jeremy Annette, who runs the Peaceful Pantry buying club, has been with us from almost the beginning. She is the single person running the club and continues her success using BuyingClubSoftware.com. We invite you to check out their story and wonderful video about their buying club story.
What makes The Peaceful Pantry a success?
Chelsea and Daniel Sutton are your typically awesome small family farm offering organically raised meats. Â Serving the Eastern North Carolina area, they offer meats grown on their own farm pasture. To round out their product offering, they offer dozens of other products from other local farmers.
Why do we love these guys?  They aren’t just our clients, but from our view they are doing great work.  They have a video series about using fresh and healthy ingredients on a budget, they write in their blog about GMOs. Simply put, they get it.  If these words are foreign to you, I might suggest checking out their website and diving in to learn! Â
We are happy to announce this upgrade after a long hiatus on official updates. More and more, we move closer to a final v1.0 version providing the software we have imagined from the beginning. Along the way we’ve had tons of suggestions and feedback, and we thank everyone who participated in those types of discussions. We have all pitched in to this effort, and behind the scenes we are extremely grateful for those in the buying club communities.
Lots to cover so here we go…
In 2013, some of our buying clubs began final preparations for becoming full retail stores in the next couple of years. With this, they are achieving their long term goals for a community market with a social and environmental consciousness that keeps money flowing to local farmers.
Buying clubs are sometimes just buying clubs. Groups of friends or neighbors who order food in bulk to save some money. But some, and more and more, are growing and using the buying club to eventually open a community store. I’m happy to present two of our clients that have made it to that point. … Read more
In terms of my day to day work I don’t always get to see the people I work with. It’s usually by phone or Skype. Today was a special treat to spend it with the Boondocks Buying Club in Bethel, ME.
One face in the room was a familiar partner, but the rest were those taking on the seriousness of growing a buying club meant to reduce prices, create relationships with farmers, and make food more accessible to folks who don’t make it to the local farmer’s market. Folks like senior citizens and those for whom the timing of the market doesn’t work out consistently.
What a great idea, and a nice show of creativity within a buying club. They’re saving money, being involved in the community and giving. What more can we ask for? Read full article…
Last week I was invited to sit in on a discussion around cooperative purchasing among the food pantries in the Lakes Region of Cumberland County, Maine. The invitation came from a gentlemen I work with here in Portland on the Mayor’s Initiative for Healthy Sustainable Food Systems (a.k.a. Portland Food Council). He is a United … Read more
A little about what’s behind how we are approaching software versions of BuyingClubSoftware.com… Big picture, we are working towards a version 1.0 of the software, and this release is one of a few as we travel the path to that final destination. For us, that means getting every idea we’ve experienced in to the … Read more
On November 19, 2010 Slow Money Maine hosted a day-long event where several investors and agricultural participants gathered to share what they are doing and talk openly about investing in local agriculture. The morning program was several presentations to a room of about 100 people, and I was lucky enough to be one of those … Read more