When Nicolle Timm, the founder and owner of Central Oregon Locavore, and her boyfriend eat meals at home, she said they take inventory of the food on their plates.

“We take a mental tour of where our food comes from,” she said. “This cheese comes from Cada Dia; this roast comes from Dancing Cow; these greens come from Redtail Farm, etcetera.”

Timm, 34, makes it a priority to eat locally grown, fresh food. In fact she rarely goes to the grocery store. Instead, she gets her food from local farms.

Eating locally isn’t only about eating healthy, the Bend native believes. It’s also about supporting local farmers and the economy. To promote the local-food movement and provide Central Oregon residents access to locally grown or produced food, Timm began Central Oregon Locavore, a year-round online farmers market. She plans to take the business a step further, opening a retail location this summer.

Since the business started two years ago, she said, sales have tripled. She attributes the growth to the organization’s outreach and educational programs that have made residents aware of local food options and the importance of sourcing locally.

“We work hard to get out there, educate and spread the word,” she said.

“Nationally, local food is becoming more of a hot topic and that’s helping us too.”

With the growth of the business, Timm said the current store, a shared location on Southeast Wilson Avenue that serves as a biweekly drop-off and pick-up location, is becoming obsolete.

“With the growing season rapidly approaching, Locavore needs to transplant its headquarters to a new space that is larger, more convenient and will maintain regular business hours,” she said.

Once the retail store opens, Locavore customers will be able to stop and shop, she said, in addition to ordering online.

“We will have a retail store to expand our offerings,” she said. “But the bigger vision is to have it be a local food hub for Central Oregon … a headquarters where the community can go to easily access local food and get involved.”

Timm said the retail location will also serve as a home base for educational programs and workshops.

“The idea is shop local first and supplement afterwards,” she said. “We know that this store won’t have everything that shoppers are looking for and they’ll have to supplement their shopping with other stores. But customers can be assured that what we do have is the most local and sustainably produced products available at the time.”

She said it will also be a resource for local farmers.

“A lot of the farms are on the edge,” she said, referring to their financial situations. “If they don’t get (the) support they need soon, they’re going to have to seek off-farm jobs.”

The new location will give farmers a place to sell smaller quantities of crops that would be too small for a local grocer to carry, she said.

The business operates with all-volunteer labor, she said. Any profit goes back into the organization. Timm expects a retail store will help the company earn a larger profit.

“People are so busy (that) thinking ahead to order and then remembering to pick up the order is a lot to ask,” she said. “If there was a retail (location) and they could swing by on their way home from work for last-minute stuff or impulse buys, it would be a lot easier.”

Timm wants to move into a new location by June 1. To start the store, Timm estimates she needs $25,000. She’s starting a fundraising campaign that will kick off at the Earth Day Fair in downtown Bend on Saturday.

“We need the community support to get this food hub established,” she said. “You can’t make enough money to get something like this started through a traditional business model. A community food hub has to be kick-started by the community.”

Q: What kinds of educational and outreach programs does Central Oregon Locavore offer?

A: Locavore has designed, organized and implemented several programs over the last two years that serve to support our mission to create a thriving local economy. These programs include community mixers, Farm Kids!-Kids Dig it, the Locavore Home Companion blog and Meet Your Farmer dinners. The programs are housed under a nonprofit umbrella (organization) called the Local Commerce Alliance, which will launch this fall.

Q: Is the local food movement growing in Bend?

A: It’s picking up, but to sustain farms and a business like Locavore, more people need to get on board. There’s not a lot of food being produced in Central Oregon at this time, definitely not enough to sustain the population. The goal is to boost our food production so we can be increasingly self-sufficient in Central Oregon.

Q: Who will run the retail store?

A: I am expecting to have a store manager and a website manager. There will be a mix of paid and volunteer hours to start with. We are still working on the details.

Q: What do you do to support yourself since you are technically a volunteer?

A: I work as a labor and delivery nurse at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend and Redmond.

The basics

What: Central Oregon Locavore

Employees: One employee, five core volunteers

Where: 910 S.E. Wilson Ave.

Phone: 541-633-0674

Website: http://centraloregon locavore.com

If you go:

What: Central Oregon Locavore Campaign Kickoff

When: Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: Earth Day Fair 16 N.W. Kansas Ave. Bend