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| Food arrives in bulk at Friendly Crossways on Littleton County Road where it will be divvied up among co-op members. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz) |
In the 1970s, a movement began on the West Coast for households and individuals to pool resources to buy health foods in bulk from farmers and small wholesalers and distribute them cheaply. In response to the Nixon-Agnew rhetoric at the time (a pervasive suspicion and investigation of organized groups), the term "food conspiracy" was adopted and quickly spread with the growth of the food buying networks. Some food conspiracies went on to become food cooperatives (a store owned by its members) and bulk and natural foods distributors.
Flash forward: the majority of those distributors have been bought up by a single entity, United Natural Foods, Inc. (also known as UNFI), which now is the supplier for Harvard's own food cooperative (referred to by its members as a "food buying club" to distinguish it from a store-front cooperative). UNFI is an independent national distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods and related products in the United States, distributing from 18 centers across the US and Canada. UNFI delivers to supermarkets and natural food retailers such as Whole Foods, as well as to food buying clubs.
In Harvard around 1974, the Ugly Apple Conspiracy was formed. According to a 1983 story in the Worcester Evening Gazette, the origin for the name came from one member's cider that was made from apples grown without pesticides, so they were misshapen and scabby; hence, she called her cider "ugly apple cider." Another member had grown up on the West Coast, where cooperatives were called "conspiracies," and so the Ugly Apple Conspiracy was born. The co-op quickly grew to a 75-member enterprise with separate cheese and grain divisions, providing its members with a wide selection of foods at substantial savings. Being a cooperative meant that everyone had to cooperate to make it run, and everyone had a role to play in the ordering, packaging, pricing and distributing the food.
Longtime member Marilyn Strong recalls the early days when co-ops tended to turn into stores, with each member having either to figure out a way to procure something, or be the person who weighed things out.
"Everybody had a job," she said.
To be sure, many miss the sense of community that it took to run the cooperatives of the past.
In an email, Ugly Apple member Paige O'Brien said, "I joined the co-op 10 years ago when we moved to town as a way to meet like-minded folks who value community, good nutrition, and sustainability. One of my first meetings was a summer evening potluck at the pond, and a couple of other times we met in people's homes to talk about splitting cases, check-in on the ordering process, etc. And then several things happened at once, I think. The distributor became inconsistent, communication from them was sub-optimal, and everything had to be ordered by the case! The community aspect disappeared."
O'Brien went on to say, "I feel a shift. I'm not sure if it's because of an infusion of new members or what, but I would become more active in the group if we started to re-connect more. For me, it was never about buying a case of organic chickpeas. It was about being part of a fellowship: swapping recipes, sharing stories, sharing a bag of grain."
Members all agree that there was a very difficult period when UNFI was changing warehouse locations and growing to become a huge company. Most thought UNFI was guilty of its own conspiracy in trying to squeeze out the buying clubs altogether. Eventually though, all the wrinkles seemed to get ironed out, and there was much less work needed to complete a group order, and there was no need even to have more than one or two meetings a year.
The days of phone banks, paperwork, procuring, weighing out amounts and packaging are long gone. Today the process of ordering for members in the food buying clubs has been streamlined by UNFI into a web-based system, including an efficient search engine that has eliminated the need to spend hours pouring over the monthly paper catalog. An invoice is generated that tallies the costs, shows added discounts, taxes, etc., so there is no guesswork about what to pay.
There is a low member fee of about one percent of the order total. It takes only a few volunteers once a month to meet the truck at the Friendly Crossways Hostel to unload and divvy up the order. And, "divvying up" just means putting members' items in a pile in the hallway of Friendly Crossways for pickup anytime that day.
When asked why the membership fee is so low, Davida Bagatelle, the Ugly Apple club coordinator, said that in the past, "we needed lots of supplies to facilitate weighing things out and packaging; we needed a printer, paper, ink for invoices. We don't need any of those things now, and Friendly Crossways doesn't even charge us for using their space."
In the past, food cooperatives were formed out of necessity as a way for groups of people to obtain natural and organic foods that were difficult to obtain on their own. Today, with the abundance of retail options, food buying clubs exist out of desire rather than necessity. Even though many longtime members lament the loss of community that came from frequent meetings, there are still many advantages to belonging to a food buying club.
The Press spoke with several members (this author is one) about their experience with the club. The most common advantage expressed by members is that ordering from UNFI allows one to stock up on basics and specialty items, drastically cutting down the number of trips needed to shop at a supermarket. The nearest Whole Foods is at least a half hour away, and UNFI carries everything that Whole Foods sells.
As for this author, when I find something I like in a store the first thing I do is check the UNFI site to see if I can get it for less. And for some items (like liquid hand soap) there are large refill packages available that bring the cost down to less than a third of the retail price.
"I like it for bulk items and because it is convenient to get organic items or cans without BPA [bisphenol A] liners," said member Sydney Blackwell.
Several members said they liked having extra choices, the convenience of picking up groceries close to home, and the cost savings.
"We're picky," said new member Stacy Green. "I hate all that packaging that things come in. I like buying 4-pound bags of coffee and freezing it, so I never run out."
Green, who is new to Harvard, said, "I knew the food buying opportunities in Harvard were more limited. I really like my bulk food from Whole Foods and Deborah's in West Concord. Plus, I wanted a way to meet people in town."
On the flip side, there are people who don't like pot luck, and are glad things are more streamlined now; the system is not complicated, so there is little need for group meetings. However, if Ugly Apple gets more members, it may generate more social interaction out of desire instead of necessity.
To join the food buying club, contact Davida Bagatelle, club coordinator, at 978-456-8646.