What is the Potluck Food Club Yukon?
The Potluck Food Club Yukon is a non-profit society established by Yukoners looking for an easier way to buy organic, sustainable food sourced as close to home as possible. The club started operating as a co-op in November 2013, and has operated as an online buying club since 2017. Members can order food any time through an online service, and orders can be picked up monthly.
What services or products does it provide?
The online buying club offers organic or sustainably grown food, sourced as close to home as possible. The online grocery list currently includes seasonal fruits and vegetables purchased locally where possible, and from Discovery Organics out of Vancouver. We also sells a wide variety of bulk and case lot items through Horizon Distributors out of Vancouver.
For the past two growing seasons, we have operated the Potluck Online Farmers Market, which features local consumable products. Producers maintain their own pages on the website, updating them as appropriate. Customers can order each week, and pick up their orders once a week.
What are the benefits of having an online food buying club in the Yukon?
Having an online food buying club is one way to make locally and regionally grown organic and sustainable food more readily available to Yukoners. It gives Yukoners an easy and convenient way to invest in their food security and their community, and it offers a venue for Yukoners to shop with 'carbon footprint' in mind and to support local farmers and producers. If local farmers and producers have more ways to sell their product, they will be far more likely to grow or raise additional food to meet the demand. In this way we hope the Potluck Food Club can act as a catalyst for growing the local agricultural economy and addressing food security issues.
How does the cost of food purchased through the Potluck Food Club Yukon compare with local grocery stores?
The food club always endeavors to sell food at a price that is fair to both the consumer and producer. In some cases, this means the food may cost a bit more than that from a big box store. Every purchase at the Potluck Food Club Yukon is about more than dollars and cents. It is about farmers earning a fair wage for their work, taking care of the land, investing in healthy food that supports our healthy bodies and building community.
How do I become a member of the Potluck Food Club Yukon?
It's quick and easy to purchase your membership here on our website by
clicking on this link.
Once I am a member, what is expected of me?
Memberships do not come with a requirement to volunteer for Potluck Food Club Yukon, but it does come with an encouragement to do so. The request is that all members commit time to engaging in the development of the organization by attending general meetings, bringing forward suggestions and feedback, voting on important matters, and lending a bit of volunteer help when they can. Members are encouraged to make the Potluck Food Club Yukn their "first-stop shop" for all their grocery needs and to encourage friends and family to become members, too. If Potluck Food Club Yukon is to survive and thrive, our members must purchase as much of their food as is possible from us on a regular basis.
As a Yukon farmer, what are the benefits of my becoming a member of the buying club?
One of the main goals of the Potluck Food Club Yukon is to help local farmers grow their businesses. Having a committed consumer base that purchases a set amount of product each year will give farmers the security they need to produce food and even expand their operations. Moreover, the Potluck Food Club Yukon promotes the farmers’products to the club’s members, with the aim of enabling them to spend more time farming. See our
For Producers page for more information.