I just signed up for my first “basket” of produce from Bountiful Baskets, a nationwide food co-op with several locations in Minnesota including Plymouth, New Ulm, Elk River, Alexandria, and Montevideo, to name a few.
Bountiful Baskets is a not-for-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 their website.
I heard about it from a friend who has a Nextdoor.com account for her neighborhood in the Plymouth area.
You can sign up for an account anytime but you can only sign up for a basket during a specific time frame. For most it’s from Mondays at Noon until Tuesday at 6:00pm, or whenever space runs out for the location of your choice. (Space runs out fast for some including Plymouth.) So if you want to sign up, sign up as early as possible once the sign-up period begins for the current week. Note also that locations are either an A or B location, which alternate week to week.
Making a contribution is sometimes referred to as “ordering”, but this is not accurate. They call it contributing or participating, because Bountiful Baskets is not a business that you buy from, but rather a co-op where families all pool their money to buy things together.
When you make your contribution, you can also choose to upgrade to an organic basket if you wish ($10 more), plus you can add breads and other items as they’re available. I just chose a conventional basket to start with.
For my basket of produce, which is roughly 1/2 fruit, 1/2 vegetables, it cost me $15 for my contribution, plus a $3.00 first time fee (to be used for baskets for sorting), plus a $5.50 handling fee which as I understand is for credit card processing and a gas surcharge.
Want to try it out? I’ll share my experience after I pick up my basket on Friday, plus I plan to volunteer at some point. Learn more at BountifulBaskets.org.