A food co-operative or buying group is a group of people organising to buy food in bulk, direct from wholesalers or even from farmers themselves. By pooling buying power co-op members (who may pay £1, say, to join) can save money on their food bills and are able to buy healthier, better quality foods. Fruit and vegetables usually offer the greatest savings.

Although co-ops are often run by unpaid volunteers, they need money for start-up costs: to buy the equipment such as weighing scales and knives, and the initial float. And there are continuing costs, principally transport, hire of premises and paying volunteers' expenses or paid staff.

Legally, a co-op must be a membership organisation. There are different ways of doing this. You could have an annual membership and yearly fee, or free membership on a daily basis, recording daily members in a log. Most co-ops have a yearly membership, charging a nominal fee of between 50p and £2. This can go towards the cost of buying equipment needed for the co-op to run effectively.

Useful Links

'Making Local Food Work' has produced a toolkit which takes you through each step of setting up a food co-op. They also produce an excellent regular food co-ops newsletter and organise an annual food coops conference.

Download an article on Food Co-ops from the Guardian, Wednesday 10th December 2008 and add details of your local food co-op to their 'Food Co-ops Blog'.
 

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Click here to view all the food co-ops in the project directory