The trend toward grocery delivery only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a trio of University of Oregon alumni—including one graduate from the Lundquist College—are setting Green Truck Grocery apart from other services with electric delivery vehicles, sustainable packaging, and a Hillsboro-area facility operating with renewable energy.
Green Truck Grocery opened in early November. The locally owned and eco-friendly online grocery store and delivery service operates in the Portland market and offers products including organic produce, meat, cheeses, household items, pet supplies, and other shelf-stable options. Whenever possible, Green Truck Grocery will source from Portland or Oregon-based farmers and producers. If a product isn’t made locally, they look to their neighbors in Washington and California, according to Green Truck cofounder Adam Poverman ’05 (sports marketing).
“We really want to give people another option besides corporate delivery services,” Poverman said. “There are fewer and fewer options for folks to shop locally owned grocery stores. All the big guys are owned out of state. Supporting businesses like ours helps keep money and jobs in the local economy.”
Poverman said he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do when he was in college, but he said attending the Lundquist College and working closely with the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship and the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center while a UO student helped him explore his career options.
Through the Lundquist College of Business, Poverman said he also learned the importance of communication in business, and the value of networking and cross promotion, as well as how to work within a group. What he knew for certain was that he wanted to work in a small business environment. He said he has founded that culture with Green Truck Grocery.
Poverman’s business is patterned after similar services in California, such as Good Eggs Organic Grocery Delivery Service and Farm Fresh to You operating in and around Sacramento and the Bay Area. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, the founders of Green Truck Grocery knew the time was right to execute their vision of bringing a similar service to Portland.
“That was where the market was going,” Poverman said, “When coronavirus hit, we hit the go button.”
It works like this: Consumers place their orders in advance through the Green Truck Grocery website, shopping from a curated selection of more than a thousand products. Deliveries are made on Sundays and Wednesdays.
Delivery is free in the greater Portland metropolitan area for orders over $50 and products are competitively priced with other premium grocery stores and grocery delivery services.
Products available through Green Truck Grocery come in curbside recyclable or compostable packaging. The cold packs are even Earth-friendly, with a liquid safe enough to feed to plants or that can be easily dumped down the drain, Poverman said. Once established, Green Truck Grocery plans on expanding to Eugene.
Along with Poverman, Green Truck Grocery founders include Zak Katz ’05 (geography) and Jeff Wilson ’05 (political science). The three met in college, and each founder has extensive experience in the food service industry, including managing a national food brand, running a catering company, and fine dining restaurant work.
“The three of us have separate backgrounds that we knew worked well together,” Poverman said.
—William Kennedy, Lundquist College Communications