Greenlawn Farmigo Champion Laura Binder's Food world pulses with wellness options

“My whole world is food,” Farmigo Champion Laura Binder states unequivocally.

So it’s no surprise to learn this Long Island foodie was the first Farmigo Champion in Suffolk County.

Laura’s food passion and conviction is about more than delicious dining or the art of cooking, though.   

In Laura’s worldview she wants no less than to increase the quality of our food supply. She wants everyone to eat better meals from a food source that offers healthy, tasty, sustainable options. She admits, “My dream job is to work for a mission-focused USDA to accomplish an overhaul of the US food supply.”

Her food dreams are big.

Her influence is local, writ large. .

Laura already has the bona fides and brass tacks to make her outsized food dreams a delicious reality where it counts -- right within her community; and as a Farmigo Champion.

Laura earned her Bachelors in Nutrition from Long Island University, and graduated from Stony Brook University in their combined dietetic internship and master's program in Health Care Policy and Management. In addition, through the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) Laura is also a registered dietitian.

Her respect for sustainable, healthy fresh food led her to work as an intern in Stony Brook’s bountiful rooftop garden during her studies there doing garden design, maintenance and harvesting.  She also worked with Stony Brook’s 20 different community gardens in low-income areas throughout Long Island.  

Laura’s food world pulses with wellness options.

She is a tireless advocate for all things focused on a healthy lifestyle.

Presently, she wears a couple of healthy hats: she is a nutrition compliance associate at a local Long Island culinary group, is a member of the company wellness program, and provides meditation and yoga workshops for their Wind-Down Wednesday programs.

She is also a certified vinyasa flow and meditation instructor through the Long Island Yoga School, teaches yoga privately to a growing list of yoga enthusiasts as well as at the Esteem Wellness & Fitness studio in Greenlawn, Long Island.

Farmigo and Wellness

Her decision to become a Farmigo Champion was a natural transition to what can only be considered as the locavore, next chapter in her quest to improve the food supply and influence her local food opportunities.

“Farmigo and the Farmigo Champion program is all about what I preach to my customers – ‘Go for fresh. Go for local. No-GMO.  Go organic, where possible.’”  

Farmigo was clearly playing her song.  

“My motivation has always been to channel fresh, local food to the community – especially where there has been limited access,” she says.  “To be able to accomplish this and do it as my own Farmigo business allows me to continue working with my yoga and nutrition businesses for a more holistic path to providing nutrition and wellness.”  

Laura shared how she hopes someday to have her own wellness center.  

For now, the Farmigo weekly pick ups for her growing food community are located at the Esteem Wellness center in Greenlawn so it’s convenient and familiar for all, according to Laura.  

She points out the other huge convenience is ordering online from Farmigo’s vast selection of seasonal produce. “A big benefit for my Members is that they feel in total control about their weekly orders. They can get what they want from a high-quality, curated list of locally grown food.”  Laura explained,  “A lot of my Members have their own gardens or belong to a CSA and Farmigo allows these foodies to select supplemental items as readily as those who turn to Farmigo as their go-to source for all their produce and dairy,” she explained.  

Farmigo does the critical, intense work of sourcing the seasonal fresh ingredients from local farmers and dairymen (and soon will offer fish and meat from local butchers and fisherman) to deliver her Member’s orders overnight, labeled and ready for pick up.

First Impressions to First Pick Up

Working together, Farmigo made it very easy for me to get started.  “They created a Champion Dashboard, flyers and postcards,” noted Laura. “Within about six weeks, I went from first impressions to my first pick up!”

“I had to meet a 20-Member minimum to launch and was so thankful I was able to do that so quickly,” says Laura.  “I told as many people as I could -- including family and friends, I made a Facebook page, invited my co-workers who in turn invited their friends and my mother helped by sharing the opportunity with her co-workers..”  Laura says her mother also helps her out on pick up day.  “Plus she gets to see her work friends there and they can catch up and talk,” adds Laura.  

Since she launched her Farmigo Champion food community, she uses her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Binder-Anjali-Yoga/115692655152284 and her just-launched Anjali Yoga and Nutrition blog https://anjaliyoganutrition.wordpress.com

to talk about the food and wellness benefits and to gently remind Members about ordering or pick up.  

Food as Link to Build Community

“My greatest success is seeing how happy everyone is getting their fresh, local food.” says Laura. “My Members are more often than not coming or going to a yoga session at the studio so there is the added pick up convenience.”.  

As health-conscious foodies predisposed to good food flavor, she comments that everyone is  “So jazzed about the high quality ingredients we get from Farmigo.   And I’m thrilled to be able to support and help our local farmers at the same time.”

All agree that the high quality of food plus the convenience is an incredibly tremendous value.  “The Members recognize it’s not more expensive -- as some might have thought, initially.  I point out that after all, we are not paying for shipping.”

And you can’t get any fresher,” she marvels.  “Farmigo picks up the food from the farms on Tuesday and it’s delivered to me on Wednesday so my Members get it directly ‘farm to table.’

Everything is fresh, bright, vibrant and colorful!” she enthuses.

“The bags are filled with greens,”  she rhapsodizes.

“Everyone loves the greens – especially the mesclun and the basil.  The cherry tomatoes are extremely popular – the best I ever had!” Laura smiles.  She notices that while there is no typical order and most order everything on the Farmigo market menu, parents especially order a lot of the fresh milk and eggs.

When asked to name her favorite food, she says - without hesitation - plums and cherry tomatoes.

Laura keenly observes the wonder of the Members discovering food that is altogether new to them.  She describes how Farmigo even offers so many different kinds of fruits and vegetables they thought they knew about, including tomatoes and squash, for her members to experience. This in turn prompts food chat among her Members. “Those folks who don’t know what to do with purple carrots, kale, swiss chard, or beet tops, ask the other, more experienced homegrown cooks for ideas and recipes.

“Food is the link,” says Laura.

Laura is a dedicated business entrepreneur who is imbued with an ardent zeal to teach health and wellness and to grow her Farmigo food community from within “In an honest, genuine way.”  

Laura is happy to note “ People like what they’re getting from Farmigo’s People Powered Farmers Markets through my food network and are sharing their recommendations with at least one other person, so word of mouth is helping to quickly spread the word.”  That in turn has Laura further energized to launch other Farmigo food communities.

Changing the local food supply has never been so much fun. And tasty.