+ Healthy Living Delivered: An interview with Door to Door Organics

Door to Door Organics delivers fresh organic produce and groceries to customers in Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania and the Ohio River Valley. With a core emphasis on operating a zero waste, socially conscious business model, Door to Door supports organic agriculture and the people who keep it real. TGG interviewed Isaac Foust of Door to Door Organics.

How did you be come involved in Door to Door Organics?
I met Door to Door Organics in Colorado. They were looking for a source for organic coffee for their customers. My father-in-law is a coffee importer, working with growers in Chiapas, Mexico. Door to Door found that their customers really enjoyed the coffee, so they went ahead and carried it. Through that relationship I became a Door to Door customer and began to order boxes from them. When I learned that they are a zero waste company and had environmental and socially conscious intentions I became really interested. Upon talking with them further, I ended up managing their warehouse for a while. As the relationship grew I was offered the opportunity to open a Door to Door Organics hub wherever I wanted to.

Door to Door is an organic produce delivery service that delivers to people's homes and offices. We also deliver to schools, hospitals and drop-off locations as well. Our goal is to be a little more directed to making a change for the greener good. Our focus is to build a model of a company that is being as responsible as it can be. For example, we are going to try to make all of our own biodiesel fuel from recyclable oil from local restaurants. Currently we are sourcing our biodiesel from JatroDiesel, an Ohio based equipment manufacturer and biodiesel producer.

With the increasing cost of energy and climate concerns, home delivery presents challenges. How do you address issues of making your service cost effective and being socially responsible?
We can make our business cost effective by keeping our overhead low and the focus of our business very specific. We are providing organic produce. I have a warehouse and delivery vehicles so my overhead stays low as compared to a grocery store. I do not have to have a staff of employees and stay open everyday, all day long. I have lower operating costs than a grocery store.The website we use is really nice. It puts everything together for my customers in a way that is very understandable.

As far as being socially responsible, my goal is in three years to have my warehouse 100% off the grid. Right now what we are doing is running our vehicles on biodiesel. We also have a zero waste model. We compost and recycle at every opportunity in our operation.

What are your plans to "get off the grid"?
We intend to build a green building for our Ohio River Valley operation. I have been given a really big boost in confidence from the models that I have looked at. If we can be as successful here as our business in Colorado and Michigan, then I am certain we can achieve this goal.

Speaking of locations, from your website I see that you serve many different areas. How does Door to Door make that work?
There are main hubs. The Philadelphia hub is the original Door to Door and serves most of our east coast customers directly. The Door to Door in Colorado is the second one. We now have an Ann Arbor, Michigan hub and the Ohio River Valley hub just starting in Cincinnati. Basically we deliver within a three hour radius of a hub.

You really have a lot of passion for this project. What is driving that?
In my personal habits and consumption I became more interested in organics and whole foods the more I learned about them and experienced the difference of organic foods. A great example is oranges and especially strawberries. They just taste so much better. There is more and more research that confirms the higher nutritional benefit There is a perception that organic foods are more expensive than conventionally produced foods but I don't think that is always necessarily the case. Local farmers are often more than "organic" and they don't always buy into the official government "Organic" stamp. We talk to local farmers and understand what they are doing and share that with our customers. Our goal is as much local sources as possible. The goal is to know our farmers. Responsibility does not have to fall by the wayside in order to have a successful business. We have a very open door policy that helps the customers understand the value we provide. For me, I am really interested in more than just delivering produce. I am interested in building customer relationships.

Learn more about Door to Door Organics and biodiesel.