Gila Farm Cooperative is here! Thirty IRC New Roots farmers have come together to form a cooperative. We want to tell you a little about it and how you can get involved, if you are interested.
Gila Farm Cooperative is an Arizona Marketing Cooperation that is separate from IRC Phoenix and the New Roots program. It has its own president and board of directors, but has received a lot of assistance from IRC's New Roots Farm and the Micro-Enterprise programs.
What is a cooperative, you ask? A cooperative is a member-owned, member-run business. By sharing resources and working together—rather than competing against each other—the farmers are able to consistently offer the best food for the lowest price, directly to consumers.
Gila Farm Cooperative’s first order of business is a CSA. CSA stands for Community-Supported Agriculture. You can be part of the Gila Farm CSA by signing up as a member. Members prepay for a share of the harvest produced by the cooperative. By prepaying, members help support the cost of seeds and labor. Then members are entitled to the cream of the crop (sorry, we couldn’t resist!) at the lowest costs.
-Each week of the growing season, members pick up a box of fresh produce from one of several convenient locations in Phoenix.
-If you are interested, you may log in to Gila Farm's simple online CSA system and web store to do any of the following:
-Preview next week’s produce
-Find recipes
-Make a payment
- Order value-ordered products
-Send a message.
-Rinse and repeat next season!
Be sure to look for more details in the next IRC in Phoenix newsletter, or if you just can’t wait please contact Jessica Woiderski at Jessica.woiderski@rescue.org or call 602-761-9198.
Article written by: Jessica Woiderski, New Roots FARM Program Coordinator
