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Chloé Dodinot says that when her company, Ubisoft, first heard that it could host a drop-off point for a family farmer, it conducted a survey to measure the level of interest amongst employees. "We were pleasantly surprised by the positive response. In just two days, more than 100 people told us, 'Yes, we want to do it. Sign us up!' So we said, 'Let's do this.'"
"It's so easy to pick up vegetables this way," she says of the program, which pairs family farmers in Equiterre's community supported agriculture (CSA) network with organizations. Colleagues band together to pre-order individual baskets of locally grown produce to be delivered to their workplaces once a week.
Every organization has its own way of doing it. Dodinot explains how her company approached it: "We tried to find a weekday, ideally other than Monday or Friday, where employees could come get their baskets at the end of the day. At first, we held the drop-off inside, but then we realized that it was much more fun to do it outside, like a public market. The people from the farm arrive, set out the bins, and the employees come between 4:30 and 5:30. They empty their bins into a reusable grocery bag and then head home."
The delivery season usually lasts 16 to 20 weeks. Depending on the weather, it starts at the end of June or the beginning of July.
This year's program has more than sixty participating organizations, including Rona, Pratt and Whitney, Fido, Standard Life, CSSS de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Agences de santé publique, Institut Armand-Frappier and Université de Montréal.
Interested in this convenient way to stock up on fresh, locally grown produce? Learn how to host a drop-off point for the Quebec community supported agriculture (CSA) network. It's too late for this season, but you can get the ball rolling for winter 2012 or summer 2013.
In the meantime, you can still sign up with a family farmer on an individual basis for a summer basket.
