Co-op brings fresh produce to area residents
<p>Viki Stansbury and Alexia Kelsey sort fruit into baskets Saturday morning. The two were acting as volunteers for Bountiful Baskets.</p>
SUPERIOR – The Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op gives Mineral County residents fresher produce than would be found at the supermarket.
Saturday morning a semi truck dropped off loads of fruit, vegetables and bread for the Bountiful Baskets volunteers to distribute.
Bountiful Baskets is a food cooperative, where members can contribute and get fresh produce for cheaper than at a supermarket.
The volunteers, led by Debbie Kelsey, organized the produce into baskets and made sure each one had the same amounts of various items. Any extras were placed in random baskets.
When people started to arrive, a well-oiled machine began to run. At the door, a person would show proof of participation and get checked off a list. The person would then take a box or basket and claim the produce, which had been sorted out for them. Members of the co-op each received the contents of two baskets and could contribute a little extra for organic produce or other items like boxed fruit or bread.
“You can get cased goods and other stuff, but every week it’s different,” said Kelsey.
It was requested participants bring a container from home to carry the food in, though a pile of extra boxes were available in case someone needed one.
According to Sally Stevens, one of the group’s founders, Bountiful Baskets is not a business. As a non-profit, members share the responsibility to buy the food the group gives out. Everything the co-op collects is pooled together to make one massive purchase of food, which is then sent around to the drop off points. The Bountiful Baskets organization itself does not receive any income.
“Bountiful Baskets is so different from a typical business, people don’t always get it the first time through,” said Stevens.
Stevens stressed how the group is not a reseller and does not buy items to sell back to others. The contributions of the members are used to buy produce directly from the distributor, which is then passed directly on to the members.
Stevens also stressed the co-op was not a farmer’s market. People are not able to arrive and collect produce without participation in the group.
“If they show up the day of, [the volunteers] won’t have anything for them,” said Stevens.
Members can participate at will and are not required to partake every week. A person can participate one week, take a break for a couple weeks and contribute again later without any hassle.
Stevens said the group only purchases what it needs to provide to the members who participated for the week.
The co-op also relies on volunteers to complete its mission. Members are encouraged to volunteer and help run nearby drop off locations. Volunteers need to go through some training though everybody is welcome to help.
Bountiful Baskets was founded by Sally Stevens and Tanya Jolly in 2006. Both had run co-ops in the past, but none of those were web based. Incorporating the technology of the Internet, the pair’s new co-op took off and quickly grew to 120 families and beyond.
People from all over Mineral County participate in the co-op. Bountiful Baskets drops food off in Superior every other Saturday. Stevens requested information on the time and location of the Bountiful Baskets drop off not be published.
More information can be found at bountifulbaskets.org.