Getting Familiar with the Montavilla Food Buying Club

What’s a food buying club?
In its most basic form, a food buying club is a way for individuals to
join together and purchase bulk foods directly from vendors, usually
at wholesale prices. We like to say it’s a way to “Buy Better
Together”—better quality at better prices with better (less)
packaging. Purchasing through the buying club empowers us to make
conscious choices about where our food comes from & to support our
local economy.

What kind of products will I have access to in the Montavilla FBC?
We as participants in the club ultimately make the decisions about the
kind of products we want to buy together. Currently, the MFBC offers
monthly orders from Frontier, Azure Standard, Hummingbird, Cafe Mam
organic coffee, and Bavaria Mills gluten-free baked goods. We offer
pork from Heritage Farms NW and have periodic opportunities to buy
specialty items, like blueberries, beef, lamb, bison, plant starts,
and many other local, organic products. We also partner with the
Eastside buying club and the North Portland buying club on some deals,
so that together we meet the minimum orders from vendors. Starting in
Spring 2012, we will be offering locally grown produce from a market
garden run by the Portland Growers Alliance.

So how does the club actually work?
For example, say you wanted to buy your favorite nuts, but the best
deal on it (price-wise) is to buy 25 pounds–too much for you alone!
You and 10 other club members could join together & split a 25-pound
wholesale container of it from Hummingbird–saving yourselves a bit of
cash AND saving the planet from unnecessary packaging. The vendor
would deliver all orders for Montavilla on the same day. Participants
in the club would meet up at the drop off point on that day/time to
divide up the nuts.

Are there any required number of purchases for members?
Nope. When a buy is posted on the list, you get to decide if you want
to participate or not. We have no daily, monthly or even yearly
“minimums” for our members. You buy only what you want to, when you
want to.

Is there a waitlist to join the buying club?
Nope. Anyone can join the club by completing the online New Member
Sign-up Form, reading & signing the MFBC Membership Agreement, and
paying the annual membership dues. Once these 3 steps are completed,
you will be invited to join the club’s Yahoo group, which is how we
know what is available for sale and place our orders.

Are there restrictions to joining? (i.e. neighborhood residents only)
No, anyone can join. However, most members do live in Montavilla, Mt.
Tabor or North Tabor. One of the reasons we have been successful, we
think, is because there are no other FBCs in the immediate vicinity.
The Lents and the East Portland Buying Club are kind of close by, but
neither are close enough to make it really convenient for Montavilla
residents–especially those without a car—to order from them regularly.
The majority of our drops right now occur right around 70th and
Glisan, which is convenient for the neighborhood.

Where is the Montavilla Food Buying Club’s relationship with the
Montavilla Food Co-op?
The Montavilla Food Buying Club (MFBC) and Montavilla Co-op are two
completely separate entities. They did arise out of the same meeting
over a year ago, but they now have different steering committees with
different people involved in each.

Will the food buying club continue once the co-op is up and running?
Absolutely. In fact, we plan to continue growing and expanding,
independent of the co-op, because it’s really very different. We
think the co-op will someday be a great place to get food in a pinch,
especially fresh, organic fruits and veggies that are sorely missing
in this neighborhood, but there are many, many people on the MFBC
email list who will continue ordering from the club–especially those
of us who want to save money by buying in bulk.

What makes the Montavilla FBC unique?
What probably makes us most unique is that we weren’t started by and
aren’t run primarily by a single founder. We have a volunteer
steering committee and a couple of great volunteer buy managers who
handle the repeating monthly buys for the Club. We also have periodic
specialty items offered by members, who offer them for their friends
at local farms/ranches, and partner with other local buying clubs.

Interested? Want more info? Check out the website at
http://www.montavillafbc.org.

We need your help to spread the word! Please share the information
with others you know in the neighborhood.