Frequently Asked Questions

We are your one-stop shop for local, regional, sustainable, and ethical produce, protein, dairy, pantry, and more (what we call "Good Food"). There are two ways to shop: 4P Bags and a la carte.

4P Bags come in three types: Produce, Protein, and Dairy. Each of them will come "pre-packed" with 4P's Picks for that week, and then you can customize them by taking out or adding items to get just what you want.

You can order a Bag once to try it out, but our recommendation is to set up a recurring order so that you can be sure to have your fridge, freezer, and pantry stocked every week. You can always add on a la carte items, skip as often as you need, or cancel altogether with no penalty.

You can also order fully a la carte without a 4P Bag (don't worry, your order will still come packed in one of our lovely insulated reusable bags).

Each Saturday we update our online shop with what’s fresh that week and send a Weekly Harvest Newsletter straight to your inbox, making it simple to decide what you want to order and plan what you’ll cook for the week. We also include storage tips, recipe ideas, and highlights from our farmers and partners. 

If you’ve signed up and are not receiving the email newsletter, be sure to check your spam or promotions folder, and then please get in touch with us so we can look into it.

Nope! There is no minimum commitment and no tricky sign-up policy. Our minimum order is $30 + delivery fee. You can order once to give us a try, or sign up for a recurring subscription and still cancel anytime before your skip deadline with no fees! If you were anything less than satisfied with your order, please do get in touch with our member experience team first so that we can try to make things right.

Absolutely. You always have the ability to skip individual orders, or place a delivery hold for a certain period of time. All we ask is that you skip any upcoming deliveries ahead of the 2-day cut-off period, during which time we finalize orders with farmers. The cut-off begins at 11:59 pm on Sunday for a Wednesday delivery, 11:59 pm on Monday for a Thursday delivery, and 11:59 pm on Tuesday for a Friday delivery. 

We do our billing every Sunday for the prior week’s deliveries. So if you get a bag on Wednesday, you’ll be billed the following weekend. If you skip your order, you won’t be billed that week.

That’s where the customization function comes in! Be sure to login to your account between Saturday afternoon and your order deadline (11:59pm three days before your delivery day) to customize your order and swap out any items you can’t enjoy.

Our mission is to empower you to transform the food system.

And how do we do that, you ask? Every purchase you make with 4P allows you to live your values and support small and mid-sized family farmers and artisans by giving them access to new markets, while also helping ensure that all people have equitable access to the Good Food produced by these farmers.

We believe that Good Food— food that is traceable, nutritious, accessible, and produced in a system that empowers farmers and sustains the environment— should be the norm, not the exception, and we actively work to make that vision a reality each and every day. Every purchase with 4P not only supports a growing network of small family farms and artisan producers in the region, but also advances equitable access to fresh healthy food in the communities we serve.

Please note that delivery takes time and energy and an amazing delivery team. There is a fee of $9.95 for orders under $85 and $6.95 for orders over $85. Since we are awesome humans (and not drones) delivering your food with care, hopefully you’ll agree that it’s totally worth it.

Delivery is free at community pick-up sites, where anyone can pick up their bags within a certain pick-up time frame to save C02 and save a few bucks.

Check out our Farmers page! We’re always updating it, so stay tuned for more profiles of the many amazing farmers, ranchers, and artisans from whom we source.

Our mission is to empower you to transform the food system.

And how do we do that, you ask? Every purchase you make with 4P allows you to live your values and support small and mid-sized family farmers and artisans by giving them access to new markets, while also helping ensure that all people have equitable access to the Good Food produced by these farmers.

We believe that Good Food— food that is traceable, nutritious, accessible, and produced in a system that empowers farmers and sustains the environment— should be the norm, not the exception, and we actively work to make that vision a reality each and every day. Every purchase with 4P not only supports a growing network of small family farms and artisan producers in the region, but also advances equitable access to fresh healthy food in the communities we serve.

Right off the bat, we want to acknowledge that the food system has traditionally done a lot of harm to BIPOC communities, from colonization to slavery to the poor treatment of immigrant farm laborers. We are intentionally working to increase our sourcing from BIPOC farmers and to center equity in our daily work as a company. You can read more about racial injustice in the food system and 4P’s response in this letter from our founder & CEO, Tom McDougall.

The short answer: we source locally and regionally from a network of independent farmers, most of them located in the Mid-Atlantic. Does that mean it’s “local?” That depends on where you live and how you define it, so we often use the term “regional” to describe our sourcing practices.

The longer answer: it depends on the item and the season. Avocados don’t grow in the Mid-Atlantic, so we buy them from a fair-trade cooperative in Peru (read more about our sourcing of tropical items on our blog here). As another example, we can offer peak-season strawberries longer by following their season up from the Carolinas in early spring through Virginia and beyond into mid-summer. 4P is a founding member of the Eastern Food Hub Collaborative, a network of other food hubs like us up and down the Eastern Seaboard who all work with their own vetted networks of small, sustainable farmers and work together to increase the variety and supply of produce available from this region.

Read our growing collection of farmer profiles for more information about our food.

Here's how we define Good Food: 

1. provides nourishment and enables people to thrive.
2. is equitably accessible to everyone in our region, regardless of income, race, or zip code.
3. is produced in a manner that is environmentally regenerative.
4. comes from a supply chain in which every being is treated with respect and dignity.
5. improves health outcomes and economic security for all.

On Saturdays, we update the 4P Bags and our online shop with what’s fresh for the week. When the Weekly Harvest Newsletter hits your inbox, it means your bags are ready to customize! Our ETA is mid-day on Saturdays, but there are occasional delays due to mother nature or technology. The arrival of the newsletter alerts you that you have between then and your order deadline (three days before your delivery day at 11:59 pm) to customize your Bags and/or add a la carte items.

There are two ways to view your upcoming deliveries:

1. From My Account > Upcoming Deliveries: hover or click on My Account and select Upcoming Deliveries from the menu. On this page, you'll see the next six weeks of delivery days and any deliveries you have scheduled or skipped, as well as the option to skip, donate, or restore upcoming orders. Click the "Customize" button to see what you have coming in any bags.
2. From the cart: click on the bag icon in the upper right corner. You'll see the next six weeks of delivery days, with a number next to each date indicating how many items are in your bag that week. Click the "Customize" button to see what you have coming in any bags.

There’s no checkout button on your shopping cart. As long as you hit the $30 order minimum, you’re good to go. 

However, there is a “Save” button you need to click to finish the customizing process for a 4P bag.

Whenever you make changes to your order (including adding or removing items or customizing a bag), you’ll get a confirmation email. When you change a recurring order, you’ll get emails for the future deliveries, as well. If you don’t want to get a confirmation email every time, you can hit “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of the email to update your email preferences for different types of emails.

The deadline to make any customizations to your 4P order is a full 48 hours before your delivery day. Please be mindful of this cut-off which gives us a chance to finalize orders with farmers and artisans! The order deadline by delivery day is as follows:

• 11:59 pm on Sunday for a Wednesday delivery
• 11:59 pm on Monday for a Thursday delivery
• 11:59 pm on Tuesday for a Friday delivery

To skip once, login to your account and click on “My Account” in the upper right hand corner and then click on “Upcoming Deliveries.” You’ll see the orders you have scheduled for the next six weeks, including the items and total cost, and you’ll also see buttons that allow you to skip or donate each individual order.

If you choose to skip, you won’t be charged for your order that week. If you choose to donate, you will be charged, and your order will be packed up and delivered to one of our food assistance partners, like the Fauquier Community Food Bank.

You can skip for a longer period of time by turning on a Vacation Hold. Under “My Account” click on “Delivery Hold” and enter your vacation dates - we will skip all deliveries scheduled that fall between the date you entered to leave and the date you entered to return. 

If you need any assistance skipping a delivery, please reach out to us and we'll be happy to help.

Select dairy and protein items can be purchased a la carte, including eggs and butter. Take a look through the Dairy & Eggs and Protein sections of the shop to see what is available to add to your cart. 

All orders must meet the $30 minimum to be delivered.

From the shop, click on “What’s Inside” on any bag image to see what’s available for a given week (if there are multiple weeks available, you can switch between them in the dropdown list at the top). Any items highlighted in pale yellow are what’s coming in the standard bag that week.

Once you’ve added a bag to your cart, click “Customize” to go to the Customize page (you can also navigate there from the “Upcoming Deliveries” page under “My Account.”) Bags will be pre-packed with the 4P Picks for the Week, which will show up in yellow with a green checkmark at the top of the product list. Products you remove will uncheck and change from yellow to white, and products you add will check and change from white to yellow. You can see a summary of your bag in the list in the “What’s Inside” section on the right in desktop view or at the top in mobile view.

Sure is! On the Customize page, click on the product categories under “Customize Bag Contents” to jump to that type of product (i.e. “Fruits” in the produce bag or “Beef” in the protein bag).

Most pantry items have changed from bag items to a la carte items, meaning you can add them on to any order, no saving up points required. Click “Pantry” in the navigation bar at the top of the shop to see the full selection.

If you don’t need as many produce items as come in a produce bag in addition to your pantry items, we’ve got you covered! Build a fully a la carte order by selecting exactly the individual items that you want from each category--anything that can be added to your cart from the shop is available a la carte. As long as you hit the $30 minimum order, you’re good to go, no Produce, Protein, or Dairy Bag required.

All of our deliveries are contactless, and you should receive an automatic email or text notification when a driver drops off your bags.

In general, if you signed up for direct home delivery, we usually deliver the bags right to your doorstep, or wherever you indicated in your delivery instructions (if we don’t deliver to the right place, please get in touch to let us know!).

For commercial buildings or apartment complexes, we deliver the bags per the building’s protocols and your directions.

In an effort to maximize delivery efficiency and minimize contact during the busiest hours of the day, your delivery may arrive as early as 7:00AM and as late as 8:00PM. 

Please note that delivery takes time and energy and an amazing delivery team. There is a fee of $9.95 for orders under $85 and $6.95 for orders over $85. Since we are awesome humans (and not drones) delivering your food with care, hopefully you’ll agree that it’s totally worth it.

Delivery is free at community pick-up sites, where anyone can pick up their bags within a certain pick-up time frame to save C02 and save a few bucks.

We've teamed up with select community centers and local businesses to be pickup points for 4P deliveries. Having your bags dropped off to a pick-up site helps us curb CO2 and helps you save money, as we'll waive the delivery fee on all orders!

New customers can choose a Community Pickup Site as your delivery location while registering, and anyone can change their delivery location to a 4P Community Pick-up Site (or vis versa) from your 4P Foods account. To see if there are any sites near you, simply log in to your account, click "Account Info," and navigate to the dropdown below “Do you want Pickup or Delivery?’ for a list of participating locations. Just note that you'll need to be able to pickup your bags during their business hours. Don't see a pick-up site near you? Contact us if you know of a place near you that's a good fit!

You should have been notified of your delivery day during the signup process, but if you’re unsure, you can login into your account, click on “My Account” in the upper right hand corner, then click on “Upcoming Deliveries” to see all of your upcoming delivery dates. Any general news or changes in deliveries will be communicated to you directly and/or will be included in the weekly newsletter.

If you’re still unsure, reach out and we'll be happy to assist you!

You will receive an email or text notification when a driver drops off your bags. We deliver our food in insulated packaging to keep everything cold. We'd recommend picking up and unpacking your bags as soon as you can, but as long as you can do so within a few hours (or longer in cooler weather), you should be fine. We take all the packaging back to sanitize and reuse, so please set out your empties on delivery day for our driver to swap out.

If you receive any disappointing items, or if anything is missing, please let us know! We’ll gladly try to correct whatever happened, whether through a credit or an extra item in your next delivery.

We do our best to closely manage inventory so that we have enough for all orders but not so much that anything goes to waste. If we ever run out of an item or it becomes unavailable after you have placed your order, we'll do our best to notify you in advance so you can let us know what you’d like instead. If we're unable get in touch in time, we’ll issue you a credit for the missing item (or send you a substitute item in select circumstances, i.e. pack gala apples as a substitute for stayman apples, if out of stock).

We bring the freshest, highest-quality produce, meat, dairy, and pantry goods right to your doorstep from farmers and producers in the Mid-Atlantic region (and sometimes beyond) who share our values of Good Food. With 4P, you are voting with your fork for a more sustainable and equitable food system for everyone.

Our produce offerings vary with the seasons. In the Spring, you’ll see asparagus and strawberries. In the summer, tomatoes and sweet corn. Autumn equals apples and leafy greens. And in the Winter, it’s a mix of local greenhouse-grown produce like lettuce and storage crops like butternut squash, artisan goods from local makers, and fruits and vegetables from farmers further south. 

Year-round, we offer great local meats and dairy from animals raised on open pasture and treated with dignity throughout their lives, as well as delicious pantry goods like pastas, jams, and more made by local artisans. We also aim to curb waste by packaging food in eco-friendly totes that are returned and reused.

The short answer: we source locally and regionally from a network of over 200 small, independent farmers, most of them located in the Mid-Atlantic. Does that mean it’s “local?” That depends on where you live and how you define it, so we often use the term “regional” to describe our sourcing practices.

The longer answer: it depends on the item and the season. Avocados don’t grow in the Mid-Atlantic, so we buy them from a fair-trade cooperative in Peru (read more about our sourcing of tropical items on our blog here). As another example, we can offer peak-season strawberries longer by following their season up from the Carolinas in early spring through Virginia and beyond into mid-summer. 4P is a founding member of the Eastern Food Hub Collaborative, a network of other food hubs like us up and down the Eastern Seaboard who all work with their own vetted networks of small, sustainable farmers and work together to increase the variety and supply of produce available from this region.

Read our growing collection of farmer profiles for more information about our food and the people behind it.

Some of it is USDA-certified organic, and some of it is not (not all farmers who use organic practices choose to get certified). While certifications are certainly important, what is most important to us is Good Food.

Good Food provides nourishment and enables people to thrive, is equitably accessible to everyone in the region, is produced in a manner that is environmentally regenerative, comes from a supply chain in which every being is treated with respect and dignity, and improves health outcomes and economic security for all.

We work with farmers who are good stewards of their resources, including land, water, and labor. Our farmer profiles are a great place to get more information about each farmer and their growing practices. While we embrace a local and regional food system, you can choose to customize your bags to include only local products, for example.

Our long-term goal is to be 100% supporting regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture seeks not only to maintain but also to increase soil health, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity.

Our mission is to empower you to transform the food system.

And how do we do that, you ask? Every purchase you make with 4P allows you to live your values via a short, transparent supply chain and to know that you are supporting a company seeking far more than profit (in fact, the 4P's are an expansion of the idea of the triple bottom line: People, Planet, Prosperity, and Purpose). Everything we do aims to help small and mid-sized family farmers and artisans not just to survive, but to thrive, while also helping ensure that all people have equitable access to the Good Food produced by these farmers.

We believe that Good Food— food that is traceable, nutritious, accessible, and produced in a system that empowers farmers and sustains the environment— should be the norm, not the exception, and we actively work to make that vision a reality each and every day. Every purchase with 4P not only supports a growing network of small family farms and artisan producers in the region, but also advances equitable access to fresh healthy food in the communities we serve.

After you choose your bag(s), head over to the shop to browse that week’s available items and add anything you would like. You can choose if you want this item just one time, or on a recurring basis (based on availability). 

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Try clicking the magnifying glass in the corner to search for a specific item.

We carefully inspect, sanitize, and reuse them, so we would love to have them back! To help minimize both cost and waste, please return the old bags, cooler boxes (tote bag, cooler packs, and insulated box included), and any glass milk bottles to the same place where your bags were dropped off. We’ll send you a reminder email the day before your delivery so that our driver can pick them when they deliver the next day. We’ll then sanitize them for reuse. With your help, it’s a win-win! Thank you!

Check out this helpful food storage blog post for an encyclopedic collection of storage advice (it’s also linked in our weekly newsletters). 

Need recipes or cooking inspiration? You’ll find some recipes featured in our weekly newsletter, and you can also check out our 4PFoods Pinterest board. We frequently add new recipes that reflect what’s fresh in the shop each week. 

The recipes in the newsletter are curated to reflect the items in the bags that week, while the Pinterest board is organized by what type of food or veggie you are using. Looking for recipes for beets? Winter squash? Collard greens? We’ve got you covered! If you don’t use Pinterest and are a 4P Foods member, feel free to email us about accessing our guest Pinterest account.

Thank you--we love when 4P Foods members want to spread the word! Refer a friend, and you both get $10 off. From the “My Account” menu, select “Referrals” to find your unique referral link. Share this link with friends, family, and colleagues, and for anyone who signs up with this link and makes a purchase, both you and your referee get a $10 credit.

Yes! Please contact our wholesale team at sales@4pfoods.com to learn more about how you can bring Good Food to your business.

Fill out our Wholesale Contact Form, so our sales team can assist you. 

We carry produce, dairy, protein (chicken, beef, turkey tofu, & pork), pantry items, and beverages too! Please reach out to sales@4pfoods.com for our detailed availability list.

Our weekly delivery schedule is as follows...

Monday: Charlottesville, Richmond

Tuesday: Charlottesville, DC

Wednesday: Charlottesville, Valley, Roanoke 

Thursday: Charlottesville, Richmond

Friday: Charlottesville, DC

For items that we stock in our warehouse regularly (produce, pantry & frozen items) we request you get orders in by 1pm the day before your scheduled delivery. There are a handful of perishable items that we do not stock regularly in our warehouse that require about a week of lead time for us to pre-order and then send out to you.

Perishable items require pre order. Chicken, pork, beef, turkey, cheese, milk, herbs, fresh pasta, kombucha kegs, and salsa are items that we bring in our warehouse on an as needed basis. Please reach out to sales@4pfoods.com for a detailed pre-ordering schedule.

Yes, 4P Foods does have an order minimum. Contact sales@4pfoods.com for more details.

We source locally and regionally from a network of over 200 small-to-mid-sized, independent farmers.

Why source regionally? For example, by sourcing regionally and using a network of other food hubs, we can offer peak-season strawberries longer by following their season up from the Carolinas in early spring through Virginia and beyond into mid-summer.

4P is a founding member of the Eastern Food Hub Collaborative, a network of other food hubs like us up and down the Eastern Seaboard who all work with their own vetted networks of small, sustainable farmers and work together to increase the variety and supply of produce available from this region.

Feel free to check out our growing collection of farmer profiles for more information about our food and the people behind it.