Making it Easy to Buy the Food Your Neighbour Grows by: Lynn Jones

June 2009
Issue 2, Volume 1

Making it Easy to Buy the Food
Your Neighbour Grows!

by: Lynn Jones

The Ottawa River Institute and the Ottawa Valley Food Co-operative are collaborating on a two-year project (funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation) to promote increased consumption of local foods in the Ottawa Valley. This article is the first in a series of articles on challenges and rewards of eating a more locally-based diet.

The old phrase "buy the food your neighbour grows" has never been more important. Buying local food can help to address three major problems faced by folks in the Ottawa Valley and around the world today: climate change, resource depletion and global economic turmoil.

Fortunately for us here in the Ottawa Valley, there is an innovative new way to buy local foods year round. It is called the Ottawa Valley Food Co-operative (OVFC) and it just celebrated its first successful year of operations at an AGM in Pembroke on February 14.

The surprising variety of delicious local foods available through the OVFC includes local lamb, pork, beef, bison,all manner of vegetables, herbs, preserves, baked goods, condiments, maple syrup, honey, herbal teas and more. The Co-op has grown rapidly since its startup a year ago. Membership has increased from 25 to 209 and monthly sales have increased from $1000 to around $6000.

'The OVFC was recently honoured with a Premier's Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence, with a cash prize of $5000. Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the award recognizes innovators who contribute to the success of Ontario's farming sector.

So what is so innovative about the OVFC? The Co-op uses the power of the internet to make it easy to buy and sell local foods in the Ottawa Valley. Through its website, www.ottawavalleyfood.org, the Co-op brings producers and consumers together, while reducing food miles, stimulating the local economy and enabling us to "buy the food our neighbours grow".

The First Opening Meet and Greet ~ Local Food Sampling ~ July 2008

Here’s how the OVFC works. Once a month, producers post all the products they have available on the website. Customers have one week to peruse the monthly offerings and click on items they want to add to their shopping basket, all from the comfort of their homes. Sophisticated software tallies up the consumers' orders and sends them to the producers. It also produces labels, invoices, and master lists of products sold.

On delivery day, a week after the ordering period, producers cooperate to get the food to a central location for sorting where individual customer orders are prepared. Orders are then sent back to consumers via several different delivery routes. Many volunteers help make the system work, acting as route managers and helping to sort orders at the central location.

Links:

A Killaloe Craft Fair
"Fun" Raiser

The Russell Leon Band

The Making of a
Geological Gem

Chris Hinsperger
& Clem Cristoff

Illiterate

Nikki Madigan

Making it Easy to Buy
the Food Your
Neighbour Grows

Lynn Jones

Zapped by Zapp

Deedee Sanderson

Spin into a Natural Time
Part Two

Tanya Kornobis

For the Birds

Joanne Leclerc

This system is very efficient. Let’s say 100 consumers each order ten different items from producers all over the Valley. Buying these items at the farm gate could require one thousand car trips around the valley. Instead, five route managers make one trip each to the central location on delivery day. They bring items from producers with them and take back completed orders to drop-off points where the customers can pick them up. This saves time, energy and fossil fuels.

Efficiency and reduced food-miles are not the only reasons the OVFC makes sense. Co-op members get to connect with local producers and contribute to our local economy. There are social benefits as well: members have fun working for a common cause that we can all relate to - good local food from a healthy environment and strong local economy! And there is one more little secret added benefit: on delivery day there are always lots of samples of wonderfully delicious local treats for volunteers to enjoy when the sorting is done.

The First Opening Meet and Greet
Local Food Sampling ~ July 2008

The OVFC welcomes new members. Anyone can join! Details are available on the website: www.ottawavalleyfood.org. A one-time membership fee and a small sales commission
on each order help pay for expenses of running the Co-op.

Internet buddies are available for anyone who would like to join but doesn't use the internet. For more information on this call Christina Anderman, the OVFC Co-ordinator, at 613-757-3044

The Ottawa River Institute is very happy to have played a role in getting the OVFC up and running. Two years ago, ORI helped organize a weekend workshop at the Marguerite Centre in Pembroke where Bob Waldrop of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative taught the nuts and bolts of setting up an internet-based food co-op. After the workshop an enthusiastic group of volunteers came together to develop the OVFC; support was provided during the organizing phase by ORI coordinator Cheryl Keetch. The Ottawa River Institute is continuing to collaborate with the OVFC through a 2-year project, funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, to promote local foods.

Natural Fermentation Consumer
Workshop with Sandor Katz ~
Sept 2008

Lynn Jones is a member of both the Ottawa River Institute
and the Ottawa Valley Food Coop and has been working on
building awareness of local food and the environment in the Ottawa Valley
for over a decade, both by way of her previous work with the Public Health Unit,
as well as more recently with ORI and the OVFC.
She lives near Pembroke with her husband Ole Hendrickson,
a nature-loving ecologist, and their two daughters Grace and Claire.

www.ottawariverinstitute.ca

www.ottawavalleyfood.org

www.oklahomafood.coop

The First OVFC Board

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