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Food cooperatives and buyer's groups are founded on the principle of cooperation. A group of individuals cooperate together in order to purchase larger quantities of goods at wholesale or discounted rates. It is difficult to generalise, as many different food cooperative models exist, having evolved to meet their groups' individual needs.

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These groups can represent an enabling component of a fair food system as they allow their members increased accessibility to high quality, more ethically sourced foodstuffs.

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Example: Our bulk buyer's group model

Roughly 30 active members attend on a weekly basis. Each member is part of one or more 'volunteer' teams,  putting in roughly 3 hours a month for the successful operation of the group (stock, finance, communications, memberships, on the night, visions). The whole group meets every Wednesday evening, having ordered roughly 30 boxes fresh produce from local fresh produce supplier Food Connect the week before. The on the night team set up the space with tables and produce to resemble a pop up shop, and dry goods, dairy and cleaning products purchased from local supplier Sovereign Foods are also displayed for purchase by members. Scales and laptops are set up as registers. Members arrive, choose their groceries and line up for their goods to be processed on Lettuceshare software (designed by one of our members and perfect for any buyer's group). Members receive an email invoice of their purchase and direct debit details to make a deposit for their purchases.

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Great things can come out of bulk buyer's groups, in terms of community building, knowledge sharing and acting as a learning ground for more great food enterprises. Our purchasing model means that every week, members pay a surplus of a few dollars on top of their grocery bill. This works to keep things in the positive in case something were to go wrong. Luckily, this rarely happens, and the surplus tends to accumulate, allowing us to gradually improve our operation (purchase of shelving, storage barrels, a fridge). Some of our members also tried their hand at preservations, with the purchase of a canner and this led them to start up their own business. More recently, this surplus also provided us the freedom to offer a startup loan to a growing local fair food organisation.

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More information on starting your own buyer's group is available at the Lettuceshare guide, or through Food Connect wholesale buyer's club guide.

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