Trevor Clatterbuck

 

 

Founder and CEO of Fresh Fork

 

by Tyberius Turner, crew 4
 

 

What if you create your own marketplace and got to work with food all day? That is exactly what Trevor Clatterbuck, founder of Fresh Fork, does today to help in the Cleveland community.

 

Clatterbuck, who is 28, started Fresh Fork in 2009, when he was a senior in college at Case Western Reserve University. He attended Case Western Reserve University from 2004-2008. Originally, Clatterbuck wasn’t looking to start a grocery service. He said that it was supposed to link between restaurants and farms, not start a food market. “I recognized that there was need or problem that needed to be fixed, and it became a business opportunity for me to do something meaningful,” Clatterbuck explained. He got the name for the company when he had a meeting with his college buddies. They wrote words related to food on a whiteboard and went online to making sure it wasn’t already used. Fresh Fork was born as a retail program to focus mostly on selling food to families and home consumers instead of resturants.

 

Fresh Fork is now a weekly subscription model for produce, meat, and cheeses. It started off with 40 customers, then grew to 400 then 1,000, 2,000,and 3,000 throughout the past five years. This year they are looking forward to seeing up to 4,000 weekly costumers. They have had at least 50 percent growth every year. In addition to planning the bag’s contents each week, Clatterbuck also enjoys taking his truck on the road to pick up food. Clatterbuck also loves to see happy customers because that means he is doing his job. “What we’re doing is not tangible, but it’s having an important impact on people,” he explained. Clatterbuck’s company helps lots of families lose weight and eat together, and it keep kids healthier because they are eating fresh local food.

 

Clatterbuck is also changing the lives of the 108 farmers who supply the bag’s items. For example, an Amish farmer named Harvey, who is 26 year old, has been growing for Fresh Fork for the last 3 to 4 years. When Clatterbuck was visiting Harvey’s farm, Harvey invited him to his wedding on April 22. “Without you, this wedding wouldn’t be possible.” Harvey told Clatterbuck. The Amish are not allowed to get married until they have the financial stability to support a family and build a house. “Through selling to Fresh Fork, he was able to grow his business enough to get married,” Clatterbuck explained.

 

Fresh Fork helps people by educating them through a variety of events for customers. His company has 5,000-6,000 customers a year for both seasons and holidays. Clatterbuck and his company invited customers to come to an open house at which they have one presentation about their farmers and one with tips for buying local. Each week when Clatterbuck make the grab bag, he combines items from different farms he works with, such as bacon, peaches, and lettuce.

 

Fresh Fork also hosts events like their farm fair every year. It’s a festival in which farmers come to the city and teach people how to garden. Clatterbuck usually helps cook for these events. For example, he cooked all day for a dinner party workshop on April 8. “We have 42 workshops lined up for this year on everything from making casseroles and soups, how to butcher a hog, how to make sausage, live a vegan lifestyle, raw food, baby food, and bread baking,” Clatterbuck continued. “The entire focus is how to do it with local ingredients.” At each event, they have 50-60 people at normal events, and cooking classes have a maximum of 75 people. They even host a Thanksgiving dinner to learn about brining/roasting a turkey and making side dishes.  

 

Clatterbuck said he enjoys his work because he is helping people. He uses the Teddy Roosevelt quote on “doing work that’s worth doing” as his motto. Clatterbuck explained, “I feel like that’s something I’m doing now. It’s not necessarily work; it’s changing lives and impacting people. There’s definitely a social aspect of what I’m doing that I think is responsible.” Fresh Fork is having an impact on quality of life in Cleveland. “If you think about what makes on city better than the other, one thing that cities compete about is quality of lifestyle by having options for groceries,” Clatterbuck said.

 

Clatterbuck worked with lots of producers for 3-5 years. When he was younger he had lots of advice given to him, but now he has advice for others. “In this business, there are a lot of moving pieces. We buy from farms, and if they short me on units, there’s a customer showing up that day who needs that product. Dealing with supply shortages is one of the most difficult things, especially when many of your product don’t have phones or easy access to a phone,” Clatterbuck explained.

 

Clatterbuck wants to expand to help people even more. In the next 10 years, he plans to create more business related to Fresh Fork. They are looking forward into opening a quick freeze facility to allow his company to processes vegetables from the summer time so they can still be used in the winter. They are also planning to starting a malt house for dry barley and rye, so they could use it in the production of beer and whiskey. “That’s inherent in being a business owner, looking for ways to improve,” suggested Clatterbuck.