Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Bountiful Baskets!

Greetings from your local Bountiful Basket Volunteer Site Coordinators- Sarah Teeples & Moriah Cochran
We are happy to announce that Bountiful Baskets will begin in Stevensville on January 14!  We are sending you this email because you signed up on our interest list.  If you are no longer interested just email me back and I will remove you. 
If you would like to participate please visit www.bountifulbaskets.org  there you will sign up for an account and read all about new participant instructions.  This website is where you will place your order/contribute when you would like a basket.  The website opens for contributions on Mondays at noon and closes on Tuesdays at 10pm for pick up that Saturday. So, if you would like a basket on the 14th, you will need to go to the website and place your order/contribution by Tuesday the 10th at 10pm (we recommend Monday just out of habit because we will begin to sell out of baskets early in the contribution period).  If you don't contribute in that time frame you will not recieve a basket.  Every time you would like a basket you must go on-line and contribute during the open time frame.
Contribution time closes on Tuesday night, but some sites fill up quickly. Each site has an allotted number of baskets that it can accommodate. In order for more baskets to be available in a particular area, volunteers must step up, be trained, and find a location where they can open a new site.
The contribution is $15.00 per basket. The organic upgrade is $10.00 for a total of $25.00. The amount for add-ons varies depending on the item. The first time basket fee is $3.00. The processing fee is $1.50, which must be paid every time you contribute. Your entire contribution is spent on food, so the $1.50 is necessary to cover card processing, servers, and other expenses.
When you check out, you agree to be on time to pick-up your produce. Unless otherwise noted pick-ups are on Saturday morning. It is helpful to double-check the time on the website under “Locations” each Friday night to be sure there hasn’t been a last-minute change. You have a 20-minute window to pick up your produce. If you are late, or do not show up, your produce will be donated and will be unavailable to you.
You also agree to volunteer on occasion. This is a volunteer organization. We all chip in, no one gets paid, so all of our money goes to buying great food at great prices! If you are able bodied, we ask that you volunteer at least once every 6 to 8 times you participate. If you can not, then don’t worry about it.
There are no refunds or exchanges, but if you don’t like it, there is no commitment to participate again. You have to contribute every week that you want a basket—they don’t just carry your contribution over. If you contribute for add-ons, you will have a chance to inspect those at the pick-up to make sure they are of good quality before you take them home. If they are spoiled or damaged, or if they do not arrive on the truck (these things occasionally happen), then the volunteer site coordinator will submit a credit request for you to be reviewed by Sally and Tanya, the co-op founders.
As of today our pickup time is 3:30 at the North Valley Public Library Community Room.  But please double check before you come to pickup on Saturdays, as time and location may change.  We are trying to find and secure a larger location because we are worried we may run out of room!  If you have any ideas of pickup locations please let us know! We just need an indoor location during the winter months.
When you sign up for an account on the Bountiful Baskets website you can  enter two phone numbers.  We will call these numbers if you forget to come and pick up your basket so make sure it is a number we can get ahold of you at, like a home and cell phone number.
If you can volunteer please come at 2:00.  Volunteers are needed to help unload the truck and carry in produce, sort the produce, and help people when they come to pick-up their basket.
For now, the best thing you can do to familiarize yourself with Bountiful Baskets is go to bountifulbaskets.org and click on the "New Participant Instructions" in the top bar. This will walk you through everything you need to know! 

Lastly we ask for your patience!  We have been trained but we are new to this so please be understanding! And like everyone at Bountiful Baskets we are volunteers! This is not a paid position and we both have busy lives, but love to get a great deal!! We look forward to working with you!

Moriah & Sarah
If you have any questions you can e-mail or call us.
Moriah Cochran
Sarah Teeples


No comments:

Post a Comment