Most small farms can grow the food.
Almost none can pass the paperwork.
A school district, hospital, or restaurant group cannot buy from your farm until five gates are cleared: food-safety documentation, volume, standardized pack and grade, cold chain, and audit-ready invoicing. FARM2CHEF scores your farm against all five, closes the gaps, and pools your harvest with other growers to hit institutional volume.
Free assessment. 12 questions. No account required.
| Food Safety Documentation | 14/30 |
| Volume & Aggregation | 12/20 |
| Pack, Grade & Traceability | 11/20 |
| Cold Chain | 15/15 |
| Business & Invoicing | 10/15 |
Legibility is a documents problem, not a growing problem.
Every institutional buyer screens on the same five things. Each gate below is scored, weighted, and tied to the actual federal rule or cost it comes from. Nothing here is our opinion.
Food Safety Documentation
30 ptsWhat buyers ask for: a written plan, test records, and ideally a GAP certificate.
Farms averaging $25,000 or less in annual produce sales are not covered by the FDA Produce Safety Rule — and the qualified exemption applies below $500,000 in total food sales.
FDA, Exemptions Relevant to Produce FarmsVolume & Aggregation
20 ptsWhat buyers ask for: consistent weekly poundage across a defined season, not a single harvest.
USDA food hub modeling puts wholesale breakeven at roughly $1.21 million in annual sales and viability at about $2.4 million — which is why pooling, not solo selling, is how a small farm reaches this channel.
USDA Rural Development, Running a Food Hub Vol. IIIPack, Grade & Traceability
20 ptsWhat buyers ask for: a declared pack configuration, a grade standard, and a scannable case label.
A conforming PTI case label carries a GTIN-14 under application identifier (01), a lot code under (10), and a 4-digit voice pick code.
Produce Traceability Initiative, Case Label Best PracticesCold Chain
15 ptsWhat buyers ask for: logged temperature at pack and at delivery, not a claim about a cooler.
Most fresh produce holds at 34–40°F with commodity-specific ethylene management, and the danger zone begins at 40°F.
Cold chain storage requirementsBusiness & Invoicing
15 ptsWhat buyers ask for: W-9, EIN, certificates of insurance, and an invoice that survives an audit.
USDA procurement guidance instructs that respondents must meet stated minimum liability insurance and workers' compensation requirements.
USDA FNS, Procuring Local Foods for Child Nutrition ProgramsThis is not a demand problem.
Texas Local Food for Schools allocation administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture, spent through competitive state procurement.
USDA AMSFederal micro-purchase threshold. Below it, an institution can buy direct from a single farm with minimal procurement friction.
USDA FNSFederal simplified acquisition threshold. Above it, formal competitive procurement is required.
USDA FNSHow far ahead institutional produce contracts are typically established, which is why crop planning beats harvest listing.
USDA FNSThe budget exists and it recurs annually. The constraint is that almost no local grower can be written onto the contract.
Get on a contract, not a farmers market.
- Free readiness score and a costed gap plan
- Group certification so certification is actually affordable
- Demand signals before you plant, not after you harvest
Prove the farm component pencils.
- Supply-shed and feasibility analysis for agrihood sites
- Benchmark comparables from real projects
- Programming and offtake planning from soil to resident
One compliant vendor. One invoice.
- Aggregated volume from multiple vetted farms
- Complete lot-level traceability
- Documentation that survives a procurement audit