Membership

Purpose: The Agora Food Club connects members with food and products that are produced in a natural way. The food club not only connects members to these offerings but also supports farmers and producers who practice these principles. In doing so, The Agora Food Club provides an alternative to the mainstream public commercial food system.

The Agora Food Club is structured as a private membership association. As such, we are not open to the public but anyone is welcome to come and join. We aim to provide the majority of our members’ grocery needs each week and have them available in a convenient, local, physical location.

We operate by pooling together our money, buying in bulk, building relationships with local natural producers, attaining wholesale accounts, consolidating our purchases, and bringing all that to one physical location to pick up. We’re just a group of people joining together in our pursuit of real food with a few representatives to manage and organize the efforts. 

What Do I Do?

If you haven’t decided yet about joining, please come by during open hours and let us show you around and answer any questions you may have. For those ready to join, the process is simple- sign a membership contract, fill out a form with your basic info, and get set up on our ordering site.

Once a member, you can have standing orders that are prepared for you every week- typically basics that don’t change such as 2 gallons of milk, a loaf of sourdough, 2 dozen eggs, and a yogurt.
You then also have the ability to place a weekly order each week for what you would like to pick up the next Saturday/Monday.
We then combine these orders, get the items, pack and label them, and have them ready for you when you come in.

Consider:

• Who do you want to support with your money?
• What practices do you pay to support?
• Who benefits from your purchases?
• How is your health effected by your food choices?
• How can you do better?

What is the cost of membership?

• The cost is $150 per 6 months renewed each April 1st and October 1st. 
• Each member/family has an account that must have $150 in reserves. This can be funded fully up front or it can be $20 per week for 8 weeks (an extra $10 cost to “pay as you go”). These funds are locked up for the entirety of your membership but are still yours and you do get them back if you need to leave under most circumstances. 

What is happening when I pre-order?

     Pre-ordering is exactly that. You are not directly buying something when you place an order. You are placing an order that the food club representatives will organize for you on your behalf. It will then be paid for with the money you send in or money from your account. Some weights, amounts, availability, and other specifics are estimated so the exact amounts that you receive may be slightly different from what is exactly on the order. Therefore, the exact total price may be slightly different as well. Your items will be prepared for you and ready for pick-up when you come in.

How does payment work?

     As a food club member, you have an account with the food club that you keep money in for the food club to use on your behalf. The food club representatives provide the service of finding and vetting suppliers, organizing and doing buys, bringing everything to the club, organizing pickups, etc. A portion of the money from food club accounts is used for these things. When you come in for a pick-up, the exact total for what was attained on your behalf is already deducted from your account. You are not buying anything when you come in, just picking up paid for items. The items had already been bought on your behalf. 
     You can fund your account with cash, check, Zelle, or here on OFN (Open Food Network) with a card. Regardless, the money is then credited to your account and gives you the margin to order items and pick up what you’d like when you come in. Since you are not buying anything at the time of the pick-up, you need to have enough of a balance in your account ahead of time to cover the cost of the items you order. Most people either fund their account with a card or Zelle when they place their weekly order or fund their account directly after a pick-up to get their account back up to the amount they want for the following week’s order.

What happens when I fund my account through OFN or “pay” for an order at checkout?

     When you add the item “Fund Your Member Account” to your cart and checkout or when you pay for a pre-order at checkout with a card, those funds go directly to the food club and credit your account. Again, since you are not directly paying for the items at the time of funding your account, those funds are simply raising the balance in your account so that the food club representatives can get what you order and whatever else is needed with those funds. The checkout total is the estimate for what your order will cost for the food club to fill it. The exact amount may differ and you will likely want to get a few more items when you come in for your pick-up so be sure your account stays well funded to cover these things.

Are there fees for funding my account?

     Typically no but if you choose to fund with a card through OFN, you will pay the 4% card processing fee. It will be added to your total and you pay it when you checkout. If you use check, cash, or Zelle there is no fee. You can select “use member account funds” at checkout to use the funds in your account for the order but the funds in your account must be high enough to cover the order amount. You can refer to your most recent account statement email for the current balance.

What fees are charged by the food club?

     The way membership is structured, you pay a set amount for membership and then there are service fees attached to the items you order that are built into the pricing you see.
     In order for items to get from the producer to the club and to you, the food club incurs costs. These are the costs that are directly tied to items and are necessary for getting the items, bringing them in-house, storing them, keeping them cold/frozen when needed, and packing them for you. These can include things such as ice and coolers when we pick up fresh meat and dairy or bags and boxes for packing or gas for making a pick-up run, or other costs like this. We added up all these item specific costs as well as the overhead to run the club to determine the service fees which is how the displayed cost is derived. You aren’t paying a markup, you are simply paying the rest of the cost it takes to get the items and manage the club.
     In general, even with the membership fee, our pricing ends up being similar to buying organic food from a local grocery store.

What about taxes?

Sales tax is not charged at the food club. These taxes apply when things are sold, hence “sales” tax. When you are picking up items at the food club, you are simply picking up items that were already paid for with your account funds. Any applicable taxes would have applied at the time of the items being acquired on your behalf by the food club. This is therefore already reflected in the price of the items. 
Keep this in mind when you do price comparisons too- if you compare our member prices to buying items elsewhere, you will likely have to add sales tax to the price of those comparable items.

We would love for you to support our efforts here and the local farmers and producers we partner with. Consider joining us to support good things in our local community as well as in your own health and life.