Local proves lekker during lockdown

Borne out of chaos and a little desperation during level-five lockdown in 2020, East London Small Producers has grown in leaps and bounds over the past year — giving a community of small farmers and food producers the chance to keep their businesses afloat well into the pandemic.

First started by local musician and professional performer Kerry Hiles in March 2020, the group initially helped more than 20 small businesses from in and around East London to get their homemade or home-grown products to customers via a delivery system — for which Hiles was often the delivery person.

Deliveries took place weekly from Hiles’s farm near Brakfontein, with fresh produce and homemade products arriving at customers’ doorsteps.

Hiles, who is also a cheese maker, said the nationwide lockdown had forced her to focus on her cheese-making business as live performances had been put on hold.

She said that, in the mad scramble of things, EL Small Producers had come about in an effort to help not only herself, but others in a similar predicament, and it had grown immensely.

“I never thought it would grow to the size that it has,” she said.

“Even in the first couple of weeks it shot from my 40 regular customers for PickMe to about 250 and it just kept growing from there.”

She handed over the East London Small Producers operation to Mike Van der Bank in June 2020.

Today EL Small Producers is a fully fledged business, with its own deli, allowing many small food producers — from bakers and cheese makers to farmers- the opportunity to stock their products.

“We have about 45 to 50 small producers now,” said Van der Bank, who built up what is now the Small Producers deli.

“Most of them are people who lost their jobs in lockdown, subsistence or urban farmers or pensioners who really need the exposure and the money to survive.

“When we started out with Kerry, this was just a grey, empty shell.”

Building shelves and creating a welcoming space, Van der Bank established the deli in November.

From sauces to coffee, jams, honey, frozen meals, fresh fruits and vegetables and more, the deli offers customers a range of options and has given many small local producers a place to showcase their creations.

“Many found a way out of lockdown through this and we really try to help where we can,” Van der Bank said.

“This deli is for them to make money and get their products out there. We still do deliveries once a week, but not as much as we used to.

“There are also new products all the time so it’s difficult to keep the website updated and  people like coming to the deli.”

Adding as little as five to 10% of the original cost of the products or produce, Van der Bank said he was in it primarily to help local producers. 

“They decide an asking price and then I add on five or 10%.

“I try to pay out every week so the smaller producers always have something to keep them going.”

Van der Bank receives fresh weekly produce from farmers and donates leftover produce at the end of the week to those in need. 

The deli also supplies fresh produce from a variety of small farmers to 18 local restaurants.

“The most rewarding thing has been helping the small guys, seeing people getting recognised for the quality of what they do and growing their small businesses so much through the deli,” Van der Bank said.

Hiles said she had never expected the Small Producers would become what it is today.

“I never anticipated that there would be a store or that there would be an ongoing business,” she said.

“Small Pro filled a gap when it was absolutely necessary and essential for deliveries.

“I never imagined it would be a thing that lasted the long haul, but it definitely has proved to be that and I’m very grateful and very pleased that so many lives could be positively influenced by that random haphazard project that started in a panic last year.”

She said the most rewarding part of her EL Small Producer’s journey had been to see how many producers had managed to grow their businesses so much during lockdown.

“The joy of Small Pro is that it just connected the dots.

“It connected the dots locally.

“Suddenly you knew where your honey came from and you wanted to support that and it tasted good and you could recognise the names.

“I love those success stories within the big scheme and just the sense of community.

“The incredible support for each other that came out of that was so heartwarming in the face of this awful global event that knocked the wind out of everyone’s sails.”

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