Why We Built EqualEats
Platforms like Open Food Network do brilliant work connecting producers with buyers. We are not trying to replace them. EqualEats solves a different problem: how does a village, neighbourhood, or workplace pool its buying power to access wholesale prices — and make sure nobody gets left behind?
What makes EqualEats different
Case-splitting across households
Wholesalers sell in cases — 6 bags of oats, 12 tins of tomatoes. You probably only want one or two. EqualEats tracks demand across the whole community with a live progress bar: “3 of 6 committed.” The more neighbours who want the same product, the closer you get to filling a case. You pay wholesale prices for individual units.
The Ballast Fund
What happens when a case needs 6 units but only 4 are ordered? A tiny automatic levy (2% of each order) feeds a community fund that tops up the gap. The surplus units go onto a shared shelf for next time. No product gets dropped because of a two-unit shortfall, and no individual gets stuck paying for a whole case they did not want.
The Solidarity Pot
At checkout, members can optionally add a small amount to an anonymous community pot. That money subsidises orders for households that need it. Nobody knows who gives. Nobody knows who receives. The Ballast Fund keeps the logistics running. The Solidarity Pot keeps the community running.
A batch cycle built for villages
Orders open → community pools demand → orders lock → organiser resolves any case gaps → wholesale order placed → delivery sorted into household boxes → collection at the village hall. The whole rhythm is designed around a weekly or fortnightly cycle that a single volunteer can manage.
Multi-community from day one
Each community (“pod”) runs independently with its own members, products, suppliers, pricing, and settings — but on shared infrastructure. One village starting a batch should not mean rebuilding the platform from scratch. We want dozens of pods across the country, each self-governing.
Local suppliers plug in, not bolt on
A local butcher, baker, or farm should not have to build their own online shop or join a marketplace to reach nearby customers. With EqualEats, a supplier plugs into the existing network — listing their products across one pod or many. The demand aggregation, batch cycle, ordering logistics, and collection infrastructure are already there. A butcher serving five villages gets visibility across all five without managing five separate relationships. Wholesale co-ops and local producers sit side by side in the same cart, the same checkout, the same Box Day pickup.
How does this compare to OFN?
Open Food Network is a mature, open-source platform that serves producers, buying groups, food hubs, and farm shops. It is excellent at what it does. Here is where we see the difference:
| Open Food Network | EqualEats | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Marketplace connecting producers and buyers through various hub models. | Coordination tool for communities pooling wholesale buying power. |
| Case management | Products listed as-is; no case-splitting mechanics. | Live progress bars, gap resolution, Ballast Fund to fill shortfalls. |
| Food equity | Not a core feature. | Built-in Solidarity Pot and tiered pricing (coming soon). |
| Supply chain | Primarily direct producer-to-consumer. | Pools demand to access wholesale suppliers (Suma, Essential, local bulk). |
| Local suppliers | Producers run their own shopfront on the platform. | Suppliers plug into existing communities — list products across multiple pods without running a shop. |
| Maturity | Established platform, large community, proven at scale. | Early-stage, live pilot in Bittaford, actively built in the open. |
“If you are a producer wanting to sell direct, Open Food Network is where you should be. If you are a village wanting to buy together at wholesale prices — split cases across households, steady the books when demand does not perfectly fill a box, and make sure a neighbour having a hard month can still eat well — that is the problem we built EqualEats to solve.”