INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) has found another partner in its Indiana Grown initiative that was already in tune with the effort’s mission.

 

On April 6, the ISDA announced the Fresh Thyme Farmers Market chain an official partner in Indiana Grown, a voluntary statewide alliance of the ISDA, Hoosier agricultural producers and processors and restaurants and retailers with stores in Indiana.

 

To help promote in-state products, members can use the official “Indiana Grown” logo in signage and promotion. They can also qualify for special recognition, according to ISDA Director and Indiana Grown Chair Ted McKinney.

 

“If we have a product grown in Indiana, all of its ingredients are from Indiana, it’s processed and packaged in Indiana, and then, of course, sold in Indiana, they have the opportunity to use the logo that says ‘Indiana Grown,’ and there’s a little banner right below it that says, ‘100 percent Indiana,’” he noted.

 

Products sourced from outside the state, such as coffee, but produced in Indiana qualify for the “Prepared in Indiana” designation. Fresh Thyme, a grocery chain with an emphasis on fresh produce and natural and organic products, is officially classed as a “Partner” for its efforts to promote Indiana Grown products and members.

 

The partnership was announced at the opening of Fresh Thyme’s 12th Indiana store, located in Broad Ripple Village in north-central Indianapolis. “Consumers who choose to frequent Fresh Thyme stores will now have readily identifiable products labeled as home grown,” McKinney said. “The Broad Ripple location has around 40 Indiana Grown products; the other stores will vary in and around that.”

 

The company’s approach is well suited to the Indiana Grown mission, according to Greg Hamm, Fresh Thyme’s director of operations and an Indiana resident. “As we opened up the stores,” he said, “we always look up local vendors. People then come in and reach out to us, see what we can do to create a partnership with them.” This included Indiana Grown.

 

“We have a number of different ways” of being involved with the initiative, Hamm said. “We’re doing that through procuring fresh produce, as well as products that are made here locally, throughout the state. So you can come to our stores and see that there’s a variety of products.”

 

This includes products by local companies including Traders Point Creamery, Broad Ripple Chip Co., Upland Brewery, Oliver Winery and Albanese Candy, he said.

 

This also helps the grocer connect to local communities. “That’s absolutely critical for us,” Hamm said. “To be locally relevant, you have to be entrenched into the community, part of the community.”

 

With its Midwest perspective, Illinois-based Fresh Thyme looks to market the locally- sourced products from Indiana to its stores in other states, just as Hoosier locations can find fresh items from neighboring states, like Michigan. “We see that as a big help,” Hamm said. “As we continue to grow and expand, we will continue to partner up with as many partners and local vendors as we can.”

 

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Downers Grove, near Chicago, Fresh Thyme opened its first store in nearby Mount Prospect in April 2014, Hamm said. The second store opened in June that year on the south side of Indianapolis, near the Greenwood Mall.

 

It has since grown to 58 stores in 10 states, including Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska. The chain plans to expand to 70 stores by the end of the year, including a new Indiana

location in Evansville.

 

With about 750 members and growing, Indiana Grown is happy to include the grocer in its ranks. “One of the very first objectives identified by the Indiana Grown Commission,” McKinney said, “was we’ve got to start with retailers. We have all types of producers locally, that if they could just break through that barrier – real or perceived – and get into retailers, they can see the growth that will lift them up.

 

“So that’s what we have been doing. It started with Marsh, Kroger, Market District, Aldi and now, to their credit, Fresh Thyme has come in, in a very big way – very visibly using that logo – so they continue this focus on the retailer.”

 

Still, Indiana Grown continues to encourage membership from farms and firms of all sizes. From its beginning, he said, “Indiana Grown had to be a ‘big tent,’ meaning it had to be open to long-established farmers as well as brand new farmers. It had to be open to farmers who were using high-tech products, just like it had to be open to farmers pursuing organic or natural. It had to be open to large farms, and certainly new small startup farms.

 

“As a result of that, we’re seeing farms and farmers of all types and all types of products participating. And that has been the greatest joy because, in the case of small farmers, you’ve given someone a chance to start  farming where they might not have had that opportunityotherwise.”

 

Producers, processors and sellers of any kind of agricultural product, even non-food products, in the state are asked to look up www.indianagrown.org and consider membership.

 

“There is no charge to join,” McKinney said. Members can then post descriptions of their operations and products on the website. “That way, people can go to the website – as people have been doing – and see who else is there. In some cases, there’s buying and selling of ingredients, and products, between Indiana Grown members.” The spirit of Indiana Grown is reflected throughout Fresh Thyme, Hamm said. 

 

“It’s important to us in every state to do what we’re doing in the state of Indiana,” he said. “That we are finding local vendors, and we’re creating destination end-caps in every store for all-local products – whether it be Indiana, Michigan or Missouri – that our customers can see that these are local products.”