Thursday, August 28, 2008

Fruit & Veggie Co-op

This semester saw the start of a fruit and veggie co-op on campus, run by the Student Association. My friend Jacqui, who is also the welfare support worker, saw the need for cheap and healthy food for students who are often struggling to study, work, and afford rent, housing, and other necessities of life.

The way it works: you pay a $2 membership fee at the start of the semester, and then every Friday you place an order for the following week. Jacqui takes the money for that week’s orders and buys as much as she possibly can from a local wholesaler (produce comes from within ~300 km at most), and then splits it up evenly between the orders. For $12.50, I buy the smaller of the two options (the other is $25 I think, for a big box).

This week, my $12.50 got me this order, which is more than enough to sustain me for a week on produce-filled meals.

There is a red coral lettuce, 4 bananas, 6 tomatoes, an avocado, a bunch of carrots, 4 mandarins, 4 apples, a pumpkin wedge, 4 onions, 3 potatoes, half a cucumber and an ear of corn which didn’t make the photo.

When I supplement this with tofu, dried beans, and some veggies that we stuck in the freezer a few weeks ago, this order means that I don’t have to go grocery shopping, which is fantastic!

Plus, the amount of food in the small order fits perfectly (though heavily) inside of my backpack so I can bike it home.

11 comments:

Nicole said...

This is a really cool idea! The food looks delicious.

Groover said...

What a great initiative. Funny but AMR just sent me an email with a link to an organic fruit and veggie delivery service here in Brisbane - same sort of initiative. We are thinking about doing it. I haven't calculated but I don't think you could buy all this for $12.50 in the supermarket?

Amy said...

That's awesome. I remember my parents belonging to a food co-op in the late '70s. It was the beginning of my love of "health food."

I hope to join a CSA here next summer!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Fruits & vegetables, galore!! A VeggieGirl delight.

Bianca said...

That's really neat! I've been wanting to join a CSA, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to use all the stuff for little ol' me.

It's weird that you only got half a cucumber though. Who got the other half?

JENNA said...

Great idea. I love the 1/2 cucumber!

Theresa said...

I actually asked about the half-cuke. Apparently cucumbers come in boxes of 30, and this week there were 40 orders (a mix of large and small) so rather than order two boxes, they just gave half! A bit weird, but since they're not making any profit whatsoever, I can't complain :)

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

that's rad!

Katie said...

How cool! It looks like you got some good stuff this week.

the little one said...

Fantastic idea! I know you'll put all of this to good use.

Vegan_Noodle said...

What a great way to support local agriculture! I wish there was something like that around here!