#KnowWhereYourFoodComesFrom – Freville Farm Integrates Physical & Digital Advocacy

Freville Farm’s mantra is #KnowWhereYourFoodComesFrom. Sarah Friedman, founder of Freville Farm, a small farm that produces small batch food in the Hudson Valley, wants to encourage more public dialogue around food, sustainability, and the future of small farms. Farms are the ultimate creative physical environments, and Friedman, a former photographer, invites the public to experience life on the Freville Farm daily through her vivid Instagram.  

Because she wanted to engage people in their communities and on social media, Friedman took an innovative approach that integrated social media and physical mail, sending a package of social media-ready printed artifacts to “help us spread the word and start a larger conversation.”  Some of the print pieces included QR codes that connected to Freville online media.

The campaign encourages recipients to share their own messages about food, food sources, sustainability and more in diverse ways. The campaign integrates physical mail and multiple digital platforms and serves as a case study for using design and advocacy to invite participation across multiple channels:

Postcards which doubles as a tool for social media engagement

Share MailⓇ postcards to encourage recipients to share the message 

QR codes that lead to Instagram account and video documenting life on a small farm

USPS Informed DeliveryⓇ notification and interactivity, for those registered for the service

The farm and campaign are documented in Growing What’s Good, a short video by Rob Shore for the US Postal Service Academic Outreach – a collaboration with industry.

They hope the Freville campaign piques the public’s interest in the ways that mail and digital together to get real results for any type of business, including small farms.  Freville Farm’s advocacy is also part of a larger trend: people desire freshness, healthiness, and local. In a recent Aimpoint Research survey, two-thirds said they are thinking about where their food comes from. 

Farmobile CEO Jason Tatge sheds another light on the need for the #KnowWhereYourFoodComesFrom movement.  “Farmers have always been at the mercy of factors outside of their control, but it’s difficult to remember a time when things came together in a way that’s as challenging, and frankly insane, as it is today. Trade wars and Washington bureaucracy and inaccurate reports, volatile weather and climate changes, consolidation in the ag industry, and robust consumer demands have created a perfect storm that is decimating the businesses and family farms that growers in this country have built.” 

Sarah Friedman wants to give this movement a voice and you an invitation to show up.  #KnowWhereYourFoodComesFrom.

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