Our Organic Box SchemeAlready on our box scheme? Click here to see the contents of your bags this week
Our box scheme provides a delicious weekly
selection of seasonal organic produce – from £6 per week. We are
committed to cutting food miles and to supporting small sustainable
farmers. We source as much local produce as possible: our salad bags
are grown on our own Soil Association
certified growing sites in Hackney, our potatoes and apples come from
small farms in Kent and Essex and our oranges come from a cooperative
in Italy. Last year over 80% of our vegetables came from the UK. We
never buy air-freighted produce or produce from heated
greenhouses. Only our Fair Trade organic bananas come from
outside Europe.
We were London’s first box scheme and now help to support over 25 organic farmers and cooperatives by providing them with a regular outlet and a fair price for their produce. The scheme is collection only to cut down on pollution and food miles, and it’s a good way of meeting other members on the scheme. We have five pick-ups points and we use either Maisie, our electric "cow" milkfloat, or a bike trailer, to get your bags there. We provide a weekly newsletter with recipes and a list of where the fruit and vegetables in your bag have come from. You can also check what will be in your bag on-line before collecting.
If you want to join our box scheme, for a regular order or for our one
month trial
click here.
January is slightly different, please make sure we have your order by Thursday 1st January 09.
In December, there will only be 3 bags - on 3rd, 10th and 17th December - the bag on 17th will be a double extra-special Xmas bag. People doing a trial in December will be able to finish their trial on the first week of January 09 (7th Jan) and will thus get a slightly better value trial! Holiday Policy: What happens if you go away Please read! When Growing Communities sets the prices for the bags (which are calculated on a monthly basis), we take into account that everyone on the box scheme will go on holiday for a minimum of 4 weeks a year - so the prices reflect this. If we didn't do this, then the prices would be higher than they are! So if you just go away for 4 weeks a year, then you won't have paid for veg that you are not receiving. If you go for away for longer than 4 weeks, if you let us know in advance, then we will refund you for each week over this. Please let us know by the Thursday of the week preceding your holiday so that we don't order for you. You can also organise for a friend or neighbour to collect your veg while you’re away which lets them try out the box scheme. You don't need to let us know this. Fruit & veg options: Standard veg bag
Click here to see an outline of the standard veg bag contents this week No potatoes standard veg bag £50 per calendar
month (equivalent cost per week: £11.54). Click here to see an outline of what's in the no-potato standard veg this week. Small veg bag
This contains around 6 varieties of seasonal produce. Small bags always include potatoes and carrots and have onions every other week. They always have one green item per week (e.g. spinach, chard, spring greens) plus 2 or 3 varieties of other seasonal vegetables. Click here to see an outline of what's in the small veg bag this week . Standard fruit bag£35 per calendar month (equivalent cost per week: £8.07) The standard fruit bag has 5-7 varieties of UK and European seasonal fruit each week. These are a combination of the following depending on seasonal availability: pears, grapes, oranges, clementines, Fairtrade bananas, kiwi fruits, plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, limes, lemons, grapefruit, apples. Click here to see an outline of what's in the standard fruit bag this week Small fruit bag
The small fruit bag contains 4 to 5 varieties of UK and European seasonal fruit each week. Fruit bags contain a combination of the following depending on seasonal availability: pears, grapes, oranges, clementines, Fairtrade bananas, kiwi fruits, plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, limes, lemons, grapefruit, apples. Click here to see an outline of what's in the small fruit bag this week Large fruit bag £38.00 per calendar month, (equivalent cost per week £8.76). Same as the small fruit bag above, but double the size. Picking up your fruit and vegetables: We operate a pick-up scheme rather than a delivery service. By walking or cycling, you are helping to cut down on ‘food miles’, while those who use cars are encouraged to share pick-ups if possible. Our pick-up pointsYou can pick up your produce from one of four community pick-ups in Hackney:
A map of the Leswin Road pick up is available here
Pogos Cafe
76 Clarence Road E5 8HB (Pogos pick up is currently full) Payment:
By standing order:
Other methods: For people on irregular income, payment by cheque is possible in advance - we would need your cheque by 1st of the month. Cheques are payable to Growing Communities. For those on a low income or benefits you can break up the payments by paying in advance for half a month at a time. However, this option is only available to people picking up from the Leswin Road collection point. The box scheme is part of the government’s Healthy Start scheme which means that if you are in receipt of Healthy Start vouchers, these can be used towards the cost of your produce order with us. Please get in touch with us by email or phone if you want to use this option to help pay for your order with us. Want to
join the box scheme?
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£44 per calendar month
(equivalent cost per week: £10.15).
£26
per calendar month (equivalent cost per week; £6).
If
you pick up from the Old Fire Station, you can use the Growing
Communities' Urban Farm Shop which is open at the same time as the
pickup - and only available to to people on the box scheme. The
Urban Farm Shop sells extra organic items such as eggs, as well as extra organic
veg and fruit and Growing| Growing Communities The Old Fire Station 61 Leswin Road Stoke Newington London N16 7NX 020 7502 7588 growcomm@growingcommunities.org
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