It was whilst organising a college ball at Oxford University that friends and former engineering students Doug(las) Brierley and Fraser Rennie discovered that it was almost impossible to source locally produced food. 

Doug’s childhood was spent in New York and London, whilst Fraser had grown up in Glasgow, where his father was a fruit and veg wholesaler - so accessing good food was often front of mind for them. 

Around this time, Doug got talking to Janie Bickersteth from our OxFarmToFork’s initiative; he offered to build our earliest tech infrastructure by way of a spreadsheet with bespoke tools. This was used by the early adopters of the project, way back when it was still an informal WhatsApp group. 

A year later, we realised we needed a more robust platform, but we didn’t find one that truly served our purposes. Doug suggested that he and Fraser could build the platform for GFO, and their journey towards OxFarmToFork began. 

The pair graduated in 2023, walked straight into jobs in tech/AI, and it was whilst working at Amazon that Fraser met the third part of Tream, Dmytro "Dima" Kosmakov. Dima came to the UK from Ukraine, by way of Luxembourg, in 2023. He brought the experience and steady hand of a seasoned Tech Lead to this young team, and his expertise has been invaluable. 

Now, of course, things have come full circle, celebrating a year since launch; when we first connected with Doug and Fraser, they couldn’t source locally produced food. Now not only have they found a solution to the original problem but many colleges – from Pembroke to New College and Green Templeton – use OxFarmToFork’s produce at their college dinners and events. 

It only remains to say an enormous “THANK YOU, TREAM!” for the many thousands of hours they have put into supporting OxFarmToFork - from the initial spreadsheet to our wonderful Tream Market Place that we all use today. We couldn’t do it without you! 

So what is the Tream Market Place and why is it so special? 

Tream Market Place is a scalable platform that has been designed to serve similar communities to those in the OxFarmToFork network, and it bridges the gap between local buyers and sellers. It’s not just a place to sell produce. It also handles all the unglamorous but essential paperwork, from pick lists to invoices and credit notes, so that producers and buyers can focus on the amazing food. 

What motivates you to work with OxFarmToFork, especially given that it’s on the side of your day jobs? 

Fraser: “It’s being able to do genuinely impactful work, close to the producers and communities I studied around."

Doug: “Facilitating such a strong community around food and enabling new connections that would not have existed before. Seeing the operation in Oxford grow from a handful of people on a WhatsApp group to what it is today has been incredibly rewarding. I am so excited to take what we have built with everyone in Oxford and help growers and chefs across the country.”

Dima: “I moved to the UK from Ukraine, and building OxFarmToFork has been one of the most unexpected ways of feeling at home here. I've met incredible, passionate people and made good friends through this project. It reminded me why I got into software engineering in the first place: to solve real problems for real people. That feels rarer and more precious in the new AI era.”

tream.org.uk

--- Be Part of Oxfordshire’s Food Revolution ---  
Will your organisation be part of rebuilding a fairer, more sustainable food system? Get in touch today to help build a truly sustainable food system for Oxfordshire and beyond: oxfarmtofork@gfo.org.uk  
Want to learn even more? Explore our FAQs page,  Producer Map, and How It Works for more information. 

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