What does it involve?

Put very simply, we would like you to consider setting up and running a box scheme using the Growing Communities Model.

What’s a box scheme?

Essentially, a box scheme is a way of selling fresh fruit and veg! As with all retailing, we buy the produce from the farmers and suppliers at one price and sell it to our members at a higher price (the mark-up). The difference between the two prices generates a surplus (the margin). People join the scheme as members and sign up to get a bag of seasonal fruit or veg (or both) every week.  And we’ve stuck with the term ‘box’ scheme even though, for us, bags turned out to be the more practical option. 

The main retailing ‘idea’ behind all box schemes is that of providing customers with a standardised selection of products.  The box scheme system enables the price of each product (ie the bag) to remain the same while the makeup of the product can change week by week, according to season and availability. It also means there is little waste as you only buy as much produce as you know you need. This is a remarkably simple but incredibly useful concept when it comes to trading fresh, seasonal food.

What’s special about a Growing Communities type box scheme?

Well, we don’t buy any old fruit and veg and we don’t sell it in any old way: we use the concept of a box scheme to enable us to select the food we trade and ensure it is produced and distributed according to the set of Key Principles we have developed over the last decade.

Along with these principles, we’ve also leant a lot over the years about the practical aspects of running a box scheme and a number of characteristics have emerged over time which we believe are fundamental to the success of the scheme:

• It provides an all year round weekly supply of produce.
• It supplies food which comes from all the zones described in the Food Zones  but with a strict buying policy  that prioritises food that comes from within and around the city/urban area. (Last year 81% of our vegetables came direct from local farms.)
• It provides a unique product: urban produce (We like salad! Last year, 5% of our produce came from our own Hackney market gardens). 
• It operates as a collection scheme. (We currently operate 10 community pick-up points.)
• It operates an up-front payments system.
• Customers are more than just customers: the scheme is community-led. (Our box scheme customers are also members of Growing Communities.)

>> How you can take part: getting started