Taste the Local Difference

Taste the Local Difference® is Michigan’s local food marketing agency. It is a social enterprise of the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, based in Traverse City, MI. We are proponents of the Michigan Good Food Charter and are signatories to their resolution seeking to have 20% of all food sold in Michigan come from Michigan farms and food businesses by 2020. Our Mission: “TLD helps food businesses and the communities they serve benefit from the economic value of local food, while ensuring that fresh, healthy, local food is available to all consumers.” Our job is simply to sell more locally grown and processed food in the region’s we represent. We accomplish this with specialized marketing solutions for: Farmers Specialty food producers Beverage producers Wholesale distributors and food brokers Retail stores Restaurants Institutions Food hubs Event promoters Our on-farm and in-store marketing solutions include a library of printed materials used by our partners to differentiate their goods from commodity-scale products where consumers shop for food. We also provide a robust system for consumers to learn about and differentiate local food wherever they shop. We produce printed local food guides and also offer a searchable online database through our website and our TLD smartphone apps. Our full-service marketing agency provides advice, consulting services, training, expertise, and the power of cooperative advertising. These products and services are available at down-to-earth prices for our partners. All of this is driven by our passion for creating vibrant communities through food and farming economies. TLD is actively seeking new communities to partner with us on bringing our proven local food marketing and support system to you. If you or someone you know are interested in helping us connect TLD to your city, county, or region, please let us know.