Good Food Box - Dundas in Transition

Welcome to the Dundas Good Food Box!

This is a joint effort of Dundas in Transition and the Environment Hamilton Eat Local project.

Our objective is to get more fresh fruit and vegetables into the hands of Dundas residents. Where possible we also want to support local farmers thereby increasing our local capacity to produce the food we need.

The Food Box is open to all – anyone can buy one. In some cases the Box is subsidized or donated to those in need. Please let us know if you would like to donate one or more boxes to the Dundas Food Bank - one box for one year costs $180.

Food is purchased in bulk at wholesale prices and packed into boxes by volunteers. In this way we expect to deliver very good value for money. The price of a box is $15. Here is a sample of the contents - which change according to season.

1 bag lettuce, 1 bag apples, 3 peppers, 1 bag potatoes

2 large field tomatoes, 2-3 onions, 1 cucumber, 1 bunch broccoli

1 butternut squash, 1 bag brussels sprouts, 6 bananas

Our current process and timing is to have boxes available for collection at key points in Dundas on the last Friday of each month. WE DON’T DELIVER! This is a community volunteer activity so we use co-ordinators at drop-off points to collect money IN ADVANCE and then to arrange a collection time (usually a window of one or two hours) when customers come and pick-up their produce.

Give us feedback please!

Quality and value for money is our aim. We enclose a feedback form with each delivery and want to hear from our customers. You are encouraged to fill in the feedback form and give it to your coordinator, or write to us via Contact us.

Here is a schedule of dates for the Food Box for the first half of 2012 (the 4^th Friday of the month)

*Order/ payment date*	*Food Box pickup date*
January 20	January 27
February 17	^{February 24}
March 16	March 23
April 20	April 27
May 18	May 25
June 15	June 22

If you plan to order for next month, you need to get your order and payment into your drop-off coordinator by the date shown above. Some people think the best way is to pay for next month when you pick-up this month’s box. It saves extra contacts and is a form of saving for the next month.

Where does your food come from?

Our current method is to use an expert produce buyer who goes to the Ontario Food Terminal early in the morning of Food Box pick-up day and make all the purchases. Our buyer has many years of experience in purchasing for Food Box projects and good contacts with many local farmers who sell produce through the Terminal. He buys produce that is plentiful in season to get the best prices and makes decisions on the day to get best value for money.

Here's a graph of how we did in 2011 in getting Ontario produce - you can see it varies according to season. (Canada means non-Ontario produce, usually PEI potatoes)

Our longer term goal is to establish direct links with local farmers and obtain produce directly from them; however we know that there will be a continuing balance to be struck between local and affordable. We also have to deal with the collection and transport efficiently when dealing with many sources. This is a work in progress!

Other locations - see this map of all the Hamilton Food Box locations

For more background on the food box idea, look at the Toronto Food Share web-site; they originated this concept and have been evolving and growing it for many years. We have used their experience to get started.