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While serving only produce grown by yourself is not a realistic short-term goal, some fast-casual restaurants are implementing the practice due to a slew of incentives.

For one, farm-to-table is a major trend. And as fast casual restaurants become healthier and increase in quality, it makes sense to move in a more self-sufficient direction. Another major incentive is the community involvement it encourages.

Jon Olinto, cofounder of healthy fast casual b.good, launched a small farm called Hannah Farm earlier in 2016. As of now, seventy-five percent of the produce from the farm feeds kids at Camp Harbor View, an at-risk urban youth program. The other twenty-five percent of produce goes back to b.good.

“It can drive a lot of customer engagement,” Olinto told QSR. “Volunteer sign-up was sold out in less than 48 hours. People were fired up to come work with us for a day. We had two customers every weekday for two months. That’s huge.”

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Nick Powills

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Nick Powills

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Nick Powills, CFE, founded No Limit Agency in 2008 and serves as Chief Brand Strategist for the Chicago-based firm. No Limit is a full-service communications agency that establishes and elevates brands by bridging Public Relations, Social Media, Marketing, Advertising, Digital, and a lot of creativity, to best strategize well-rounded and successful campaigns for 50+ global franchise brands. By presenting visionary ideas and building real relationships, No Limit is able to create effective media branding strategies to help companies grow. Nick currently leads a staff of writers, media strategists, designers, social media experts and digital producers in an office think-tank where brands are humanized for strong, compelling media stories. Prior to starting No Limit at the age of 27, Nick spent four years working at a franchise PR agency where he mastered the art of building rapport with media outlets and creating newsworthy pitches for earned media placements. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Drake University in Iowa.

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