Robinette Farms Local Food subscription expanding to Omaha

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - When the pandemic hit in 2020, Robinette Farms had to get creative with getting their products out to people.

They started a subscription box that gathered a bunch of products from local farms to sell to people in the Lincoln area.

Three years later the program is growing like a weed.

“Spices, bread, coffee, tea, canned goods, fermented products, obviously, dairy, eggs, milk, cheese, kind of anything you can think of we try to source locally, and make that available to our membership,” said Chloe Diegel, the co-owner of Robinette Farms in Martell.

The local food subscription box has grown since it was launched in 2020 and will now be expanding to Omaha.

“The whole goal was helping my fellow farmers in a time that they needed it,” Diegel said. “That was the ultimate goal when COVID hit was, hey, I have people who want to buy stuff. Do you want me to try to sell it? That was kind of really the beginning roots of this idea and it’s just kind of grown and expand and modified since then.”

For local farmers who contribute it’s been a boon to business.

“‘It’s a good chunk of our wholesale sales,” said Charuth van Beuzekom. “I mean, they go through a lot of product. So it’s been very, very helpful to us.”

Charuth and her operations, Shadowbrook Farm and Dutch Girl Creamery, contribute goat and cow cheese and yogurt to the boxes.

The boxes have opened doors to new customers.

“I often times will be selling to customers that say, I had your cheese in my Robinette box subscription box,” van Beuzekom said. “So it happens frequently at the market where people have had it the first time through that, and then they come looking for it. So it’s helping as a marketing tool as well.”

Chloe at Robinette Farms said they’re excited to expand to Omaha and continue their passion for connecting people to locally grown food.

“But I think they really love that they get access to lots of other local small businesses, as well as our farm and lots of other farmers and a wide variety of like anything they would need. Like it’s a local grocery,” said Diegel.

Chloe said they’re trying to add meat to the subscription box this year as well.

If you want a box, all you have to do is go to their website.

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