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Food Buying Clubs

Unloading Food

Organic food buying clubs are a great way to get good food and build a sense of community in your neighborhood. There are cooperative food warehouses in various regions of the country that deliver to food clubs made up of neighbors or like minded persons. We get a delivery every six weeks from Blooming Prairie Cooperative Warehouse <http://bpco-op.com/> from Iowa City. There is usually a minimum order, our club’s minimum is $1000 which is easy to achieve with our ten members. The week before delivery, we order by computer out of a catalog. We all gather to meet the truck and unloading takes about 30 minutes. Food prices are a lot cheaper when you buy in larger quantities.

To start our food buying club I passed out the following letter to my neighbors.

Dear Neighbor,

My wife and I would like to invite you to join a block food buying club of mostly organic and natural foods. The club would buy in large enough quantities that we could get relatively inexpensive prices. For example you might buy a case of pasta sauce for about two thirds to one half of what you would spend at Wild Oats.

The reason we try to buy organic foods are many and somewhat complicated for this invitation. Briefly, we avoid residues of chemicals that could be on or in our food. We believe that food raised naturally has a better chance of having the maximum nutritional value compared with foods raised through artificial chemical processes. We also believe that the use of chemicals kills the life of the soil and by using organic foods we are encouraging more intelligent use of our precious natural resources. The chemicals used on the soil are petroleum based. Petroleum is a limited resource that shouldn’t be wasted to raise questionable food.

The food will be ordered every six weeks from a catalog. We will figure up how much our individual share costs and have our checks ready when the truck comes. We will meet the truck at some designated neighbor’s house, and haul our groceries home. We will then receive another catalog and begin the process over again.

The supplier we will be using is Blooming Prairie Warehouse Incorporated in Iowa City. Blooming Prairie <http://bpco-op.com/> is a cooperatively owned corporation that has been in business since 1974. They deliver to 800 groups like ours all over the Northern Midwest. We have previously purchased food through them and realized a great savings. If you don’t usually buy organic food you may find them a little more expensive due to the increased care in growing.

If you are interested and would like to see a catalog, please call me at 361-1230.

Sincerely,

Rahima & Marty Kraft
5644 Charlotte


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