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  • From: "Robert Waldrop" <bwaldrop@cox.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Attention Nebraska permaculturists
  • Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 13:06:37 -0500

I am passing along this news of the upcoming
Nebraska Food Banquet sponsored by the newly
forming Nebraska Food Cooperative. Please pass
this news along to folks you know in Nebraska.
This cooperative is organized under the "Oklahoma
model" for a local food cooperative which we
developed. Groups from the Nebraska organizing
team have visited us twice here in Oklahoma to
observe our delivery day work procedures, and they
brought me up there to speak to a meeting earlier
this year. This kind of local food cooperative is
a way to
do zones 3 and 4 in the urban context.

I am speaking this coming Saturday in Denton,
Texas, at the organizational meeting of the North
Texas Food Cooperative, which is also following
our model. There is a third group in Wichita,
Kansas that has started an organizing drive to
establish a local food cooperative, I spoke at one
of their meetings earlier this year.

The basic principles of the Oklahoma model for a
local food cooperative are:

+ Customers and producers are members of the same
cooperative organization,

+ We operate on a delivery business plan rather
than a store. THe first week of the month, the
producers post the products they have available
that month at our website. The second week, we
order. During the third week (in our case, on a
Thursday), the producers come to town and we
divide up their products into customer orders,
which then go out to the various pickup places.
So we are kind of like a farmers' market on
wheels.

+ The coop does not buy wholesale from producers
and sell retail to customers. Producers set their
own prices, and customers order from specific
producers. For example, if I want grass fed
ground beef, I don't just order five pounds, I
order five pounds from a specific producer. The
cooperative charges the producers 5% for selling
through the cooperative and the customers 5% for
buying through the cooperative. We are presently
doing about $15K to $16K/month in gross sales. We
do not have paid staff at this point. and we use
borrowed space, but we are edging towards renting
a warehouse and if we do that we may open a
part-time store stocked on consignment by the
producers.

+ We only sell products (foods and some non-food
items) produced in Oklahoma, they must be sold by
their producers, we do not allow distributorships.
If you produce it, you can sell it through us, but
you can't buy wholesale from someone else and sell
retail through us.

+ We are organized on the basis of one member, one
share, one vote, one class of shares, all members
are equal..

Robert Waldrop, Oklahoma Food Cooperative,
www.oklahomafood.coop

NEBRASKA FOOD BANQUET

Nebraska Food Banquet, November 4, 2005 at 6:30pm
at Metropolitan Community College, Fort Omaha
Campus, Building #10, 30th & Fort Streets, Omaha,
NE 68111.

Join us for an evening of Nebraska foods, and
learn how you can buy/sell Nebraska food year
round through the Nebraska Food Cooperative.
Special guest speaker, Dr. Kamyar Enshayan, will
present research on how buying local impacts the
economy.

Cost is $12.00 per person. Reservations before
Oct. 21 appreciated. Please contact: Elaine
Cranford 402-472-1748

The Nebraska Food Cooperative is a newly formed
member owned business, which serves its members by
offering year round access to Nebraska products.
Every month the Nebraska Food Cooperative will
list available products for purchase online from
around the state. Members place their order and
one week later it is assembled for pick up or
delivery. It's like having the Farmer's Market at
your front door!

Both consumers and producers can be members of the
Nebraska Food Cooperative.

Attend the Nebraska Food Banquet to learn more
about becoming a member and buying/selling
Nebraska food year round.

This event is hosted by the Nebraska Food
Cooperative & Metro Community College.





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