Many years ago when I was interning at a United Methodist church (while in seminary) this church in trenton, new jersey had a food co-op. Members of the church would pay $30.00 and would receive chickens, vegatables, fruit and bread. This was done once a month. There was a lot of food they received. Because the church was buying in bulk, they provided great deals. Do you know of any of our churches that are doing this?

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2002

Answers

Bethel AME in Chattanooga, TN under the leadership of Rev. Terrence Mays recently started a program like that here. For $20 participants receive meats, produce, dry and can goods distibuted once a month.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2002

Michael thank you for your response. And praise God for Rev. Mays and his leadership in this endeavor. These types of programs are wonderful. Can you give us details on how your church set this program up. I am sure there are other churches that would like to implement such a program. Again thank you for this valuable info.

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2002

MICHEAL,

I'M VERY MUCH INTERESTED IN THIS PROGRAM, AT TRINITY A.M.E.C. IN KANSAS CITY, KANSAS WERE ARE WITH HARVESTER'S FOOD BANK AND READING THE INFORMATION ABOUT A CO-OP, I WOULD BE VERY INTERESTED IN STARTING THIS AT TRINITY OR FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY. PLEASE SEND OUT THE INFORMATION ON THIS AND THE CONTACTS.

THANKS,

MARGARET A. RILEY (MARG88882001@YAHOO.COM)

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2002

I too have been doing some preliminary research for our church. I think what we are going to do is start a "Buying Club" each member would invest 20 to 30 a month and we would buy in bulk and then distribute the food. There is quite a bit of info on the web. Do a search under "Buying Clubs" AltaVista, or Yahoo would be the best search engines.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2002