It seems like everywhere I go lately, there is buzz about local food movements.  After the mainstream success of films like “Supersize Me” and “Food, Inc.,” (view trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0) people are starting to question where exactly their food is coming from.  Bucks County has traditionally offered a variety of farmer’s market that occur on a regular basis, but it wasn't until recently that the demand for local food gained enough momentum to make a real change in the local food environment.  Whereas for many years people have fought to maintain farmlands in Bucks County, now the community is taking the next step to maintain the farming businesses by adopting healthier lifestyles.

Like many people, we at Bucks Happening were interested in learning more about how we can eat locally and become involved in the movement in Bucks County.  While we had heard about food clubs and co-ops, we still weren't exactly sure how they worked and the idea of walking up to a farm was a bit intimidating. This week, though, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Stephanie Walker and Marc BrownGold of the Doylestown Food Club to get some answers.

The Doylestown Food Club started back in October 2009 when Stephanie decided that she wanted to do something to help bring the local farm food to the tables of her Doylestown community.  Growing up in York, PA, she had been exposed to local foods from a young age. Eating local remained important to her, but when trying to juggle a career and two children, the effort required to obtain local foods became too much.  In October 2009, she planned a meeting with a few neighbors to discuss the possibility of creating a local food club. She listed the meeting as open to the community on Bucks Mont Progressive Events & to her surprise, the Bucks County Intelligencer picked up the story the day before the meeting. When over thirty people showed up for that first meeting, she knew that Doylestown was ready for a food club.

The Doylestown Food Club has grown to fifty household members with a healthy waiting list of people who would love to join the group.  In DFC, the club members order their food from lists provided by several local farms.  The members share the responsibility of picking up the ordered foods from the various providers, and they meet weekly to retrieve their purchased goods.  This is different than a Community Supported Agriculture club in which you pre-pay for a season's worth of fresh fruits and vegetables raised on one farm.  The DFC team works tirelessly to lay the groundwork to keep up with the local food demands and organize orders with the farmers.  All money collected from the club members for orders goes directly back to the farmers. Some of their farmers even make small donations to the club to help support it when sales reach a certain pre-determined level.

DFC was planned as a temporary foray into the local foods movement.  Now, DFC hopes to make it to the next step.  The goal is to transform the food club from an informal group into an official food co-op. What does this mean?  A food co-op can support a much larger number of people.  It would procure facilities with storage and refrigeration in order to accept deliveries and receive customers. Furthermore, DFC’s goal is to open a retail operation to the public.  With greater consumer demand, they hope to not only benefit the farmers but also deliver the best prices to customers.

This goal is a challenging one; it will take a considerable amount of community support in order to have the volume to make this project financially viable.  This is your chance to DO something positive for yourself and your community!  Doylestown Food Club is holding a town hall meting this Sunday 2-4pm at the Doylestown Presbyterian Church.  Come find out more about getting involved in the wonderful organization.  If you don't live close to Doylestown, this could be your chance to learn how to create your very own cooperative food club in your town.

There is certainly much more to learn about the local food movement in Bucks County and  we at Bucks Happening can't wait to find out more to share with you.

Websites: http://doylestown.coop/, http://doylestownfoodclub.org
Contact: coop@doylestownfoodclub.org

More about food co-ops: http://doylestown.coop/coop.php

When: Sunday, May 2, 2010
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 pm

When: Thursday, May 27, 2010
Time: 7:30 – 9:30 pm

Location (for both meetings):
Fellowship Hall of Doylestown Presbyterian Church
125 Mechanics Street, Doylestown, PA 18901

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