, Johnson wants to provide real food with nutritional value to those having issues finding it. He says Naked Farmer sets up a direct supply chain between farmers and consumers while building a better food system one meal at a time. This gives farmers the opportunity to share their harvests outside of canceled markets.

“Our community has access to real food and our farmers don’t have to go out of business. We are providing them with a demand for their harvests at a time when revenue dropped to almost zero,” he says.”

Read more about Johnson and Naked Farmer here.