Building a healthy community by re-connecting people to local food and goods
Shop Local
Monday
Market opened from 10am - 8pmTuesday
Orders processed & placed to farmersWednesday
Inbound of fresh ingredientsThursday
Orders consolidated & prepared for pick-upFriday
Order ready at picked Timeslot
Monday
Market opened from 10am - 8pm
Tuesday
Orders processed & placed to farmers
Wednesday
Inbound of fresh ingredients
Thursday
Orders consolidated & prepared for pick-up
Friday
40+
Local farmers
300+
Products
100+
Produce boxes donated
50+
Food insecure families
The realization
100 Mile Makers was born out of the realization that, regardless of location, small producers face the same struggles connecting to the people who want to buy from them.
The questions
We needed to know: How can we connect the dots? How can we make local goods more available and more accessible? What tools can we provide to small producers that allow them to connect to the true potential of customers that would buy from them? How can we redesign the system to support small producers and help them thrive?
The beginning: 100 Mile Makers events
We started with events because that was what we were familiar with. As many businesses do, 100 Mile Makers took twists and turns and over its first three years. We went from events to pop-up winter produce markets. All of us had day jobs which kept us from really diving in but we knew there was something there. We knew islanders were looking for local goods.
The turning point: pandemic
The onset of a pandemic created an opportunity for an online grocery packed with healthy, local produce. We felt it was time for our efforts to go from an infrequent event to a weekly one. This grocery has grown enormously since March 2020. Growth is only limited by the physical spaces we have run the market from. We have had tremendous opportunity to better understand the demand, the need, and the supply available to us on Nantucket. We have at last begun to understand what 100 Mile Makers can be on Nantucket.
The challenge
The unique issues Nantucket faces, mediumly as a result of being 30 miles out to sea, made it clear that a space was needed. One place where local food and goods could be found. A space that was a community space - a place for people to connect to their food and to each other.
The birth of Pip & Anchor
As the online grocery gained momentum under the 100Mile name, Mayumi and Rita began discussing what this grocery had become for each of them. For Mayumi it was like watching a seed turn into a sprout. It was the seed of an idea that had been planted and was now pushing up out of the ground, the 'pip' of a business. For Rita, the grocery was a new way to tell time at a moment when our sense of time, our routines, we're strangely and unsettlingly fluid. The weekly grocery provided a distinct and consistent, even unrelenting, 'anchor' in the week.
The reinforcements
We had an anchor thrown overboard, tying us to a time and place and we began to see glimmers of how this seed of an idea was taking root. It was still an unknown seed...we weren't quite sure what it would look like once it matured but we knew it was thriving. To help further the growth of this seed we knew we needed modern technology and heightened hospitality. In late 2020 we partnered with our tech team at Process First and our hospitality guru, Chris Sleeper.
Thankful for the community
With the support of our beloved community, we have seen how this online grocery is blossoming and has become an idea that anchors us, grounds us, roots us and our customers to a time and more importantly to a place.
And so, Pip and Anchor becomes the 100 mile market of Nantucket. A place to connect and celebrate local food and the seasons.
Mayumi
Food Guru
From age six, Mayumi Hattori spent hours in the kitchen helping her Grandmother prepare simple, rustic, and incredibly flavorful Spanish dishes from humble ingredients. Throughout her youth, her mother honored her Spanish roots as well as her husband’s Japanese traditions by blending foods and flavors. She now has 18 years of experience in award-winning kitchens like Craigie Street Bistro to Toro to Straight Wharf Restaurant. Mayumi’s cooking draws on a diverse range of culinary influences from her cultural heritage and her travels.
Some of her accolades include 2014 winner of the Rising Star Chef designation 2020 semi-finalist for James Beard Awards (Best Chef Northeast) Trained under Tony Maws (James Beard winner), Jamie Bissonnette (James Beard winner), Alex Scrimgeour, Amanda Lydon (Food & Wine Best New Chef), and Gabriel Frasca (Rising Star Chef)
Rita Higgins
Systems Guru
Rita Higgins has a diverse background in food and non-food related work, ranging from forestry, to a professional career of landscape design, to local politics as a member of the Nantucket Select Board, to experience as a small food producer in Ireland and Upstate New York. Rita’s focus has been on the human connection to land through the built environment, a focus she has explored through landscape design for over 15 years. Five years ago, the essential nature of our connection to the land, to each other, our impact on the environment, through food, became a motivating inspiration to become more involved in the world of food. This was coupled with the opportunity to take over an Upstate NY, family-owned garlic farm and kitchen operations for a winter, an opportunity which highlighted the massive systemic supply chain issues that can be prohibitive to small, local producer success and to eating healthfully, seasonally and sustainably. She brought these experiences and observations with her back to Nantucket and founded 100 Mile Makers, the precursor to Pip and Anchor.
Rita is a graduate of McGill University where she studied Environment and International Development.
Chris Sleeper
Hospitality Guru
Chris Sleeper has worked in hospitality since 2005. He's worked in the Boston Area, Aspen, and Nantucket. He continued to work in restaurants during his college years at Northeastern where he earned a BA in Business Marketing and graduated Cum Laude. After a brief stint in the internet advertising world with AOL and Huffington Post, he returned to Nantucket to pursue his passion. When Chris realized restaurants were a platform for his passions of sales, food, beverage, travel, community work, and hospitality he quickly jumped back in after his final year at Northeastern. Chris joined the team at Straight Wharf Restaurant in 2011 as a barback and food runner and worked his way up to General Manager in 2014. He served as the General Manager, while also spending time as Private Events Director and Wine Steward from 2014 until 2018. During this time Straight Wharf was named Best Nantucket Restaurant by Boston Magazine twice. Chris then became the General Manager of The Nautilus on Nantucket where he worked for two years. Chris brings a unique enthusiasm for food, wine, and hospitality. To him, hospitality means more than what happens inside a restaurant or business. Hospitality is using your expertise and passion to take care of the people around you and build community.
