BY KADIE VICK
FOR THE OBSERVER
EAST ALABAMA — Opelika is home to an abundance of farmers, but few community members eat the foods these local farmers produce. Moises Gonzalez is working to make local products more available through his website FarmHub.
On FarmHub, he said customers will find a list of local farmers.
“You can select a farmer and get a product from that farm, or if you don’t know any farmers, you can just browse the products. Each product is going to say which farm it is from. They will buy from that and you will get it delivered to your house.”
Gonzalez, a student at Auburn University studying applied mathematics, said wanted to begin research around data science or AI. He was fascinated by the abundance of farms in the Opelika area and posted a survey about where people purchase food on a local Facebook group.
“The survey asked people if they like buying fresh products or if they like foreign products, and if they like it, how often they buy those products,” he explained.
Many community members responded to this survey and the results were clear — people wanted local products but did not know how to access them.
Gonzalez said the responses all said the same thing: “I would love to have farm products, but the farm is far away, I don’t have access. I don’t know where the farmers are. I don’t have time for that because it’s not like going to Walmart or just ordering online and getting into my house.”
“Instead of continuing with trying to play with the data or trying to get some interesting stuff to learn AI, I decided to build a website,” he said.
Gonzalez sees the benefit of purchasing local food for the community and wants to encourage locals to support their farmers and enjoy the fresh food that they produce.
“People want food that is quick, want food that is high quality,” he said. “Through buying locally you will have all that you want. Plus, the money that is given is taken back to the community, because you’re helping farmers, like you’re like a protector of your farmers. Because farmers are in a huge crisis right now,” he said.
Most farmers only make 17 cents on the dollar, but with FarmHub the farmers will make 85 cents of every dollar paid for their products.
“You’ve helped your own community to grow,” he said. “You open jobs in your own community. It’s like the butterfly effect. You don’t know what you’re doing right now, but that purchase is that raw, local honey that you bought the mind helped someone to get a job.”
Gonzalez is from Havanna, Cuba and moved to Opelika from Miami to join his parents who were called to ministry at First Baptist Church of Opelika. He was nervous to move to Opelika after living in such big cities his whole life. His mind was quickly changed.
“This place is awesome. I fell in love with Opelika and the community and it’s quiet. People are super nice. And you get to know a lot of people.”
Gonzalez is passionate about helping his community flourish and access fresh local products.
Visit his website: www.farmhub.online.