Another Successful Shopping Round for the WMC!
The April shopping round of the West Michigan Co-op has come and gone and it was a big success, thanks to the help of many volunteers and the support of about 70 West Michigan residents who shopped to the tune of $3,300.
We've invited an additional 50 members to join for our May cycle, so our numbers will no doubt go up next month! It looks like shopping will take place roughly between May 11 and 17 with the pickup day being May 24. Note: For farmers market season, which monopolizes farmers' time on Saturdays during the growing season, we've switched from a Saturday pickup to a Thursday evening pickup.
This is fun!
Each month it's like Christmas morning -- you forget what you ordered and then on pick-up day it's like opening a present will all these cool, local gifts inside.
On the horizon: We're assembling a board and coming up with by-laws and soon will be figuring out our membership fee structure and surcharges to help us cover expenses like the freelance accountant we hired to handle our money each month. Thanks for your patience as we build this thing!
4 comments:
How do you contact a producer who does not have contact information on their page? I need to let Freeport Flyers Farm know about a quality issue with the tomatoes I ordered, but have no way of contacting them.
HI laura,
this is freeport flyers farm co owner
dave.what was wrong with the tomatoes?Did the co-op tell you about them when you pick up your order?We told them to tell you need to remove them from the bag same as soon as you got home.due to new changes in how we had to deliver them we had start put order to together on friday night,becuase we had some many orders ,plus our home framer market open last sat. so we double the work,We will be at HASTINGS FARMER MARKET THIS SAT. UNTILL ONE ,just come to the market and we will replace them,but next time remove from them as soon as you get home ok,p.s.email freeportflyersfarmorders@yahoo.com
Dave,
Thank you for getting back with me. I did remove the tomatoes from the bag as soon as I returned home Saturday. That's when I discovered they were soft and moldy. I just wanted to let you know about the problem. The tomatoes were obviously beyond their peak and would have been so Friday when they were packed. I will not be able to get to the farmer's market this weekend, but wanted to let you know about the situation.
Thank you,
Laura
Hello... I'm wondering if you've considered doing an order cycle every two weeks.
I know for myself as a producer it would be easier to schedule it more often than less often. Also, as a buyer, I'd rather get fresh things more often.
One of my CSA members who just got invited to order in May said he didn't know how much they'd use it since it was only once a month. They wouldn't know how much to order to last a month, some products don't last that long, and they don't have freezer space to store the ones that do.
I know it is still in the early stages, and basically volunteer, but I thought I'd throw out the idea for you to think about. I like the metaphor of Christmas morning, but really we want customers to look at this as "my weekly shopping". That's how we will really change our food consumption.
Summer is not the best time to try this, but maybe by fall we could attempt it. Do you plan to survey members and producers to see what they prefer?
Thanks for all your effort on this! It's been lots of fun, and is filling a real need. Keep up the good work!
Post a Comment