Date: Fri 06-Jun-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

Harvest-food-cooperative-share

Full Text:

Harvest Food Co-op Becomes SHARE

(with photos)

BY ANDREA ZIMMERMANN

There is more buying power in numbers, and that is the reason the local

Harvest program has switched to SHARE, a food cooperative with 12,000 members

in New York alone.

"Harvest was sponsored by the Council of Churches and Synagogues, and it was

run only in Fairfield County. We started out with 1,400 people involved in all

the different towns, but went down to under 1,000," said Director of Human

Services Karen Hoyt. "To buy in bulk, you have to buy in numbers, so the

council was losing money and couldn't afford to keep underwriting the

program."

The price to participate in SHARE is the same for a regular share ($15), and

consumers get food valued at about $32. But also available is a NU-SHARE

Package which has no meat and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables ($15),

and Mini Meat Package that costs an additional $9 when you buy one of the

other packages.

"Participants receive more value than they were recently getting with the

Harvest program. With Harvest we were only getting two meats; SHARE offers

five," said Mrs Hoyt.

In May, the Traditional Package included chicken breast fillets, ground beef,

fish fillet, maple sausage, turkey bologna, Vidalia onions, lettuce, broccoli,

green peppers, potatoes, apples, bananas, cantaloupe, barbecue sauce,

mini-muffins. The NU-SHARE had cereal, English muffins, apple juice, cheddar

cheese, tortillas, salad dressing, pasta, tapioca pudding, potatoes, zucchini

squash, broccoli, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, black beans, apples, oranges,

and nectarines. The Mini-Meat had hamburgers, beef hot dogs, Italian sausage,

fish, and deli meat.

As with the Harvest co-operative, two hours per month of volunteer work is a

prerequisite for participating in the SHARE program. But, as Mrs Hoyt pointed

out, this can be anything from folding newsletters for an organization,

cooking brownies for a bake sale, checking on a neighbor, or knitting garments

for babies.

"SHARE is nice for even single people because you don't get an overwhelming

amount of any one item," she said. "With the NU-SHARE, you get a really

different variety, they don't just double up on items."

Some people sign up for themselves, or buy packages for friends who might be

on a tight budget. Those who take part in the cooperative do so on a

month-by-month basis.

Anyone interested in the June distribution can sign up by June 13 at the

Senior Center in the Multi-Purpose Building on Riverside Road. Cash, money

order, or food stamps are accepted. Pick-up is scheduled for June 27 between

4:30 and 6:30 pm at the Senior Center.