We were lucky to catch up with Vanessa Aflalo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Vanessa, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Green Tomato is an online platform for small farms and small businesses to showcase their products and reach our community. Green Tomato has transformed into a farmers market delivery service, where the idea is that you’re buying directly from the farm and small businesses, instead of big box retailers, and in turn supporting our communities. It’s a subscription based service where you can chose to receive your fruit and veggie bag in four different sizes and you can also choose the frequency (weekly, biweekly or monthly). The idea is that you have direct access to buy things you normally wouldn’t be able to find in a supermarket such as different kinds of organic mushrooms, local dairy, local grass fed beef, organic hummus, vegan meat and much more. We’re adding new local vendors often It’s different from a traditional CSA because we partner with several different farms throughout South Florida to bring a curated weekly selection of fresh seasonal produce straight to our customer’s doors. It’s also very flexible, customers can skip, pause, or cancel anytime by reaching out directly to our customer service. What makes us different is our dedicated customer service team, it’s transparent and they’re there to answer any question you might have!

Green Tomato is a subscription-based company with a mission to deliver fresh fruits and veggies to its customers in the Miami-Dade and Broward County from Florida farms. We work directly with farmers and food producers to source fresh local produce, high-quality meats, plant-based proteins, dairy products and sustainably sourced pantry staples.

Our mission is to help our customers lead a more sustainable lifestyle. We use insulated reusable tote bags in each delivery to minimize packaging and our enviromental impact.

Vanessa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi! I’m Vanessa, a nature lover and sustainability advocate. I’m a middle child and have a serious case of wanderlust. I’m the proud founder and Chief Executive Officer of Green Tomato, a first of its kind sustainable farmers market delivery service that sources fresh produce from Florida farms and delivers it to your door. I’ve been fortunate to have lived in many cities and countries, including Paris, London, Washington DC, Seattle, Baltimore, and Caracas, Venezuela. Having lived and moved around so much gives you a flexibility of sorts and gives you the ability to connect with all types of people. Having moved around so much has truly shaped who I am today. I am super close to my family and enjoy spending most of my free time with them, my friends and my partner, Federico.

My background is in International Relations and I left a career in Washington D.C. in Development because I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I would describe myself as joyful, a risk taker who enjoys the challenges that come with change and also I feel I don’t take things too seriously.

Green Tomato is a subscription-based company with a mission to deliver fresh fruits and veggies to its customers in the Miami-Dade, Broward and recently expanded to Palm Beach County from Florida farms. We work direclty with farmers and food producers to source fresh local produce, high-quality meats, plant-based proteins, dairy products and sustainably sourced pantry staples.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Yes, definitely. The astronomical growth and positive feedback we’ve received is what fuels us to keep working and keep building those partnerships. People want to take more control of their health and their time, they want to start cooking healthier and not only that but start by learning what is already available in our community. The beautiful thing about our service is that you start to think backwards, you don’t have to go to the supermarket to get a certain list of ingredients that might then go bad in your fridge, instead you get to be inspired when you receive your bag to see what you can make with the ingredients we already have. It also teaches us to be resilient and it helps with food waste as we’re not overbuying. Our portions are perfectly thought out. Building and sustaining a small business always comes with challenges. One of our biggest struggles in being a trailblazer company has been recycling the insulated tote bags we send the produce in. From the beginning, we had a choice to stick to the status quo and deliver the produce in a cardboard box – in theory, it can be recycled, but we wanted to take it a step further and truly be “zero-waste” or minimal waste. Our founder, Vanessa, wanted to be able to receive a delivery and not have it create extra waste.
That’s why we decided that it was very important to us to send our produce in reusable insulated tote bags; although more costly than the cardboard box, we can be true to our mission of sustainability and zero-waste. A challenge has been having customers return their tote bags and having them understand the importance of their actions. We partnered with local businesses to give customers more “drop off points” throughout the city. We are committed to participating in our community by participating in events and supporting other small businesses.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We pride ourselves in our customer service and believe its what sets us apart. Our customers have told us that our customer service is like talking to a friend! We use WhatsAspp business as our main form of communication and its been really helpful. We keep constant contact with our customers and our flexibility and transparent communication is what customers love about us. What has helped build brand loyalty and attract new customers organically has been participating in a lot of community events.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.greentomatomarket.com/
• Instagram: @greentomatomiami
• Facebook: Green Tomato Market
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/green-tomato-market
• Yelp: We have been featured on Yelp Miami!
• Other: We have been featured on Voyage Miami, Yelp, Impact Edition Magazine. We collaborate with Compost for Life, a Miami based company. We’ve had events with Lululemon, Nike, Airlab, Wynwood Yoga, IRun and other important local brands. We love to be a part of our community! We often volunteer at Clean Miami Beach cleanups.