Redmond residents Brenda and Willie True provide weekly deliveries of fresh groceries across Central Oregon. They own Farm To Friends, which began with Brenda and a couple of her friends in 2010.

It started when Brenda True went on an elimination diet, where she removed unhealthy foods from her diet. When three of her friends expressed interest in the diet, Brenda helped set them up with weekly menus and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Word spread about the easy way to add fresh food to one’s diet without the need to scour recipes and grocery stores to complete a meal and a company was born. Farm to Friends now has more than 300 registered customers, with more than 150 receiving monthly and weekly produce deliveries.

“It’s exciting,” Brenda said. “But a little nerve-racking at the same time because we don’t always have a set number of deliveries, but it’s exciting.”

How it works

The Trues provide a weekly menu of fruits and vegetables, which they deliver to each customer. If a customer isn’t home, they recommend leaving a cooler on the porch to keep produce fresh.

Brenda creates or researches menus, which differ each week, and writes weekly educational articles about the food in the delivery, the importance of diet and proper food handling.

Baskets come in five sizes — single for one person, small for two or three people, regular for three or four people, large for four or five people, and extra large for six or more.

They also offer specialty boxes for office or party orders. Custom baskets are always available as well and can be put together on their website, which details every item they keep available.

The regular basket normally comes with three to four types of fruits and vegetables, with healthy portions of each. Orders can be made weekly or scheduled at various regularity, though they have specific delivery days for each area in Central Oregon because the Trues make their own deliveries.

“She started this out small,” said Willie True, who makes the deliveries. “By trade, I’m an auto painter, but over the past five years I haven’t had to do that and I have been helping out. It’s overwhelming but exciting because of the potential growth.”

Baskets cost anywhere from $28 to $42 and can be more expensive depending on add-in items. The Trues have added locally supplied eggs to the list of available add-in items, along with honey from Prescott Honey Farms, a local honey producer. Customers can also add specific organic fruits and vegetables. The Trues hope to one day offer every item that can be found at a grocery store.

The Trues are particularly picky about the food they send out, picking out unsatisfactory produce and replacing it. They donate about 50 pounds of food a week to local nonprofit Beulah’s Place, which provides support for at-risk and homeless youth.

Produce was originally sourced locally, but demand for weekly baskets grew and Farm2Friends outgrew local suppliers. The Trues said they get their food from Oregon, Washington, and California.

Service-minded

“Throughout our life we have realized that we are people helpers,” Willie said. “And to be able to put that out there like this, be able to make a living and help people at the same time, is a definite plus for us.”

The Trues said they have always been service-minded — Brenda worked at the Crooked River Dinner Train and Willie as an automotive painter. They said the difference with Farm to Friends is that they get to help people better themselves through healthy diet choices. It’s rewarding for both of them.

“It’s one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had in my life,” Brenda said. “People take their time to show their appreciation, and I have never had that before.”

The Trues constantly work to broaden the items they offer and are making an effort toward having fresh meat on the menu. They said they are always interested in putting local businesses’ products on the menu as well.

“Sign up as a challenge,” Brenda said she tells people. “Both to use all the food provided in a basket and also to eat healthier, to eat with an intentional menu.”

— Reporter, 541-548-2185, cbrown@redmondspokesman.com