Community & Environmental Justice, Purchasing, Food

The goal is to establish a purchasing coop through Equal Exchange.

South Shore
Halifax, MA 02338
United States

The challenge is that the majority of the food that is consumed in the US is generated by a small number of large corporations.  This project will give participants the opportunity to purchase Fair Trade certified products, like coffee and tea from a small, local, employee owned company.  Besides the benefit of supporting a local business, this project will have a social factor.  There will be time to chat and build relationships around the pickups.  Perhaps fellow participants will coordinate grabbing an order for a neighbor.  This has the potential to build greater community than a trip to the grocery store.

I will start small, with a few classmates from my Permaculture Design Certificate course.

I will create a Google Sheet with tabs for instructions, orders and other information.

Participants will enter the items they want to order on the spreadsheet and I will place the order on a predetermined date.  First order is scheduled to be placed on 08/25/2023.

Once the we are comfortable with the process, more participants can be invited.  

As of 08/25/2024 the instruction tab looks like this:

Instructions:

Enter your information on the Contact List tab, if you have not already

Go to https://shop.equalexchange.coop/

Decide what you would like to purchase - don't add anything to your cart

Fill in the info on the current order tab - ex: "26AUG2023 Order"

Blue shaded column is a formula, don't enter anything in that column

Send your payment to David via Venmo - @davbak1 or drop cash off before the upcoming order date

Use the friend mode for Venmo, not the Goods or Service setting.

David will place the order on the order date

Products will ship to 11 Pheasant Hill Rd in Halifax

David will let you know when shipment has arrived

Let David know when you want to pick up your order

Pick up your order at 11 Pheasant Hill Rd in Halifax

Other Notes:

This is a work in progress - things may get tweaked as we go along

We don't have a set scheduled for orders - right now it is basically when the Baker's are almost out of coffee

You are welcome to split cases with others

If David notices potential for splitting cases he will let you know.

Free shipping starts at $135 - David will order more if needed

Add to the Other Alternative Sources tab if you know of any good places that we might have access to.

Participants will put the following info on the contact list tab:

Name

Street

Town

Phone

An example of what the Order tab looks like:

Name	Product	Quantity	Unit of Measure	Grind	Price	Total
David Baker	Organic Breakfast Blend Coffee, 5lb Whole Bean	1	2 Pack	Whole Bean	$101.00	$101.00
Ted Lasso	Organic French Roast	1	2 pack	Whole bean	$101.00	$101.00
Walter White	Organic Breakfast Blend Coffee, 5lb Whole Bean	1	Bag	Whole Bean	$58.00	$58.00
Bonnie McMurray	Organic Irish Breakfast Tea	1	6 pack		$21.60	$21.60
Nathaniel Rateliff	Organic Breakfast Blend Coffee, 5lb Whole Bean	1	1 bag	Whole Bean	$58.00	$58.00

Check out the file below to see what we have on the Other Alternate Sources tab.  (ran out of room here)
 

Food, Fair Trade, Coffee, Tea, Co-Op, community