We are involved in two food co-ops. One of them is through Hummingbird Wholesale in Eugene, OR. This one is my favorite because they deliver right to my house. I facilitate the ordering for a number of families (and growing). Today we are receiving $2000 of food. Whoa! This company is also my favorite because I really like the people. No matter when I call or stop by (when in Eugene) they know me by name and treat me like family. They carry many local foods and they have rigorous standards for the quality of food they carry.
The other food co-op is through Azure Standard. To be honest they are not my favorite. The delivery times are inconvenient (though getting better I’ve heard) and you can’t really count on receiving what you order because it might go out of stock at the drop of a hat. Every order, a couple things I order don’t come in. Yet in spite of this, I continue to order because they carry some foods items I can’t get elsewhere and because, thankfully, we have some friends who are kind enough to retrieve our orders and hold them until I can get to town. I don’t want to totally bash Azure Standard. I know they are pretty big and ship to many states, so the inconveniences I experience are understandable because of the scale of their operation.
In the past, when living in California, we worked with United Natural Foods (formerly Mountain People’s) and they are an even bigger operation than Azure.
Still, even though finding and securing natural foods through a co-op ordering system can be challenging, I’m so glad that we, as consumers, have access to wholesale buying.
Please share… where do you get your natural foods? Health food store? Health food store special orders? Buying clubs where you meet the truck, such as Azure Standard? CSA? Grow your own? Trade with farms? Direct from the farm?
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I buy from Azure and Whole Foods, sometimes Fred Meyer. After reading a few food books this winter (Omnivore’s Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) This summer I’m planning to buy larger quantities of local foods from farmers’ markets in order to freeze, dry or can produce for the winter.
Thanks for the link to Hummingbird.
Currently, I buy hard to find natural items at our local health food store. I grow some summer produce and get more from friends. I’ve ordered from Azure and am satisfied with their service except for the reason you mentioned-something is always out of stock. And shipping is high so I only try to order things I have trouble finding locally.
I would love to find a local co-op! I’ll keep looking!:-)
To supplement what we grow in our garden year round, we supplement with a local company that delivers fresh local produce to our door weekly. The company is http://www.greenling.com and they gather organic produce from area farmers. So each week, we’ll receive a “local box” with a variety of veggies and fruits. (As we’re big on veggies here, we normally order 2 boxes) Many times they will include items we’ve never tried before. When we find something we really like, we’ll then order additional cases of individual items. Some of our recent cases have been meyer lemons (that we juice into ice cube trays to use throughout the year), grapefruit, valencia oranges, various greens, and beets. In fact, we received 24 bunches of local organic beets last week and canned them in a couple of ways. Then the rest of the week, we’ve enjoyed the beet greens. It’s been such a blessing!
Do you know where I can find local co-ops close to Missoula? We have a great natural food store, but the prices are really high and a lot of it seems like packaged food similar to the regular grocery store (but I’m sure it’s better for you – less chemicals). I’ve been wondering if there are better options and ways to buy things from local farmers, but I don’t know how to find them. Any thoughts about this would be great!
Hi, Kimberly! Azure Standard delivers in Missoula. I would go to their website (azurestandard.com) and use their customer service # to contact them and ask them to help you hook up with a local ordering group. This would be not only for bulk items and pantry items, but also fresh produce. Though you couldn’t get it every week.
The other thing to do is go to localharvest.org and use their directory to search for farms in your area that are willing to work with the public through CSA groups (Community Supported Agriculture) or u-pick or farm stand sales. They also should have listings for eggs, chicken, dairy, etc.
Hope you find some good sources!