How do food co-ops work?

Question

Is anyone part of a food co-op? How does it work? Where can I find out more - links? I live in a house with 6 girls - is this enough people to be considered a co-op? (we're vegetarian and prefer mostly organic food)

Answer 1

See http://www.oklahomafood.coop/ a food co-op run by Robert Waldrop. I DON'T speak for him, but I bet, if you ask him he'd probably freely tell you how to how set-up a co-op. He has helped other people set ones up.

Answer 2

Food Co-ops usually have a couple options you can choose to join:

1. You pay a yearly fee and receive a membership card that gives you a percentage discount every time you shop.

2. You pay a yearly fee and agree to work for three hours a month (or however they set it up) and you get an even bigger discount.

I would check your area for Co-ops on Yahoo yellow pages or another search engine. Go to the Co-op; they should have brochures explaining how you can join, how much your discount will be, etc.

It's a great concept if you're going to use it enough. I just live with my husband, so I just pay the full prices because I'm not sure it would pay off to join just for the two of us.

Happy Eating!

Answer 3

Food co-ops take more organization than most people are willing to deal with. Check out Mother Earth News archives . . . they've covered this topic severa times in the past. Six people in a singel house is probably not enough to be a co-op, although six households probably could manage.
You need enough people to buy in bulk or at warehouses and then divide the goods into the different shares. You could get a bale of toilet paper, q wheel of cheese, a 50 lb sack of flour, and 5 gallon jugs of stuff like cooking oil, pickles, mayonaise, etc., and vegetables by the crate or flat. Then people bring their containers to re-package the stuff they need. You have to all chip in before hand so you can purchase the stuff. The math can get complicated. Good luck.

Answer 4

It depends on how you look at a co-op. And I don't think you mean to have a food co-op, specifically.

Firstly, co-op is a derivative of cooperation. Every co-op consists of people working together to achieve a common goal.

A food co-op is when a group of people get together spcifically to order foods (often organic in nature) in large quantities so that then can then share and decrease expenses. In some instances, you can also achieve this with farmers and gardeners sharing their goods (like I grow tomatos and you grow lettuce).

A co-op can be a market place where people bring food and goods to trade instead of money.

In real estate, a co-op is a building or development where everyone owns a percentage share of the whole building or development, inside of their own individual spaces (unlike a condo). Depending on who your neighbors are... it can be a good thing or a bad thing.

You can achieve a co-op style of living in your own home simply by sharing. As a co-op, everyone adds to the pot, everyone pitches in. You cook together, you clean together. You work as a family would. You cooperate.

Six people is plenty to achieve that so long as you all want in!

Answer 5

my mom is in one. basically, you order food or whatever each month, or every other month, whatever you decide. then a truck comes and delivers everything to a location you choose - ours is at our church. the thing about a co-op is that most of the stuff you have to order in bulk, so you need to decide if you have enough people to do that. i think it's a great way if you want to eat organically. it's a money saver if you have the people because you are buying from a wearhouse and you are buying in bulk.
Hope that helped. Good luck.

edit
joyful is right, there is a fee you have to pay yearly... another reason to have enough people to split it. you can start your own or join one in your area.

Answer 6

The same way communism does