PDA

View Full Version : Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op



Karen Ricks Wife
02-23-2012, 12:35 PM
For more information on this opportunity, visit the website and snoop around. It's free to sign up but costs ~$16.50 for each "basket" you purchase...whether weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, you decide. Check this out!


http://bountifulbaskets.org/



New to Bountiful Baskets? Here’s how to participate!


Bountiful Baskets is a non-profit food co-op for families that want to have more fresh produce for less money. In order to participate, you must set up a free account on the website (http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/). It is helpful to upgrade your web browser to the most current version, to ensure the website will function properly for you.
Contributions are accepted beginning Mondays at 10:00 a.m. for Utah, and 12:00 p.m. for all other states. Making a contribution is sometimes referred to as “ordering”, but this is not accurate. We call it contributing or participating, because Bountiful Baskets is not a business that you buy from, but rather a co-op where we all pool our money to buy things together.
To make your contribution, follow these steps:


Go to the website during the contribution time period. Some sites fill up quickly, so you may want to get on early for your first time.
Click “Get my produce basket” on the right hand side under where is says Current Offerings. There’s a picture of a vegetable basket where you click. If there is no “Get my produce basket” link, it means the website is not ready for contributions. If it is during the contribution window, it’s possible the website is having technical problems. Close your browser and try back in a few minutes.
Click on the basket for your state.
Enter your email and account password, then click “Submit”.
Choose your county from the drop-down menu. If your county is not showing in the list, it generally means that all sites in your county are full for the week. Try again earlier next week! (To make a selection in a drop-down menu, click on the little down arrow on the right-hand side of the little box. It will bring up all available options, and you can click on your desired selection.)
Choose your pick-up site from the next drop-down menu. Again, if your site is not showing in the list, it means it is full for the week.
Select the number of baskets you would like in the next drop-down menu. (up to 3 per participant)
On the “First Time Basket” menu, choose Yes if it is your first time participating. This $3.00 fee is only charged your first time. The money goes into a pool that is used to buy baskets for the volunteers to sort the produce into. You don’t bring those baskets home with you, they are left at the site to be used every week. So you will need to bring a container for carrying your produce home.
After that, there are several choices that you can select in addition to your produce basket if you desire. You can also upgrade to 100% certified organic produce for an additional $10.00. In most areas, there are also add-ons such as bread, specialty packs, or cases of canning vegetables. If you would like one of those items, enter the number you would like in the box to the right of the description.
Before you click submit, read the message at the bottom of the page, and review your selections to be sure they are correct. Then click submit.
This brings up your “Cart” and gives you one more chance to review your selections before you finalize the transaction. Be sure you have selected the site you want and all the add-ons, as these things CAN NOT be changed once the transaction is finished. If you are sure everything is correct, click on “Check-out”.
This brings up the checkout page, where you will enter your name and payment information. Be sure to use the address that is associated with the credit or debit card you are using, or the transaction will fail. You must READ all of the bullet points and click the boxes next to them to indicate that you agree to the co-op policies.
Once you click submit, wait for the transaction to complete before clicking anything else. It may take a few minutes if the website is extremely busy. A confirmation page should appear when the transaction is complete, and an email will be sent to your account.
Print the email and bring it with you to the pick-up.
If the website gives you an error before you receive confirmation, log back into your account in a few minutes and check the “Contribution History” link on the right hand side before you submit another transaction. If the transaction shows in the history, then your contribution went through. If it is not there, you must re-submit your contribution, but you may have to wait a few minutes for the website to re-set before it will accept your transaction.

Contribution time closes on Tuesday night, but some sites fill up quickly. Each site has an allotted number of baskets that it can accommodate. In order for more baskets to be available in a particular area, volunteers must step up, be trained, and find a location where they can open a new site (http://www6.bountifulbaskets.org/?page_id=69).
The contribution is $15.00 per basket. The organic upgrade is $10.00 for a total of $25.00. The amount for add-ons varies depending on the item. The first time basket fee is $3.00, and the processing fee is $1.50, which must be paid every time you contribute. Your entire contribution is spent on food, so the $1.50 is necessary to cover card processing, servers, and other expenses.
When you check out, you agree to be on time to pick-up your produce. Unless otherwise noted pick-ups are on Saturday morning. It is helpful to double-check the time on the website under “Locations” each Friday night to be sure there hasn’t been a last-minute change. You have a 20-minute window to pick up your produce. If you are late, or do not show up, your produce will be donated and will be unavailable to you.
You also agree to volunteer on occasion. This is a volunteer organization. We all chip in, no one gets paid, so all of our money goes to buying great food at great prices! If you are able bodied, we ask that you volunteer at least once every 6 to 8 times you participate. If you can not, then don’t worry about it.
There are no refunds or exchanges, but if you don’t like it, there is no commitment to participate again. You have to contribute every week that you want a basket—they don’t just carry your contribution over. If you contribute for add-ons, you will have a chance to inspect those at the pick-up to make sure they are of good quality before you take them home. If they are spoiled or damaged, or if they do not arrive on the truck (these things occasionally happen), then the volunteer site coordinator will submit a credit request for you to be reviewed by Sally and Tanya, the co-op founders.
When a credit request is approved, it will show up on your Bountiful Baskets account in 2-4 weeks. The credited amount will automatically be applied to your next contribution. If an expected credit does not appear on your account, ask the volunteer site coordinator where you picked up to follow-up for you. Do not send an email to Sally and Tanya, as they receive hundreds of emails each week and are unlikely to respond in a timely manner. Remember, they are two volunteers who have families, jobs, and many other responsibilities that keep them very busy!

Earthling
02-28-2012, 08:35 PM
I have purchased from them 3 times in the last 5 weeks and also about 4 times two years ago. My experience is you can do better if you have access to good grocery stores with good prices & ads such as Winco or Walmart who matches everyone's ads. If you don't - then this could be good.

The problem is sometimes your "basket" is good and worth the cost. Other times it is not worth it. I decided not to ever buy from them again because once again on the last one the food was very old (lettuce bitter, corn only good for pigs, etc) and had many foods we would not eat such as eggplant. You don't get to choose what is in your basket. One you get burned like this several times - it just isn't worth the risk.

Justme
02-28-2012, 11:19 PM
Haven't purchased any for awhile. At first the produce was very good quality and good variety. There was one vegetable we couldn't eat, it looked like ornamental cabbage rather than table cabbage. It seems as the program enlarged they were not able to find enough good quality produce to meet demand. I have considered trying them again though as we live in an area where vegetables are expensive and this was a good deal most of the time. I will give them another chance to see if they are more able to provide good quality for the price.

Gingersnap
02-29-2012, 11:35 AM
My daughter at BYU gets a basket every week and divides it with another student. I think there is also a fruit basket she gets every few weeks. I have a great store that supplies restaurants - great prices and they don't spray the fruits and veggies, so I can get just exactly what I want to use, but have gotten the most delicious blackberries and melons in past baskets. I still have to shop for carrots and such, so found I was going to the store anyway to get what I needed for recipes. It is a great deal and I have really liked the quality of our baskets - learned to make a kale soup that was delicious, but had never cooked with it before it arrived in a basket.

Soldierboy
02-29-2012, 01:05 PM
We live out in the boonies, and don't have much access to inexpensive and FRESH veggies & fruits. So we get a B. Basket nearly every week. Generally satisfied, and to us worth the cost. We have a little group that trades things around -- generally if somebody doesn't care for something in one basket, then they trade with somebody who does. It works out well.

And yes, sometimes they have an item of produce that people aren't too familiar with (unless they have lived in Latin America, as I have). But as somebody mentioned, this is a great opportunity to try something new!

supersc
02-29-2012, 07:20 PM
Love bountiful baskets... food has been great and fresh. If it isn't fresh, it's refused at the pick-up site and folks get their worth.

thermocouple
03-07-2012, 08:16 AM
We havent had a problem with freshness in our b baskets. In some cases we end up with some type of produce that we never end up using, but there are many cases where we used a vegetable that we would never have bought from the store, which broadens our scope with food a little bit. Overall we are happy with the system in place in our particular area.