Food Co-op Meeting 7/5/07
Present: Ron (facilitator), Ann (notes), Rebbecca, Michelle, Ritu, Thiago, Dave, Andrea, Randy, Lara
Agenda:
- Bulk buy
- New farmer options
- Work Shifts
1. New Farmer Options
- Rebecca knows 2 options, both certified organic, she has been buying their food regularly
- May be able to provide better consistency of quality
- Priced per case of veggies, unclear whether it would
- Finley farms near Santa Barbara, on 10 acres, farmers are couple with baby
- send out a list each week, order by Friday, they pick the veggies Saturday
- open to arranging a delivery
- can build a priority list over time based on what people want
- Rebecca will get a list from McGrath? farms faxed to Dave’s office
- comment: can we have a tidier rap-up with our current farmer and stay on good footing with Jaime farms?
- comment: Jaime farms doesn’t seem to care very much, communication has been inconsistent, haven’t responded to concerns, Dave doesn’t feel like we need to be concerned about maintaining connections
- comment: this sounds a little more expensive, maybe 20% more? But more fresh might be worth it.
- comment: not as good as it can be, but don’t want to burn any bridges, need to make sure to let everybody know
- comment: maybe we should keep a log of what we get so we have a better sense of what we’re getting
- comment: we could charge the same, get better quality but less quantity
- comment: purposes of the log – record of what we’ve bought and how much
- Consensus: Weekly coordinator will be responsible for filling out a log sheet of what we get each week and Thiago will put it on the wiki.
- comment: using Finley farms doesn’t have to be a switch, could be an exploration
- comment: important to be able to rely on time of delivery, so maybe we should just go with Jaime farms this week
- comment: could explore using Dean’s truck for pick-up for the market
- seems to be general agreement that we should not burn our bridges and be kind if we stop using Jaime farms
- comment: Jaime farms is very cheap, why commit ourselves, we can “sleep around”
- comment: should try to have all information about delivery from Finley a week before; Rebecca will email them today
- comment: need to ask all farmers what the minimum amount is for it to be worth their while to do a delivery
- comment: farmers are used to not having consistent orders because many of the clients are high end restaurants
- do we want to work with multiple farmers or one at a time? given our current size, maybe one at a time
- comment: Ron had a great experience talking with Finley farms
- Consensus: Try out Finley farms for next week if we can get delivery arranged, while maintaining good relations with Jaime farms.
- Dave will call Rebecca to remind her on Monday.
- Randy can continue to send in the order, so Rebecca can introduce them.
- how will we do decision making about what produce to order?
- Randy and Lara will make the decision in consultation with Rebecca
- Ann will send an email to the listserv about Finley farms
- Randy will post on Fridays what we’re going to get for the week
2. Work Shifts
- people are forgetting to pay for their boxes on time, concern of Randy’s
- Ann, Ron and Thiago will informally meet with Randy to come up with a proposal by the next meeting; Ann will make sure what this happens
- Andrea was making phone calls to get people to sign up for workshifts, was productive the first time, frustrating and not productive the second time; she feels like we need to set boundaries
- Thiago proposes a new strategy: could we do every x Sunday of the month, could call them and remind them,
- could have a list, if you can’t show up, it is your responsibility to find someone else
- Dave volunteers to make the phone calls for July
- can also think about other systems, Bike Kitchen has a good system
3. Bulk Buy
- planning to order from Azure Standard
- can’t deliver here, need to go pick it up for now
- comment: don’t put too much energy into getting people to sign up if there is no minimum order
- Thiago learned about fabulous software to help do bulk buying that a co-op in Chicago uses, MS Dos based
- Michelle did an order with NELA last month
- deadline of July 11th
- Ritu, Dave, Michelle on team who will help divvy up after pick-up
- will see how
- Michelle can pick-up between 6 and 7, with at least one other volunteer, but will need to be reimbursed for gas
- Ann will add a “gas surcharge” to each person’s bulk order
Announcement
- Michelle has a bunch of Kettle chips for sale
- Will be showings of “The Real Dirt on Farmer John”
- Rebecca is doing several cooking classes and a laughter yoga class, will post
Date for next meeting: Wednesday, August 1st at 8pm
Bike Rack:
- decision making practices for the Food Lobby
- work shift policy, including consequence
- expansion and publicity