Most Exposed Food Guy

Mark Lilly

The former combat engineer behind the Farm to Family local-food bus and market gets more national publicity than anyone in Richmond food circles. His secret? Suzi Lilly, his wife, a former film publicist who knows how to network. So far, the bus has made it to the “Rachael Ray Show,” People magazine, the Huffington Post, Garden & Gun magazine, MichaelMoore.com, the BBC and a slew of other media outlets. Facebook friends number nearly 6,000, not bad for a two-year-old business that brings sustainable food to the community and grows some of its own.

Typical for Richmond, it’s still a bus that flies under most people’s radar. “When we were first on the BBC,” Suzi Lilly says, “people joined our Facebook page from all over the world — Indonesia, Europe, just all over — and then we do a Groupon here and people haven’t even heard of us.” They’re keeping the media pitches flying to The New York Times, Oprah and Barbara Walters, among others. So it’s only a matter of time before Richmond picks up the signal.

farmtofamilyonline.com.

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