Veggie Co-op

About 7 years ago or so I joined a veggie co-op in the area.  The co-op consists of 12 families who pool their money together to buy fruits and vegetables at Collins Bros. Produce www.collinsbrosproduce.com at wholesale prices.  Not only has this saved our family money, we have learned to love and eat a larger variety of produce.

Here's how it works.  One of the members is the coordinator.  I was the coordinator for two years at the very beginning of my co-op days.  The coordinator collects $30 from each member (family) each month.  The coordinator makes a shopping calendar where each family is assigned two shopping days for the year.  The first and third Thursdays are shopping days.  On co-op day, the person (family) in charge of shopping calls Collins Bros. to make the order, drives to the warehouse, picks up and pays for produce, returns to coordinators house, divides produce between 12 baskets, and then calls each member to pick up.  The coordinator pays back the shopper from money collected. 

Being the shopper takes a bit of your time, but you only shop 2 times a year, and you get to choose the produce you know that you and your family love.  The other 22 times of the year, you are at the mercy of the other shoppers.  (I still love the surprise of seeing what I get!)

Ordering produce: $180 per shopping trip, paying equal amounts for fruits ($90) and vegetables ($90).  Of course, produce is bought by the case.  Produce prices are affected by season and other factors.  Prices change week to week, month to month.  We're always trying to get the best price possible, passing up on a fruit or vegetable if the price is too high that week.

So every other week, each family gets a large box of produce for $15.  Usually each box has 5-6 different fruits and 5-7 vegetables.  I guess we may save half over what you can pay at the grocery store.

Any person can call and order from Collins Bros., but you must purchase the quantity they offer.  For example, lettuce is packaged at 24 heads per case, apples come around 100 a box etc.  Anyone can start their own co-op.  12 families is a good number because most of the produce is easily divided by 12 and the quantities can be large.