Skip to content

Stokli...The Beginning!

We’re Hans and Marianne. We live in Santa Fe with our two young boys and adopted pup Saturn.  Our catering business had barely got off the ground when the pandemic arrived. The week that followed was a strange blur. At some point I went to the grocery store and noticed flour was not on the shelves. Grains and dried legumes were gone. I remember taking a photo of an empty shelf and texting it to Hans. It wasn’t like some huge new idea popped up on that grocery trip, but that was the day the seed got planted. Over the next weeks and months, day by day that little seed started to grow.

We started paying attention and learning a bunch of things:

  1. We learned that it was easy to buy big bags of flour and break them down for home use. All of a sudden we were selling pantry staples at wholesale prices because it felt like the only productive thing to do.
  2. We learned that we love driving around town making deliveries.
  3. We learned that fresh veggies are not the only foods that play a critical role in food security, but a bag of beans can help sustain a family.
  4. Regional producers were growing healthy, sustainable and delicious dry goods (seriously the best out there) but these products were spread out and hard to find.
  5. Small producers face a steep uphill climb (not to mention wearing all the hats) to bring their products to market. Then when they want to grow, it’s that much harder because not only do they have to compete with big brands, a middleman is there to take a cut. 
  6. Could there be a different way? Could we create a project where we join together (us the business and you the consumer) to support this invaluable group of growers and makers in our region? This is when the wheels on the Stokli bus started turning in a big way.

Around this time we learned about a building called a “stockli”. According to Swiss tradition every farm should have one; a stone house where the retired farmer lives to keep an eye on the younger generation. As soon as we heard this word it felt like home. This embodies the heart and soul of what we want Stokli to be all about. So we changed the spelling to Stokli (stock-lee) and here we are!

The idea is pretty simple.  We want to empower the next generation of small growers and makers by working to increase demand in our region. And we want to make it easy for folks to stock their pantry with the good stuff. 

A couple of our favorite things:

  • Because our vision is to see our regional food system flourish, our business model is designed to simplify the supply chain, create a consistent platform shoppers and producers can count on, without taking a cut from small producers. That’s why 100% of the retail price for their goods go to them.
  • For every membership sold, we donate one to a low-income or military family, student, teacher or first responders.

Thanks for being here!

From our family to yours,
Marianne, Hans, River, Fox and Saturn (woof)