Green Sanctuary Natural Foods Cooperative Buying Club
What is a Buying Club?
A buying club is a group of people who pool their time, resources, and buying power to save money on high quality healthful foods.
Members of a buying club share the work and expenses involved in acquiring and distributing the food to their group. Each member contributes to the buying club by doing at least one job, and the buying club in turn benefits from the talents and skills of many.
Members divide the work equally among themselves, trading their time for the lower prices. Members also enjoy the camaraderie of working with other people in their community.
How Do Buying Clubs Operate?
There are 5 basic steps to buying food through a buying club:
Members combine their individual orders into a single order. United Natural Foods supplies FoodLink software for Buying Clubs free of charge to our customers. FoodLink makes it quick and simple to combine member orders into a single order. Usually, members pay in advance for their order so that the buying club has the money to pay the driver at the time of delivery.
The combined and collated order is sent to the warehouse through the internet ('ftp' or email), by fax or by phone.
The truck delivers to your prearranged location. At least three buying club members need to be on hand to unload and receive the order.
Members divide up the order among the individual households.
Household bills are recomputed after delivery to account for any discrepancies. The buying club keeps track of additional charges or credits which may be carried over to the following month's order. FoodLink takes care of these functions easily.
Why Join a Buying Club?
In addition to being able to access and purchase high quality natural and organic foods and products and the cost savings available from buying directly from the warehouse, there are many other reasons to start or join a buying club.
to get to know other people with similar interests from your community
to support organic farmers
to be a part of a cooperative food system that is owned and controlled by people who use the products, and to work together to serve your needs
to learn new skills, such as using a computer or bookkeeping
to revitalize your neighborhood, small town or rural area by gaining access to high quality natural foods and products which might not otherwise be available
to learn more about natural food, nutrition and cooking
How Does Delivery Work?
Our delivery is every fourth Tuesday between noon and 3pm. Of course, weather and driving conditions can impact this. Therefore, the group coordinator will be in touch with the driver and will confirm the time with group members.
Each member is expected to attend the pick-up (delivery) meeting in order to verify their order and take their items. If you know you will not be able to attend the meeting, it is your responsibility to arrange for someone else to pick-up your order. No items can be left on the premises, as there is no refrigerated storage facility.
The pick-up location is at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Hagerstown, located at:
13245 Cearfoss Pike
Hagerstown, MD 21740
Where Can I Get More Info?
To get more information on buying clubs and the products available, visit the United Buying Clubs website at: http://www.unitedbuyingclubs.com.
Group E-mail List http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSCo-op/
This group is used to facilitate orders and communication between members, but feel free to join and post questions to see if you'd be interested in participating.
Fees
$15 one-time membership fee
This cost goes items needed for order distribution, such as containers, scales, etc.
$12/year - catalog subscription
This is prorated from January.
There are no additional fees, other than the cost of your order. There is no individual minimum amount required to place an order, though the group must meet a combined minimum ($1000) for a group order to be placed.
Contact Info
Group Coordinator (Orders/Delivery & Catalog Subscriptions) Mindy Cawley hbmindy@comcast.net or 301-416-0005
New Member Coordinators (General & Membership Info) Karen Poston kbochick@gmail.com or 301-797-7948
