Once upon a time, the farm to table movement was the local farmers market that brought local farmers’ bounty to the nearest city for people to purchase. These days farm to table is a little more tech-savvy and a lot more expansive. The farm to table trend has only been growing, and it’s looking like it’s only getting bigger. From sourcing local produce to cultivating rooftop farms, these great organizations are furthering the farm to table movement and making local fresh product more accessible to everyone.

1. Imperfect Produce

Imperfect Produce was the brainchild of Ben Simon and Ben Chesler, when they realized that 6 billion pounds of produce gets wasted every year on farms in the U.S. because it doesn’t look as pretty as other pieces of produce. In fact, imperfect looking produce is a major contributor to food waste in the country. Imperfect Produce is doing its part to help combat that by offering boxes of “ugly produce” that they source from California farmers. Farmers get money for produce that would have otherwise been tossed; consumers get perfectly healthy and safe to eat produce at a fraction of the grocer’s cost, and we cut down on food waste in the meantime.

2. KitchIt

KitchIt is an interesting startup that brings fresh produce not only to your home, but also provides a chef to whip it up into a delicious meal for you. It’s the next level of dinner parties and makes eating locally as easy as pushing a button. While it’s not feasible to take advantage of all the time, it’s still a fun and interesting way to support local produce and local up-and-coming chefs.

3. St. Luke’s Rodale Institute Organic Farm

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Farm to table is one thing, but St. Luke’s University Health Network is taking it a step further with farm to hospital. They’ve partnered with the Rodale Institute to create a five-acre organic farm to serve hospital patients and visitors. The local produce grown includes broccoli, salad greens, tomatoes, lettuce, summer squash, cucumbers, kale, Swiss chard, beets, and potatoes. Leftover produce that’s not needed at the hospital is refrigerated and shipped to other close locations. Hopefully this will begin to be replicated across the country, as it’s really a great idea.

4. Dig Inn

We’ve written about Dig Inn before, but it deserves another mention because it’s not often that you find a chain restaurant that specializes in creating affordable meals from locally sourced produce. It’s even more rare to find a company like this that’s working towards becoming a national chain. Most meals average around $10 – and that includes meat and two sides on a bed of either a choice of grains or greens. They also offer catering services for groups up to 30, served buffet style.