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Is anyone interested in starting a food coop in Peoria? I am, but I have no time to organize this. If someone wants to get this started, I will help by blogging about it!
Here's the idea from NewsAnchorMom Reader Sheila:
I agree that healthy food is very important...so why is it so expensive? I'm looking into joining a food co-op in the Peoria area and there are none; the closest one is in Galesburg. With all the GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) entering our food chain, organic foods are becoming more popular and sought out. Since these tend to be more expensive, my theory is if bought in bulk and then split up between families...the cost surely would be less. If anyone has an interest or ideas on how to get a food co-op started, please let me know. Thanks, Sheila sbannister@yahoo.com
-NewsAnchorMom Jen
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7 comments:
I'll do it, but like you no time to organize.
I live in Galesburg and had not heard that there's a food co-op here. Where is it supposed to be, Sheila?
I do belong to a food coop/buying club based out of Metamora. I love it...I can get healthy, GMO, organic foods for my family. It helps greatly with dealing with finding safe alternatives for my children with food allergies as most other grocery sources are not accommodating to the type of allergies we cope with...local health food stores are too expensive to purchase from.
My dream is that someday this area has a free standing food coop that would be sustained by "owners" as well as community members who could benefit from an established, free standing cooperative.
I looked into starting up a buying club in the area. It wouldn't be a store/coop per se, but rather a means for a group of people to buy in bulk from organic distributors. I ordered a catalog from :
http://www.unitedbuyingclubs.com/
Last year I talked to a few other families that were interested, but having a location and enough to participate was problematic.
Do you know how to contact the food co-op in Metamora? I belong to two co-ops already (Angelfood Ministries and S.H.A.R.E.) but may be interested in adding another. I live in Glasford, and pick up both co-op orders once a month in Mapleton.
http://www.wcifoodcoop.com/index.html
The above website is for the food co-op in Galesburg. Here is the reply I got back from them:
"Our coop orders once a month, with the order meeting on a Monday evening and the pick-up on a Tuesday evening. The next order meeting is November 17, with the pick-up being December 2. You can send me an order online before the order meeting if you don't want to come both days.
You can look up items on the UNFI web site using the username and password listed on our website. This pre-order would be due to me by the Friday prior to the order meeting. There is a one-time fee of $10.00 to join and a markup on the food of either 1% or 10%, depending on your 'working' status.
If you have more questions, please feel free to call me at (309) 342-3232. If I'm not home, please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Sincerely, Twila Mustain"
In researching I did find out there is a difference between a food co-op and a buying club. Here is another good link to check this out:
http://www.coopdirectory.org/
It gives a lot of helpful information and background on co-ops. It also has a directory to see if their is one near you in your state. There is not one listed for Metamora but they might not have submitted theirs to the national listing.
I love the idea of buying in bulk from organic distributors...this is intended to be a non-profit thing...to keep costs down for families.
S.H.A.R.E. is a good thing but you don't get to pick the food that is in it.
Thanks to 'rixblix' for the website! How many families did you need to begin? I may have a location in Chillicothe.
A couple of year back this idea was raised and Councilman Gulley and several others, myself included spent nearly a year discussing this. The entire thing got out of hand and the coop they ended up trying to build was going to be a gigantic thing in direct copy of one in Chicago. This area couldn't sustain it and the entire idea was dropped. No one on that particular committee wanted to keep it simple and get it off the ground and so all was lost. There should be minutes of this committee either in Gulley's office or the City Hall somewhere. You might want to look them up and get some information, especially where they intended to start this project. Its a good idea just needs good management.
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