How to Find & Join a Food Buying Club (or Start One of Your Own)

Part 3 of 3 on Food Buying Clubs

Today I'm going to show you how to find, join or start a food buying club. So let's get started.

How do you find a food buying club or others who are interested in starting or joining one?

• Google It - Enter the keywords "food buying club ____________", replacing the blank with the name of your city, town, state and/or province.
• Whole food blogs - like this one.
• Craigslist or Kijiji - Create a post or page describing how you're looking for a food buying club. Ask people to get in touch if they're interested.
• Farmer's Markets - Ask people you meet at your favorite market if they know of or are interested in forming a food buying club. You might also be allowed to set up a stand where you can pass out brochures of your plans and take down the contact info of anyone interested in your area. But definitely check with the market organizers first.

When you find other people who are interested in creating or being part of a food buying club, what should you do next?

First and foremost, hold a meeting that all interested people can attend. At this first meeting:

• Talk about the benefits of being members of a food buying club.
• Make sure to emphasize that the food buying club is a cooperative effort.
• It's important to get everyone involved right away, so don't be shy to ask people to take part.
• Give your food buying club a name. Also give your club a backup name in case the wholesale distributor you'll eventually be doing business with already has a relationship with a club of the same name.
• It's a good idea to set up some kind of organizational committee. The committee would be responsible for price guides, order grouping, arranging the delivery location (as well as its maintenance, if applicable), bookkeeping, supplies, and the break down of the large group order into the individual orders.

Get lots of help!

Don't try to shoulder all the responsibility yourself. If it's really going to happen that way, you may as well just sell memberships and let the others in the club simply place their orders, pay the money for their order, and pick up their individual order when it's ready to be brought home. If that's what you want, that's okay. But if you want lots of help, then don't be afraid to ask for and expect it.

I hope this post--and the other two posts on food buying clubs--has been helpful to you. I've only scratched the surface here on Whole Food Sourcing, so for more information about food buying clubs, check out the following links:

Start a Buying Club
Co-op Directory Service
United Buying Clubs.com
Annie's Buying Club
Crown O' Maine Organic Co-operative
Ontario Natural Food Co-op