Announcing our new bulk-buying club! We need YOUR input…

(This post brought to you by Wendy Pelton, the coordinator of Skookum’s soon-to-be-launched bulk-food buying project. Please read it carefully and help us out by responding to the online survey. We want your input!)

Great News! Thanks to Skookum, the opportunity to participate in a Bulk-food Buying Club (BBC) is returning to the Upper Sunshine Coast. Or, more accurately, it soon will be with your help.

What’s special about this new BBC? Ours may be a little more high-tech and easier to use than prior clubs, thanks to online ordering. Over time, this club will be able to directly connect its members with local farmers’ products online, making buying and selling locally easier than ever.

Why does Skookum want to organize a BBC? Well, through the availability of bulk food orders, we hope to increase people’s individual and household food security by encouraging and facilitating food storage.  We want good food to be more affordable to all.  We seek to increase the food independence of our local community by establishing our own systems of procurement and by increasing our involvement with local producers.  We anticipate bringing members together as a community, as we work together and celebrate together in the management of the BBC. Lastly, we believe a local BBC will provide economic support to our community through employment, increased local farm production, and contributions to local charities and other valuable community projects.

Why might you want to participate in a BBC? Well, when used regularly, a BBC makes organic and healthy food more affordable, encourages healthier eating, promotes cooking from scratch, and lets us spend our money more wisely. Regular use results in an automatically full pantry year-round, which can prevent a minor panic at dinner time or a major panic during a strike or natural disaster. Vegetarians, vegans, non-dairy & gluten-free folks will thrill to the extensive choices available to them. A full pantry means fewer trips to town, less gasoline consumed, and cleaner air. What’s not to like?!?

We hope to begin ordering by the end of July. However, first, we need solutions to some important questions, which you can help us answer. We want this BBC designed to work best for you, our members, so we need to know:

  1. What do we call it?
  2. What should be our slogan?
  3. What should we use for a logo?
  4. Should we offer only organic items?
  5. Should we offer refrigerated or frozen foods?
  6. Should we offer non-food items?
  7. How often do we want to order?
  8. Whom do we want to use as suppliers?
  9. Who will volunteer to be on our steering committee?
  10. Who would like to be part of our advisory group?

Please help us race toward a launch, by first learning more about these issues on our webpage, then sharing your answers to these questions at our super-simple online survey.

Have ideas that didn’t fit on the survey?Please send them to me at wendy.pelton <at> shaw dot ca.I have a list of what I would like to have seen changed at my old food coop — maybe you have one, too, that could help us now.

Looking forward to re-building my own abundant pantry, alongside you,
Wendy