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
Our vendors:
United Natural Foods
United Natural Foods is a wholesaler who sells to The Common Market and most grocery stores in the area. They carry almost anything you see at the Common Market, except for fresh produce. They have bulk foods, canned food, frozen food, snack foods, etc. Most everything is sold by the case, so we try to split cases among members so you don't have to buy 12 boxes of cereal. Our members get a 5 percent discount off the wholesale catalog price.
Our delivery is every 4th Tuesday, usually somewhere around 1:00 in the afternoon. The truck delivers to the UU Church on Cearfoss Pike in Hagerstown. We take turns on "delivery crew" to sort the items and get them ready for pickup. Everyone must come pick up their orders when they arrive or make arrangements for someone to do this, as we have no place for storage. Ordering is all done online and payment is made ahead of time through PayPal.
No membership fee is due until your second order, so we encourage you to try out the group before committing. To begin order, contact the coordinator (Mindy Cawley, hbmindy@comcast.net) and she will set you up with a login for www.unfi.org/er, the online ordering system. You will also need funded PayPal (paid from your bank account NOT credit card).
To get more information on buying clubs and the products available, visit the United Buying Clubs website at: http://www.unitedbuyingclubs.com.
We also do a weekly organic produce co-op through Tuscarora Organic Growers in Pennsylvania. Tuscarora is a co-op of regional, small, family farms based near Mercersburg, PA. They are all organic and most all the farms are with an hour of Mercersburg. It's mostly seasonal produce, although they do get organic citrus from Florida in the winter.
That delivery comes to a members home in the north Hagerstown, off Longmeadow Blvd. The produce delivery is every Tuesday, usually in the afternoon. Again, members need to be able to pick up their orders in a fairly timely manner, although we do usually have a few hours of flexibility, depending on weather.
We order online, through a Google spreadhsheet. Again, everything is sold by the case, so we work cooperatively to split cases of items. Payment is made by check when you pick up your produce.
Frontier
We also do a monthly Frontier order. These prices are really good. United carries most of this same stuff, but it's much cheaper through Frontier. We usually order right around the beginning of the month. Payment is made via paypal, before the order is placed. Krista Anderson has been organizing this co-op and it is delivered via UPS to her house, then distributed as it's convenient.
Regular wholesale orders are also placed through Natural Zing and Blue Mountain Organics, both of whom offer a variety of specialty raw and organic foods.
Ready to Join?
Request to join our mailing list at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSCo-op/.
This mailing list 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. There is no
obligation to order, and no membership fees are due until after you've placed an order and decide it will work for you.
If you feel you need more information before signing up, please contact our New Member Coordinator (info below).
Fees
$25 one-time membership fee to include orders from all vendors, due upon your second order.
Produce orders include a 3 percent surchage on each order to cover administration costs.
These fees go to items needed for order distribution, such as containers, scales, etc.
$12/year - catalog subscription, if paper catalog is desired (on-line version available for free)
This is prorated from January.
To participate fully, you will need your own PayPal account, linked to your bank account, to faciliate funded payments of United orders, as well as, orders from other vendors.
Produce can be paid by cash or check up on pick-up.
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 United, $150 for produce and raw foods) 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 Coordinator (General & Membership Info) Tara Petite tara@petite.net or 301-393-8874
