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This case study was written by Cultivate Next, Chipotle's venture fund.
At Chipotle, sourcing fresh, local ingredients from small and/or family-owned farms is one of the ways we Cultivate a Better World. For over a decade, our Local Grower Support Program has helped us build a more sustainable and resilient food system. In 2024 alone, we purchased over 47 million pounds of produce from local farms across North America.
As the program continued to grow, we saw an opportunity to partner with a technology company that could support our next chapter. In 2023, through our Cultivate Next venture fund, we invested in Local Line, a software platform purpose-built to empower farms and food buyers to streamline their local sourcing programs.
“We wanted a simple, scalable system that could support the continued growth of our local program,” says Erin Massa, Senior Director of Produce at Chipotle. “Cole and the team at Local Line impressed us not only with their platform, but also with how quickly they were able to add the features we needed.”
Before Local Line, our Produce team used a combination of internal tools and external vendors to manage communications, food safety documentation, ordering, and fulfillment. It worked to get us to this point, but to support future growth we needed a platform that could bring our entire program into one place while giving our local growers a user-friendly experience.
When we found Local Line in late 2022, the fit was clear. There were other platforms that focused solely on logistics or broad procurement, but Local Line was built specifically for the needs of our growers and our distribution centers.
“Local Line immediately stood out,” says Bianca Annereau, Senior Manager of Produce Procurement at Chipotle. “They understood the grower side and the buyer side, which is rare. They mapped the platform perfectly to match the way we run our local program.”
Chipotle officially launched with Local Line in January 2023 and the onboarding process was seamless: Local Line brought in all our existing local growers and integrated with every one of our distribution centers. Their team worked hand-in-hand with ours to ensure that everything from documentation to logistics was fully supported.
Our growers noticed the difference right away. “Farmers immediately appreciated that this was a platform built for them,” Bianca says. “They found it intuitive and helpful from day one.”
Our internal teams benefited greatly as well. With Local Line, we now have one centralized dashboard where we can track our local pounds, view orders, delivery windows, and key food safety documents. It has reduced time spent on administrative tasks and helped us stay focused on our strategic growth.
Chipotle holds the highest standards for food safety, and any new system adopted needs to reflect that. Over the course of a year, we worked closely with the Local Line team to build robust food safety workflows that adhere to Chipotle’s guidelines.
“We spent nearly a year working closely with Local Line to share what makes a leading food safety program,” says Vyom Mehta, Senior Manager of Food Safety at Chipotle. “They built much of that knowledge and criteria directly into their platform, and now it’s helping other buyers hold a higher standard too.”
Since implementing Local Line, the results have been encouraging:
“Local Line’s platform gave us the clarity and control we needed to grow this program with confidence,” Erin says.
One of the most exciting outcomes of our partnership has been the launch of our local farm grant program, aimed at supporting often small or family-owned farms located near new Chipotle restaurant openings. In 2024, we issued grants to 100 farms, helping them improve sustainability, scale production, and invest in infrastructure.
This program simply wouldn’t be possible without Local Line’s deep connection to thousands of American and Canadian farmers. Their network has allowed us to identify eligible farms quickly and ensure support reaches those best positioned to succeed. The 2024 program exceeded expectations, and we’re thrilled to be running it again in 2025.
Our investment in Local Line through Cultivate Next has supported not just our growth, but theirs as well. Since our investment, Local Line has:
Our investment in Local Line is about more than just technology—it’s about supporting a shared vision for the future of food. We believe that empowering farms with the right tools and connecting them to the right buyers is how we build a more sustainable, transparent, and resilient supply chain.
Together, we’re proving that local sourcing at scale is not only possible, it’s the future.
Meet the farmers who grow for Chipotle: https://farmers.chipotle.com
Explore Local Line's platform and features: https://www.localline.co
