Golden Gate Organics Coming To Lamorinda

At 5 a.m. every Tuesday, former U.S. Coast Guard veterans Corey Tufts and Wayne Pierson can be found in a warehouse in South Oakland lovingly packaging fruit and vegetables into custom picked boxes. Their organic produce delivery company, Golden Gate Organics, has been in operation for a little over three months, and is about to begin a new expansion phase into the Lamorinda area on Oct. 18.

Golden Gate Organics is built on a unique model for produce delivery companies, the men maintain. Their competition typically comes from companies with their own farm who deliver only what they themselves have in season. While there is definite merit to having everything grown on site, the folks at Golden Gate believe their model gives them a leg up.

“Since we do not own our own farm we do not have to limit our customers to what we have on hand," explained Taylor Crossland, manager of public relations and marketing for Golden Gate. "We have the choice of going to any organic farm in California and beyond. This is great since many of our customers engage with us on Facebook and can request any item in season. We can then go out and find the closest farms that carry those items... If a customer doesn’t like any item, they simply add it to their dislike list and will never see it in their box.”

The ability to find specialized items for customers is a step away from other delivery services such as Farm Fresh To You, the Golden Gate team said. Another potential competitor, Boxed Greens, provides more opportunity to individually select your produce, but are, again, more expensive, they said.

During their time in the Coast Guard, Co-founders Tufts and Pierson worked in Information Technology and their tech-savvy background shows throughout their business model. The website, is well designed, interactive and intuitive. 

“We have a custom-built and easy to use website," Tufts said. "Customers are able to have complete control over their produce preferences, advance delivery scheduling, and account information at all times. Customers have the ability to make substitutions to their order and can even make item requests. It is a unique customizing feature that no one else offers.”

Approximately 95 percent of produce provided in a Golden Gate Organics box comes from California, and it is all 100 percent Organic, meaning it was grown on an organic-certified farm which has been using an organic systems plan and has records that verify compliance with that plan for the previous seven years.

A small box of mixed produce is designed to provide fruits and vegetables for a couple and costs $22 each week; a medium box feeds 3-4 people and is $38; and a large box feeds four to six and costs $46. Similar companies such as Farm Fresh To You and Boxed Greens start their small boxes at $25 per week and increase from there. In comparison, obtaining the same items and quantity from the Safeway in Lafayette costs $22.68 and from the Whole Foods in Lafayette costs $21.51, although these are not all grown in California.

“Our main mission is to get people eating healthier and more organic,” said Tufts. “We custom pack organic produce to our customers’ preferences. It comes directly from the farms to us and then to their door.”