May 10, 2000 / The Toronto Star / Madeleine Greey
Once every five or six weeks, the Ontario Natural Food Co-op delivery truck
lumbers up to Jim Kirkwood's Riverdale home and, according to this story,
delivers some 30 boxes of food. It's not all for Kirkwood, but for his
organic food buying club. Kirkwood, 67, and fellow club member Rodger Talbot
spend three hours unpacking, sorting and distributing $1,200 worth of
organic food in the dining room. Tofu, breakfast cereal, nut butters,
grains, coffee, corn chips, rice milk and soy beverages are strewn on dining
room chairs. Perishables such as dairy, tofu cheese and frozen peas are
tucked into the fridge and freezer. By 6 p.m. all the boxes are repacked and
labelled and invoicing is complete. Soon, fellow members of the aptly named
No Name Buying Club start ringing the doorbell, filing in, and picking up
their orders.
Kirkwood was quoted as saying, "After it's all said and done, there's
always somebody's soup mixed up in somebody else's order."
There's a name for this type of hard work and Kim DeLallo, food buying club
co-ordinator for the co-op, calls it "sweat equity."
The story says that belonging to an organic food buying club means not just
investing your money, but a lot of time and energy, too. But the returns,
say members, are enormous.
One Toronto club member saves 23 per cent shopping through a
food club.
The story says that Ontario Natural Food Co-op oversees 320 active food
buying clubs in Eastern Canada. Some 140 operate in the GTA. The clubs range
in size from five members up to 250.
Buying clubs represent 15 to 20 per cent of the co-op's business, yet
general manager Randy Whitteker says they are "one of the most interesting
things that we do."
(posted without permission)
