A Grocery Bulk-Buying Club: How Elmwood Makes It Work
(Source: Emma Durand-Wood.)
In a previous column, I sang the praises of Better Access to Groceries (BAG), a bulk-buying club for fresh fruit and veggies in my neighborhood of Elmwood in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This week, I want to share more detailed information on exactly how this program works, with the hopes that it may inspire some Strong Towns readers.
As I mentioned in my last column, every two weeks, the BAG program offers an opportunity to purchase $5 or $10 bags of fresh fruit and veggies to members, who join the program for free. BAG is managed by a paid coordinator, Jacquie Pontedeira, who does the role part-time (10 hours a week).
BAG pickup day happens every other Tuesday, and in the “off” weeks, most of Jacquie’s time is taken up with receiving orders and payments. Some members pre-pay for a number of orders, others go order by order. People can pay electronically through their bank account or in cash the day of the pickup.
Getting the orders ahead of time allows Jacquie to calculate the total amount of money she’s got to work with on her shopping day, which is Monday, the day before BAG pickup day. On Monday morning, Jacquie goes to the grocery wholesaler and places her order. She works her way through the warehouse with the produce manager, who has the discretion to offer bulk pricing on the huge amounts of fresh fruits and veggies she will be purchasing.
Jacquie doesn’t just seek out what’s going to be the best value for the members’ money, but also prioritizes variety and tries not to buy the same things consecutively. When she’s finalized the order, it’s back to the office to get ready for BAG day! She’ll prepare the signage for the pickup room depending on what she bought (lettuce might be labelled “pick 1” and beets “pick 3”) and finalize the order list that shows which members will be picking up tomorrow, who has already paid, etc.
The next morning, a delivery driver with an insulated truck picks up the pallets of produce from the wholesaler and delivers them to the community center where BAG pickup takes place.
Once the delivery truck arrives, the morning is a flurry of activity. A team of eight to 10 volunteers bring all the boxes of produce inside and organize them on tables. The end result is a market-like setup with signage to tell members how many of each item to select. Volunteers then pack up the delivery orders and get them out the door to the five multi-family housing sites where a contact person has coordinated orders for residents. (Jacquie would love it if they could also offer delivery to those who are housebound, but they just don’t have the capacity.)
After a quick lunch break, it’s time for BAG pickup to begin! From 1:30 to 6 p.m., members arrive and fill their reusable bags as they move through the room. Volunteers keep the tables organized, remove and break down depleted cardboard boxes, and answer questions. With many newcomers participating, it’s not unusual for someone to be seeing a particular vegetable for the first time and need some advice on what to do with it. Here, Jacquie often witnesses generosity and resourcefulness as folks trade or give each other things they know they won’t eat. Some members also “pay it forward,” leaving payments to cover costs for those who are struggling.
By the end of the day, there’s generally at least some produce left. So for one hour the following morning, Jacquie runs next-day sales. These sales are open to the public and, since the motivation is to quickly distribute perishable food, the deals are very good. They usually sell out, but if there is anything left after the sales, it’s donated to the local food bank or used in emergency food hampers.
After dealing with all the packaging and recycling, accounting for cash and electronic payments and preparing the bank deposit, Jacquie catches her breath…and gets ready to start all over again!
In its nearly a decade of existence, the biggest challenge BAG faced was the upheaval and uncertainty at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, but she is proud that they only missed one pickup day as they juggled re-configuring the program to a new location and restrictions. An acute awareness that many people relied on BAG for fresh, nutritious food helped give Jacquie and the volunteers the determination they needed to pivot and keep going despite all the stress and difficulty of that time.
Strength in Numbers; Potential for Growth
The power of bulk buying allows folks to get fresh produce at a fraction of the retail price. Though inflation has meant that $10 doesn’t go quite as far as it used to, it’s still incredibly helpful. The day that I visited a BAG pickup, the $10 bag included a three-pack of romaine lettuce hearts, a four-pound bag of navel oranges, a two-pound box of green grapes, and two large peaches.
As the grocery shopper for my household, I knew right away this was an exceptional deal, and when I later checked the current price for that basket of items at three major chain stores, I discovered that even at the least expensive large grocer, it would have cost more than $20 to buy those same items.
Jacquie tells me that the need, and the dream, is to be able to offer a BAG pickup every week. There is so much demand for affordable access to fresh food, and she knows that people would jump at the idea of more frequent BAG days. Other local bulk produce buying clubs have come and gone in the city, and these days BAG is one of only two currently running. She’d love to see groups in every area so that people could count on being able to access fresh fruit and vegetables with some predictability in cost.
Dream Big, but Start Small
To run a bulk-buying club at this scale, Jacquie thinks three things are necessary: funding for a coordinator and delivery service (the food costs are completely recouped by BAG purchases), a space to host the pick-up, and a dedicated volunteer base (which can’t be emphasized enough—the program could not work without them). I asked her how many she thinks is the minimum number of people you’d need to start to make bulk buying work. She says that there was value in bulk buying, even at the very beginning of the project with only a dozen or so members.
Leilani Esteban-Villarba, who helms the organization that manages BAG, tells me that listening to the community and believing their needs and struggles is at the heart of all their decisions. That’s what I love so much about the story of BAG: it was a response to the struggle of everyday people, starting with the modest resources they had at their disposal, and it’s achieved something that makes life just a little better for everyone who participates. With each passing year, the BAG team has learned about what works and what doesn’t, tried new things, tweaked and adapted.
If that’s not representative of the Strong Towns approach, I don’t know what is!
Emma Durand-Wood likes walkable cities, front porches, street trees, bumping into neighbors, riding her bike, downtowns, and any excuse to check out a new coffee shop, bakery, or shop. A Winnipegger by choice, she lives in Elmwood with her husband and three children. You can connect with her on Twitter @emmaewood.