FOOD CO-OP BASICS: How It Works


The Community Food Co-op offers select grocery staples at up to 50% below retail. We are able to do this through collective buying, low over-head, and volunteer power.

Each month, members pre-order their groceries (CLICK HERE TO ORDER/JOIN THE CO-OP) . You can order as much as you like, and how often you place an order is up to you. Next, the Co-op buys the food from local and national producers and wholesalers, which is then delivered to our Salt Lake City warehouse. Then, on "Distribution Day" (usually the third or fourth Saturday of every month) a network of volunteers helps distribute the food to locations along the Wasatch Front where you can pick up your order. These locations, known as "host sites," may be your local church, school or community center.

As a Co-op member, you will also belong to a "team" of other members in your area (CLICK HERE TO FIND A TEAM IN YOUR AREA). Once a month, each team will coordinate their own piece of the puzzle: transporting their share of the food from the Co-op warehouse to their host site, overseeing host site distribution, and so on.

Whether you decide to take an active role in your team is up to you, but all members are encouraged to volunteer 2 hours during each month you place an order (CLICK HERE TO VIEW MONTHLY CO-OP VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES). This can be anything you do for someone outside of your family for free! You can log your volunteer hours when you pick up your food, and will have the option to "bank" hours for future months. Volunteer hours are logged when you pick up your order.