In West Michigan, surrounded by orchards, dairy farms, and fields that still smell like soil in the spring, it can be strangely difficult to buy an apple grown down the road. Much easier, in fact, to find one shipped thousands of miles from Chile.
That disconnect—between proximity and access—is what sparked Locavana, a Zeeland-based startup quietly rethinking how local food moves from farm to fridge. Founded in late 2024 by Seth Jorde of Saugatuck and Chris Merendino of Rockford, Locavana is an online marketplace that connects households directly to more than 40 local farms and producers through a single weekly order and home delivery. The goal is deceptively simple: make buying local food as convenient as buying from a big-box grocery store.
“Local has somehow become the hardest option,” said Jorde. “When you really look at it, it doesn’t make sense that it’s easier to get food from another country than from your neighbor. If your produce needs a passport, something is wrong.”
Before launching Locavana, Jorde and Merendino worked together in private equity in downtown Grand Rapids. They weren’t farmers, but they were problem-solvers, and the problem they kept circling back to was logistics. Farmers markets, while beloved, are designed as experiences, not efficient supply chains. Grocery stores, on the other hand, are efficient—but structured in ways that squeeze producers’ margins and prioritize global scale over regional resilience.
“To truly support local agriculture, your only real options are farmers markets or farm stores. Grocery chains aren’t built to source locally, and even when you find local goods there, the farmer takes home as little as 5 to 20 percent,” Jorde said.
Locavana attempts to bridge that gap. Customers shop online, selecting produce, meat, dairy, eggs, pasta, fermented foods, and other artisan products from multiple local vendors in a single cart. Locavana’s team then handles pickup directly from the farms, consolidates orders at its Zeeland warehouse, and delivers them in temperature-controlled trucks on set delivery days. Farmers keep roughly 70-85 percent of the sale. The key point is farmers make way more through Locavana than through the grocery store.
“We operate without the massive retail overhead and labor of a traditional grocery store,” Jorde explains. “Because we also source directly, we can charge customers significantly less while still ensuring our farmers take home 70 to 85 percent of the sale—far more than the 5 to 20 percent they get elsewhere.”
That model matters, especially for small and mid-sized farms already stretched thin. A canceled farmers market due to weather can wipe out a weekend’s worth of income—and sometimes an entire harvest. By creating a steady, digital storefront that operates year-round, Locavana offers producers a more predictable way to reach customers without adding another task to their already full days.
“Farming is already one of the hardest jobs there is. Locavana handles the sales, marketing, logistics, and customer service so farmers can focus on what they do best—growing incredible food.”
Storytelling is a key part of the platform. Shoppers don’t just see a ribeye; they see which farm it came from, how the animals were raised. It’s an intentional effort to close the distance—both physical and psychological—between eaters and growers.
“We’ve become so far removed from our food,” Jorde says. “We want people to know not just what they’re eating, but who they’re supporting.”
Locavana currently serves West Michigan and Chicagoland, using Michigan-grown products to help local vendors reach a much larger market. For farmers, especially those producing perishable goods, accessing Chicago directly would otherwise be nearly impossible. For customers, it means pasture-raised meats and peak-season produce without sacrificing convenience.
The company is still young—self-funded, less than a year old, and operating with a small team and four delivery drivers—but its ambitions are larger. The long-term vision is to scale locally, creating regional hubs that source from nearby farms rather than building a single, centralized supply chain. It’s a model inspired, in part, by what Whole Foods once aimed to be before national consolidation reshaped the grocery landscape.
“Local means something different to everyone—transparency, supporting your local economy, freshness. But at its core, it just makes sense. Why source food from across the country when you can get it from 20 miles away? It’s simply more efficient.”
“The traditional food system isn’t built for local farms. It demands year-round availability and massive scale—requirements that shut out most local producers. Regional food systems can replace this model, and that’s exactly what we’re building.”
For now, Locavana is focused on visibility and access—helping people who already care about their health and their community discover that local food doesn’t have to be inconvenient or expensive. In many cases, Jorde notes, prices are competitive with premium grocery retailers, especially when compared on an apples-to-apples basis of quality and sourcing.
“At the end of the day, people care about their families’ health,” he says. “They care about their community. We’re just trying to make it easier to act on that.”
In a region defined by agriculture, Locavana’s question lingers: why should local food be the hardest choice? If the company succeeds, the answer may finally start to change.
locavana.com
List of Vendors
Ridgeview Farm
Crisp Country Acres
New Growth Project
Blok Orchard
Wild Coyote Farm
Top’s Seed Mix
Net to Table Seafood
Hook Point Fishery
Vargo Brother Ferments
Sister hawk Farm
Green Pastures Farm
Shady Creek Farm
Jake’s Country Meats
Flat Water Farm
Hasselmann Family Farm
