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Mayor advocates ‘buy local’ initiative

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Also by Amanda Villa:

Legislators seek elimination of age cap (December 3, 2007)
Mayor advocates 'buy local' initiative (November 20, 2007)
Wisconsin attains rising energy star (November 16, 2007)
Council rethinks appointments policy (November 9, 2007)
Diabetes month kicks off in state (November 5, 2007)

by Amanda Villa

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is now pushing for local business to use the "buy local" website launched earlier this year to help support local farmers.

The idea behind the website is to help make it easier for potential vendors to connect with city participants, according to George Twigg, communications director for Cieslewicz.

The website began functioning recently, and Twigg said Cieslewicz is currently trying to get the word out to vendors by encouraging local businesses to work with the city of Madison's "buy local" website, saying it’s good for the city’s economy.

"We know from research that money that is spent locally, by locally-owned businesses, re-circulates many times within the local economy," Twigg said. "When you're buying from non-local vendors, the money pretty much leaves the community immediately and goes elsewhere, so it's a way to help support jobs in Madison."

Since the website is still fairly new, only a small percentage of local businesses have registered online, Twigg said.

Harvest, a local restaurant, has taken advantage of the "buy local" website, according to owner Tami Lax.

"We are members of "buy local," and we have been buying local since we opened just about over seven years ago," Lax said.

L’Etoile, located on Capitol Square, also uses the "buy local" website to purchase some of its produce, according to general manager Lael Grigg.

"We are a part of the "buy local" notion — we definitely buy local from farmers, and we buy most of our stuff within Wisconsin itself," Grigg said. "Although we do not get all of our stuff from the "buy local" site, we do buy locally."

Yet many local restaurants do not use the site at all.

Marigold Kitchen is not part of the "buy local" site, but does buy locally itself, chef Kristy Schwinn said.

"No, we do not [use the site], but we do try to buy local as much as possible," Schwinn said. "We deal with Garden To Be, which is a popular farm from this area and … we have a couple of smaller sources, and we always try to go up to the [farmers'] market to get seasonal items."

Both Lax and Grigg agreed they like how the "buy local" website works.

Although only a small number of restaurants are using of the site, Cieslewicz is trying to get the word out through contacts within the local community, business organization in Madison and word of mouth, Twigg said.

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