Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Pickup Groups ... And Then Some

What is a Pickup Group?
A pickup group is two or more shareholders who live in the same area joining together to take turns driving out to the farm for the shares.

Can the Farm Help me Find Other Folks in my Area to Join a Pickup Group?
Absolutely. Drop us a line at the address below or call 207-324-2357, and we'll put you in youch with a group in your area. Click here for the latest listing of pickup groups that are accepting new members.

How Does it Work?
On your week to drive, you travel to the farm and pick up shares for everyone in your group and drop the vegetables at the designated local pickup site for your group (often a shaded porch or garage). Other members of the group need only come to the local pickup site on their off-weeks

Start of the Season Planning Meeting
One planning meeting at the beginning of the season will usually take care of most coordination needed for the whole season. At that meeting everyone comes with a calendar and signs up for driving. Other pickup group decisions are made at this time. At the end of the meeting all dates from June to October have a driver assigned and decisions have been made clear so that everyone understands their responsibilities to the group. This meeting should be mandatory for all members.

Organizational Decisions
These decisions are often shaped at the start of the season planning meeting. Existing groups may have some of these decisions already worked out.

• Pickup Day - The group needs to choose a day that works for everyone (and for the farm). If this is not possible some people may need to form a second group or join with another existing group.
• Pickup Time - The farm is open for pickups from 2-7 p.m. Members can arrive anytime during this window. Pickup groups typically decide when members want the veggies to be back at the local pickup site and members plan accordingly for their trip to the farm.
• Pickup Method - To bag or not to bag.. Does the farm-pickup person weigh & bag all shares at the farm or do shares get brought to town in bulk and then get weighed and bagged by members at the local pickup site? Your decision should be based on whether people want to spend the time bagging shares at the farm (about 5-10 minutes per share maximum) in order to have everything easily picked up at the local pickup site. If you want to do the bulk method that pickup site needs a scale and a table where the vegetables can be laid out. The bagging method has worked well for most of our groups so far. (Be careful of those tomatoes . plan for a separate bag or to stick them in with something lightweight.)
• Containers - How does your group want to collect shares? Canvass bags, plastic grocery bags, boxes, baskets, etc. The farm does maintain a supply of recycled plastic grocery bags, but we don.t always have enough. You will need to figure out how to get these containers to the pickup person.
• Newsletters - Do members want their newsletters on print? The newsletters are generally available online, but most folks like a print copy--don't forget to pick up enough!
• Checklist - Provide a checklist or other system to indicate who has already come for their veggies at the dropoff site. One user-friendly method is to use Xerox paper boxes for each share represented. The names of the shareholders, any splitters, and details about the number of newsletters (if any) go on a piece of tape or paper on the front of the box. The pickup person sets one share and requested newsletters into each box. When a shareholder arrives at the local pickup site they just grab whatever is in the box. The coordinator then knows who has arrived to pickup their veggies and who has not.
• Leftovers - Decide what to do with produce left over at the drop off site

Coordinator Responsibilities
While all members will need to play a role in making the group run smoothly, each group should have a primary coordinator. This person is often the host of the pickup site, but can be anyone.

• Contact List - The farm can provide a basic contact list to the coordinator and group members. The coordinator may want to add group specific information such as all pickup day responsibilities and group policies.
• Leftovers - The coordinator will be in charge of dealing with any left over produce at the pickup site and will work with the group to deal with any other issues that arise.
• Reminders - Most groups find that instead of making reminder calls, a sign at the pickup can be used to remind shareholders of who was scheduled to do the next week.s pickup. Some groups set up an email list or program reminders into a yahoo calendar of something of that sort.
• Emergencies - The group should plan in advance how to handle any emergencies that come up that make it impossible for a shareholder to pickup vegetables at the farm or at the pickup site. If there is a good plan the coordinator often need not be involved.

For the farm-pickup member on the day of the pickup

• Remember bags or other containers
• Plan for Roon in your Car - Make sure you don't have so much stuff (or so many people) in your car that you can't fit your shares in. 7 or 8 shares is a lot of vegetables, especially in mid summer.
• Newsletters - Remember to grab enough newsletters for everyone in your group. Many people depend on these and (we hope) look forward to the recipes and other suggestions included there.

Extras

• Organize a pickup group potluck for your start of the season meeting or other occasion.
• Plan a group volunteer day at the farm.
• Carpool to farm potlucks or other events.