San Juan Island Food Co-op

Produce

PRODUCE ROUTINE:

Produce is delivered to the co-op several times a week from various farms; it needs be wrapped, displayed, and priced. Volunteers, usually in pairs, manage those scheduled deliveries. Safe handling is required.

Several times a day the produce coolers need to be freshened up: bagged items need to be secure, crisp items need to be covered, everything needs to look lovely and inviting. A few people are needed throughout the day to “fluff” the display.

If you are interested in being part of the Produce Team, Contact Rosa Blair, our produce manager, at sanjuancoop@gmail.com (write “produce” in the subject line).

Delivery from mainland

In order to stock regional foods from the mainland, we need folks to pick things up for us if you happen to be going that way:

1. Once a month on the fourth Thursday we need someone to pick up the Azure order in Anacortes. The co-op provides a ferry ticket. If nobody can do this, we don’t place an order.

2. Through Puget Sound Food Network we have identified Skagit sources of honey, beverages, dairy products, organic and “natural” meats, and so on. If we want these things, someone has to go to get them. At present we have one courier who makes frequent deliveries; if you make trips in the direction of Mt. Vernon, Burlington, LaConner, Bow-Edison, from time to time, contact Eleanor for a possible pickup of—say—bacon, over east of Burlington, or sauerkraut south of LaConner: ehartmann7@gmail.com

Stocking and Inventory

Daily Reconciliations

The Tally Team processes all the purchase receipts by hand, records daily cash flow, and prepares deposits.

Store Upkeep

Daily housekeeping, weekly cleaning, and facility maintenance of the co-op is managed by volunteers.

Photocopying

Receipts, forms, and handouts need to be refreshed often. Volunteers are needed to do check supplies and make copies at Printonyx as needed.

Unload UNFI truck

Every Wednesday, just before noon, the co-op receives a large delivery of grocery items which must be accounted for against the delivery manifest, unloaded from the pallet, sorted for wholesale orders and store orders, and stocked on the shelves and in the coolers. Several people show up and in what appears to be bedlam on a bad day, it’s done in about an hour—whew! Unloading our inventory is a wonderful way to get to know other members, see what we have, and learn how the co-op works. All you need to do is show up: no training will occur so you’ll just have to pretend you’re unloading a big shopping trip into your own pantry. Never fear—what seems like chaos at first turns out to be the social hour of the week!

Packaging bulk items

Because we are not a staffed store, we may only use gravity feed bulk bins (the kind that now contain rice, beans, oatmeal, gorp, and the like); we may not offer things like raisins, nuts, snack items, or dried fruits in reach-in bins, nor can large bags of beans be opened and scooped. As a result, a volunteer with a Health Department Food Handler card must package, weigh, and price these items that you see on the front shelves. That packaging is done by volunteers, and more trained people with the Food Handler card on file in the store are needed to take on some of that duty. It needs to be done frequently, but a person can easily suit up and deal with one item, such as a five pound bag of mangos, in about fifteen minutes as part of a shopping session.

If you are interested in this volunteer job, please speak with Lori Raab or one of the other people who do bagging when you see them in the Co-op’s Food Prep Room during regular open hours, or leave a note on the desk in that room about how to reach you and set up a time for training.

The more packagers we have, the more items we can offer!

Open hours

Your Co-op has grown to fit its new space and now needs regular scheduled open hours to serve both members and visitors. Simona Burla, our Volunteer Coordinator, has recently finished a huge effort to expand open hours; as of September, the posted open hours are as follows:

Monday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Tuesday: 7 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Wednesday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Thursday: 7 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Friday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. – 2-ish p.m.
Sunday: Closed

As you can see, there are still times when people would like to see the store open, and more hours will be added as volunteers make themselves available.

Open Hours Host duties are not complicated:

1. A friendly and welcoming face of the co-op is the first thing to attend to—explain how the co-op works to newcomers; assist people with their shopping and checking out; steer people through the details of bottle deposits and returns, filling out receipts and making payments, applying for or renewing memberships, and so on.

2. Basic housekeeping: Tidy and wipe desk and table surfaces; round up calculators, pens, clipboards; restock receipts on clipboards; sweep up spills; face the coolers and shelves; freshen up the produce coolers and the open displays on tables; re-tape price tags that threaten to fall off; take out trash and recycling—that sort of thing.

3. Receive deliveries: When packages arrive at the co-op they need to be put in the Food Prep Room where someone will attend to them later. Items that need refrigeration need to be put in a corner of the cooler until someone can attend to them. Vendors bring in their products and generally are able to stock their own goods.

Contact Simona at sanjuancoop@gmail.com with Open Hours Host in the subject line if you would like to sign up for a two hour shift once a week or twice a month.