Buying Local Made Easy

We live in a big box world in these suburban parts. When it comes to shopping for our food, we've gotten accustomed to pushing our extra-large carts through the extra-wide aisles of stores we can't really access by foot. We shop in a haze, rarely running into anyone we know, nose to the grindstone.

It's a shame, says Nina Bailey-Dick, because it lessens our sense of community. Bailey-Dick is working to change that through her own business, one that's hitting a nerve among local folk judging by the way its grown since its inception just over a year ago.

Bailey-Dick started Bailey's Local Foods out of her Waterloo carport in May 2008. Her passion for eating and sourcing out locally grown food got her thinking that, while many like her had an interest in eating closer to home, driving to farms, health food stores, and specialty shops for one or two items per stop wasn't exactly time or carbon efficient. 

"It doesn't make sense for all of us to drive around the countryside," she explains. "It makes far more sense for us to coordinate it and have farmers bring it into the cities."

So Bailey-Dick started a buying club with 10 or 15 families and a spiral notebook ledger. She made up a list of items she was willing to round up and had club members place their orders a few days in advance. Within a month, she was up to 50 families. A couple more months passed and 96 families were on board. "It was chaos," she laughs now, "but happy, beautiful chaos."

Things shut down temporarily for the fall and winter while Bailey-Dick and her business partner Rachael Ward regrouped. Now they've started back up just in time for the growing season, relocating from the carport to First United Church in Waterloo, where they rent a space that allows her club members -- now 257 families -- more room to pick up their weekly stash. 

Orders are done online between Saturday night (after Bailey-Dick sends out her weekly "what's available" email) and Tuesday evening; pick-up at the church takes place Fridays afternoons. Customers aren't obligated to order weekly, but the option is certainly there (at least until October, when pick-up will go monthly for the colder months). 

What's for the taking? A wide array of whatever's in season (berries, no-spray soft fruits from Niagara, herbs and vegetables), preserves, fresh bread, grains and flours, meat of various kinds, yogurt and cheese, oil, peanut butter, pasta, beans, popcorn and more.

Eggs and milk are no-gos (too highly regulated, says Bailey-Dick). And though she tries as best as she can to keep things as local as possible, she has no qualms about saying that it's not 100 per cent so. She also tries to keep things ethical, favouring foods that are organic or minimally sprayed.

"Sometimes the things we offer are not as cheap as Zehrs," she explains, adding that it takes some educating for people to understand why supermarkets sometimes seem so cheap. (Grocery stores offer certain items very inexpensively, taking a loss on them to get customers in the door; they then make their money on all the other items the customers stock up on while they're there). 

Buying club members pay a one-time $20 joining fee, and Bailey-Dick makes her income by marking prices up 25 per cent. "We're very transparent about how we mark things up," she says. "We're certainly not gouging. Some things will feel more expensive and others will seem like a great deal."

It's a great way to support a struggling economy, she adds. "It generates income for the church, it's a huge win for farmers, for urban families wanting to eat locally. It keeps money in the community and circulating among small business. There are so many positive ripple effects."

Including the way it brings people together. Bailey-Dick estimates that 85 per cent of her families walked or biked to pick up their orders last year, dragging their wagons behind them (a practice she heartily encourages). This year, with the move to the church and the increase in customers, she imagines more people will travel by car. Either way, she loves the atmosphere on pick-up day. 

"It's a gathering spot where you bump into people you haven't seen, there are kids selling pastries, there are strollers and bike trailers," she says. "It's a real community spot and that holds a good feeling for people."

Bailey-Dick is embracing continued growth, so do check out the company website, www.baileyslocalfoods.ca, if the buying club sounds like your kind of thing. Me, I can hardly wait to place my first order. Perhaps I'll see you at the church, wagon in tow.