BFC News

BFC Moves to New Produce Supplier

Recently our produce supplier, Heeren Brothers (which bought out Bestemans last year), decided that it was too expensive to deliver to us on Tuesdays. Most of their other customers in this area take deliveries on Monday or Wednesday, so for our March distribution we were forced to take delivery of our produce on Monday. In fact, the produce was actually delivered to Nicole's house, where she had to store it overnight and then transport it to Chilson Hills Church the next day -- a huge hassle.

We tried to negotiate with Heeren -- even offering to pay a surchage on the delivery charge -- but they were not very coöperative, suggesting at first that they might be willing to deliver on Tuesday for an exorbitant surcharge, but then not responding to our further attempts to negotiate. We finally gave up and decided to seek an alternative produce supplier.

The most promising supplier turned out to be Door to Door Organics (DTD). Not only can DTD deliver to us on Tuesdays, but they can customize our individual orders much better than Heeren. There are some kinks in the process we'll need to work out in the longer run, but here's what we know at this point:

To get produce at distribution, you must register at the DTD website at https://michigan.doortodoororganics.com/signup.php?page_state=8.
Registration includes selecting the "box" (assortment and size) you want from the 10 boxes available and paying for it by credit card. You also have to specify delivery frequency (weekly or biweekly) and provide both a Billing Address and a Shipping Address. The Billing Address should be where you receive your credit card statements. The Shipping Address should be that of Chilson Hills Church, but with your name -- in other words:
- Your Name
- 4440 Brighton Rd
- Howell, MI 48843
Also, in order to get the coöp discount of at least 10%, you must put "for Brighton Food Coöp" in the Delivery Instructions field.
By Friday before distribution, DTD will notify you of the actual content of the box you will receive at distribution. You'll then have till 8AM Monday (the day before distribution) to adjust the content or, if necessary, to switch to a different box.
Once you're registered, billing and delivery will occur automatically at the specified frequency unless you put your order on "vacation hold". Since DTD does not currently offer a "4 week" frequency consistent with the coöp's distribution schedule, your order will automatically be delivered to the church in between distributions unless you take action to prevent it. You have two strategies here:
1. If you want produce only every 4 weeks, go to the DTD website right after distribution and put your order on vacation hold until the Thursday before the next distribution.
2. If you want produce every 2 weeks, go to the DTD website right after distribution and change your Shipping Address to your home address. Of course, you won't get the coöp discount if the produce is delivered to your door. However, as an alternative, you might consider forming a "mini-coöp" with at least 5 neighbors (to get at least some discount) and have the produce delivered to a different neighbor's house each time. In any case, you'll have to remember to change the Shipping Address back to Chilson Hills Church by 8AM the day before the next distribution -- otherwise, your order will not be delivered to distribution.