Dandelion Organic Delivery makes eating healthy affordable and easy
Tamara Anderson-Loucks
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, 50 percent of adult American consumers now prioritize a healthier approach to eating, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, including consuming more fresh produce and organic foods. However, sourcing fresh organic produce can be an expensive and time-consuming task. But it doesn’t have to be. Bellingham-based Dandelion Organic Delivery brings local, organic fruits and vegetables right to your door. The company’s mission is to deliver nourishing produce direct to people’s homes or offices, saving people money and time and making it easy for families to eat healthier.
Dandelion Organic is the brainchild of Bellingham residents Jonny Lane and Maria Stavrakas. The couple longed to work for themselves in a capacity that fueled their passion for healthy food and sustainability and would benefit their community. Around 2006, they visited Bellingham and believed that it would be the perfect location for this type of business.
On April 1, 2007, with their business plan in hand, the couple moved to Bellingham and made their first delivery of 24 bins one month later, on May 1. Over the next few years, Dandelion Organic steadily grew, primarily through word of mouth, and was profitable enough to fund the construction of the building they still occupy today. The company experienced a huge spike in business during the COVID-19 pandemic as area residents sought options for food delivery.
Though many businesses are currently feeling the economic pinch, Dandelion Organic’s sales have remained fairly consistent. However, managing business fluctuations is status quo for Jonny and Maria.
“It’s a business where customers come and go, sometimes due to economics or because a customer moves,” explained Maria.
Jonny added, “We also lose some business in the summer because people go on vacation and grow their own produce.”
Today, Dandelion Organic averages 500 weekly deliveries. Jonny and Maria attribute their success to their exceptional team; exemplary customer service; the ease, convenience and savings that online ordering and delivery provides their customers; and the high quality and diverse selection of the organic produce they offer.
Harvesting the bounty from local organic farms
Sustaining the home-delivery model is a full-time operation for Dandelion Organic’s 15-person crew. The company does not grow the produce it sells, instead partnering with organic farms throughout Washington state, purchasing fruits and vegetables weekly to provide fresh-picked produce for customers.
The company currently works with about 30 organic farms in Okanogan, Skagit and Whatcom counties. Much of the fruit comes from Okanogan County. During the local growing season, 100 percent of the fruit and vegetables offered are supplied by local farmers.
“We are a year-round service,” Jonny noted, “so in the winter months, to supply what we can’t grow here, we work with distributors that source organic produce from other states.”
Dandelion Organic’s offerings change weekly and seasonally based on availability and the best value at that time. All year round, the business offers more than 50 different fruits and vegetables weekly.
Customer-centered
ordering and delivery
Dandelion Organic simplifies the process of ordering food online, offering three different options: an all-fruit bin, an all-vegetable bin and the harvest bin, which is 70 percent vegetables and 30 percent fruit.
Bins are available in two sizes and are customizable. The $42 bin feeds two to four people per week, and the $34 bin feeds one to three.
Menus are changed weekly; however, customers have the option to customize their weekly orders.
“Customers can make substitutions to their orders, but within their accounts they can also set permanent exclusions to automatically exclude items they don’t want and set specific additions as recurring items as well,” Maria explained. “They can also skip an order and add products to that week’s offering.”
Customers can choose to donate their bin to the food bank, as well, if they are out of town that week.
Delivery frequency can be set to weekly or biweekly and can be paused, so customers can control the amount of produce they receive.
Currently, Dandelion Organic Delivery serves Bellingham, Birch Bay, Blaine, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley. For customers outside these delivery zones, in-person pickup is offered at the company’s warehouse in north Bellingham. Jonny noted that only a few ZIP codes are outside the delivery area.
“Folks can check on our website to confirm if we deliver to their locations,” he said. “For anyone who lives outside of the delivery zones, if their work locations are within the zones, we can deliver there.”
Eating organic produce can be affordable
Part of the Dandelion Organic mission is to make it more affordable to eat nutritious and organic fruits and vegetables. The cost to have organic produce delivered is comparable to grocery store pricing. However, customers save time by reducing trips to the store and save money because they are driving less and have fewer opportunities to buy on impulse.
With rising inflation and food costs in recent years, Dandelion Organic has been able to maintain stable pricing. Jonny and Maria attribute this to their conservative business model. Their home and warehouse are co-located, so they don’t incur the high cost of commercial rent, and utility costs are minimized by the use of solar power.
“From the time we opened the business until now, our bin prices have increased less than 50 cents per bin per year,” Jonny said. “Our smaller, biweekly delivery breaks down to just $17 per week.”
Sustainability is a core value
Coupled with Jonny and Maria’s commitment to providing healthy and organic food is their passion for sustainability. Dandelion Organic’s sustainable operations help foster a healthy environment. The company offers a plastic recycling service to all delivery customers. The business also produces less than a handful of non-reusable and non-recyclable trash each week. All remaining trash is either reused, recycled or composted.
Food is not wasted. Delivery bins are hand packed, and if a packer notices an item that is not sellable but still edible, it is either eaten by staff, used as animal feed or composted.
Even the company’s printed materials are sustainable, printed on paper made from sugar cane fibers.
All deliveries are made in reusable totes, which are washed prior to being reused. The totes eliminate the need for cardboard or wax-coated boxes; some of them have been in circulation for 10 years.
A year ago, a second solar array was installed on the warehouse roof.
Between the two, Jonny and Maria now have enough to power their operations year-round.
“Showing love for the planet is a core value for us,” Maria said. “Conservation and food management is important. We work towards zero waste.”
Why ‘Dandelion’?
The name is steeped in Maria’s Greek heritage. She grew up harvesting dandelion greens with her family on the edges of farms outside of Baltimore. Dandelions have both medicinal and nutritional benefits. It’s a common practice in Greek villages to harvest dandelion greens, cook them and eat them with olive oil, feta cheese and bread.
“The name was inspired by a strong connection to my family’s Greek origins,” Maria said. “We also import and sell olives and olive oil from my family’s farm in Greece.”
Adding more fresh produce and organic foods to our diet is a great start to living a healthier lifestyle. Sourcing fresh and local organic produce takes time and effort, but Dandelion Organic Delivery has done the legwork necessary to provide an accessible and cost-effective way to accomplish both.