Last week I was invited to sit in on a discussion around cooperative purchasing among the food pantries in the Lakes Region of Cumberland County, Maine. The invitation came from a gentlemen I work with here in Portland on the Mayor’s Initiative for Healthy Sustainable Food Systems (a.k.a. Portland Food Council). He is a United … Read more
A little about what’s behind how we are approaching software versions of BuyingClubSoftware.com… Big picture, we are working towards a version 1.0 of the software, and this release is one of a few as we travel the path to that final destination. For us, that means getting every idea we’ve experienced in to the … Read more
On November 19, 2010 Slow Money Maine hosted a day-long event where several investors and agricultural participants gathered to share what they are doing and talk openly about investing in local agriculture. The morning program was several presentations to a room of about 100 people, and I was lucky enough to be one of those … Read more
One of our customers, the Portland Food Co-op, recently had an open house at their new location. It was a space that was donated, rent free for five years and the group did an amazing job renovating it. With the software and more physical space to run a large food pickup with stations for picking … Read more
Our client the Foodshed Alliance got some recognition from the New Jersey Herald for organizing buying clubs. They continue their great work getting more fresh food to New Jersey residents. Notice the article has no mention of the software. Of course we would love a plug, but it feels good to be the engine behind … Read more
On April 15th, 2011 we will be setting up 2 systems for the Foodshed Alliance located in Blairstown, New Jersey, with hopes to setup more in the future if they are successful in this pilot program. It was great to connect with a non-profit interested in using this software to ease the process of starting … Read more
After re-starting our orders at the Portland Food Co-op in February, we have now had 6 successful order cycles with approximately 200 people and $10,000 in purchasing of local food. Through this success, we are very proud to announce that we are open for business. That said, we welcome any and all buying clubs. How … Read more
It’s been many months since our first test. The software hasn’t changed too much, but we have cleared up tons of bugs found in the shopping piece, and added a bunch of tools on the back-end for management and finances. We know there is still a ways to go, but we are putting our foot … Read more
While we have not put BuyingClubSoftware.com to work yet, the idea of ordering food being the seed of community is what this story says to me. A group that has worked hard and created a community of their own, getting a donation like this from an interested party is a big game changer. The donation … Read more
I am sick from learning about this. No, outraged. I don’t care what the law says or how technical it gets in how they charge these people, they come in with guns pointed? To spend time and money going after people because they chose to buy raw milk is not what I call freedom of … Read more