(melodic music) - [Kathleen] These vegetables were grown by family farmers Emma Hendel and her husband, Elliot Seldner, who owned Fair Share Farm near Winston-Salem.

Now they're being placed in the care of Freshlist, a food hub that will sell them to restaurants and consumers across the Charlotte region, and by way of that, help Emma and Elliot maintain their business.

- Working with Freshlist has opened doors that we would not have had access to otherwise.

- [Kathleen] Emma and Elliot started their farm 10 years ago with the goal of growing the best produce possible and making a living doing it.

But like many family farmers, they've experienced a number of challenges, including selling the fresh foods they grow.

- Someday, there's people banging down the doors for product, and then so it's like, okay, people want this and you grow it, and the crickets, you know, there's no one there to buy the products.

- [Kathleen] That's why Jesse Ledbetter gave up his corporate career and created Freshlist to serve as a critical connector in the local food supply chain.

- We've got pretty much the standard stuff on here.

I am excited that this is the latest we've ever pushed the basil.

- In 2014 when we started Freshlist.

Charlotte had just kind of, like, burgeoning culinary scene where the table movement was really starting to come to the city.

There were a lot of family farms that were still in the area, that their only way of selling product was through either farmer's markets or directly to chefs.

And so I was trying to figure out how we can bridge that gap and just make it easier for farmers to ultimately get their products to chefs and vice versa.

- [Kathleen] Freshlist sources a variety of vegetables from family farmers like Emma across the region, keeps a list of what's available on its website and delivers directly to the doors of customers, providing regular, easy access to an abundance of fresh local food.

- So it broadens the reach for a single chef to be able to incorporate as many farms as possible with one order weekly, instead of having to call five or six farmers at different times and different days, set up different delivery dates and things of that nature.

It's all very streamlined.

- [Kathleen] And it allows farmers who regularly work from dawn to dusk to streamline the scope of their efforts.

- So they're our voice here in Charlotte doing that face-to-face communications.

They have so much more reach than we do, because they have more people out getting into those restaurants, talking up our products.

- It is a huge part of our business operations.

We're so lucky to have a partner like that.

The way that they are able to work with 200 to 300 regional farms around here, it's something we could never do on our own.

- [Kathleen] In addition to the five Tonidandel-Brown restaurants, Freshlist provides fresh local food to more than a hundred area eateries.

- Not only can you find our farmed products in some of your favorite fine dining restaurants in Charlotte, you can also see us in fast casual restaurants and in coffee shops and in breweries.

- [Employee] Awesome.

(knives slicing) (melodic music) - It is the lifeline for our restaurant.

- [Kathleen] And a lifeline for Carolina farmers who are dwindling in number.

A study from the American Farmland Trust found North Carolina to be the second most threatened state in the US for losing farmland.

And it projects the number of lost agricultural acres across the state to surpass 1 million by 2040.

- The average, you know, American farmer is 68 years old.

This profession is getting older and there aren't enough young people coming into it to make it that economically viable.

And so what we see ourselves in, we work with a lot of new and beginning farmers who are just starting out on this journey, and we're able to help provide an extra market channel for them.

- Anybody that's spent time at a farmer's market or on a farm with farmers knows that they are people that are doing selfless work.

They are taking care of their community themselves, the planet, with not a whole lot in return.

And it's the not a whole lot in return part that we're trying to change.

- [Kathleen] Since its inception, Freshlist has facilitated the purchase of more than $7 million of food from area farmers.

The company is also addressing food insecurity by helping direct nonprofit relief funds to farmers so that fresh produce can be distributed to those in need.

- We're grateful for everything that they do and the vision that they have, because you need people in organizations that are thinking bigger than what's currently going on in order for change to be enacted.

- [Kathleen] Major accomplishments for a team of nine that's been around for less than a decade, but Ledbetter says Freshlist is far from finished.

- Luckily we have a good team and we got a great farm community.

Got lots of support on the chef side and partners, non-profit for profit.

It's a great ecosystem and we're excited to do more of the work that we're doing.

- [Kathleen] That work will be fueled by $749,000 local food promotion grant that Freshlist was awarded last year by the USDA.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Kathleen Llewellyn.