Eating healthy organic foods can be expensive, but a group of people came up with a plan.

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(Photos by BRIAN WIDDIS/Special to the Free Press)

Rochester Food Co-op members Nyla Bendixen, right, 55, and Kit Duffield, 51, both of Rochester Hills, divide up food on Nov. 2. The co-op receives scheduled shipments at the Paint Creek United Methodist Church in Oakland Twp. Club members unload the goods from the delivery truck, and divide them up so members can take home their orders.

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(Photos by BRIAN WIDDIS/Special to the Free Press)

Rochester Food Co-op members Nyla Bendixen, right, 55, and Kit Duffield, 51, both of Rochester Hills, divide up food on Nov. 2. The co-op receives scheduled shipments at the Paint Creek United Methodist Church in Oakland Twp. Club members unload the goods from the delivery truck, and divide them up so members can take home their orders.

Recently delivered health food items are ready to be packed.

Anne Burns loads her food order into her vehicle at Paint Creek United Methodist for the trip home to ston.

(Photos by BRIAN WIDDIS/Special to the Free Press)

Working on a shipment, from left, are Camilleri, 60, and Withers, 59, both of Oakland Township, and Anne Burns, 52, of ston, on Nov. 2. They are part of the Rochester Food Co-op.

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Freep.com » Community » CFP TroyRochester

Rochester Food Co-op members chip in to get brand-name health foods

November 11, 2007

BY KATHARINE P. SMITH

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Eating healthy typically comes with a big price, as in dollars for top-quality products and time spent driving from Costco to the Vitamin Shoppe to Trader Joe's and elsewhere to find just the right items.

But 15 Oakland County families find strength -- and convenience -- in numbers as the Rochester Food Co-op.

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The group was founded 30 years ago. It buys in bulk mainly from one place: Connecticut-based United Natural Foods, a national distributor of health food.

A lot of the brand-name goods available through the co-op are the same ones sold at major stores. Others are hard to come by. United Natural Foods brands include Health Valley, Maharishi Ayurveda, Spectrum Foods, Yves Veggie Cuisine and Eden Organic. Offerings include refrigerated and frozen goods but not produce.

The club works this way: Members browse grocery offerings in a paper catalog, with nutritional and other details available online at www.unitedbuyingclubs.com.

Each member indicates which products he or she is interested in, and how much is wanted of each product. The members e-mail their orders to a designated co-op member.

When enough members request the required amount of each item -- for example, when there is enough interest to buy a 50-pound bag of rolled oats -- the item is added to the group's order, which is sent to the natural foods distributor. If members can't get enough takers, that item doesn't get ordered. Other items come in singles, so co-op members don't need to order a big batch to get them.

Every eight weeks, the co-op takes delivery at the Paint Creek United Methodist Church in Oakland Township, where the group rents space. Members help unload the truck and sort the products. Then each takes his or her share.

Ordering together enables the group to get volume discounts. Members might save only pennies on some items, but the savings add up, said co-op member Anne Burns, 52, of ston.

In an order this summer, Burns paid $5.93 each for six Amy's Kitchen organic cheese-and-pesto frozen pizzas. The same item at Whole Foods in Rochester Hills cost $5.99. Her 15 Fruitabü fruit snacks were 43 cents each; at Whole Foods, each was 69 cents.

For many members, saving a little money is less important to them than being able to easily find food that conforms to their dietary needs, and to drive to only one place to get most of what they need.

Co-op members, Burns said, are "health-food nuts, moms with kids. Some of us have special diets: We have vegetarians, vegans, those who are dairy-free, wheat-free."

Carolyn Young, 35, of Oakland Township said she's "very sensitive to MSG (monosodium glutamate) and free glutamates. I can't tolerate additives."

The stay-at-home mom has been an additive-free-foods shopper and co-op member for about two years.

Young said she loves saving money on her healthy food. She's gotten Applegate Farms ham, she said, for $2.99 a pack through the co-op. At retail stores, she said, she has paid $5 to $6.99 a pack. Among Young's favorite co-op foods are bulk sugar and grains; dairy, such as Organic Valley products, and spices.

Once a month, the group also uses the power of its numbers to get good prices on herbs, teas, aromatherapy oils and other products from Frontier Natural Products.

Firetto, 57, of ston has been a Rochester Food Co-op member for about 13 years, and serves as one of the group's bookkeepers.

She said she goes to the co-op for vitamins and supplements, such as the red yeast rice she takes to combat high cholesterol. And, Firetto said, she gets great prices on medicinal drinks such as kukicha (twig) tea.

The group takes organizational effort, said Burns, but is affordable. Members pay a onetime administrative fee of $10, and a onetime equity payment of $60 that's refunded when they leave. The yearlong subscription to the foods catalog is $12. Members also take turns doing administrative duties.

The co-op eagerly welcomes new members.

"The bigger the group, the more money you save," said Young.

Especially sought at the moment are parents of young children, to share orders of kid food such as baby yogurt and fruit roll-ups.

Members cooperate not just on food orders. They swap recipes and information about healthy living, Burns said. When health news breaks, such as this year's pet-food recall, members alert one another.

For some, the main reason for being in the co-op is not the cost savings or convenience, but the fellowship, said Firetto.

"It's like a little family," she said, one that gets together once a month to renew friendships, watch children grow and discuss Topic A: staying healthy.

To contact the Rochester Food Co-op, visit www.localharvest.org/food-coops/M9001. Contact KATHARINE P. SMITH at 248-351-3692 or kpsmith@....

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