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Meetup Orders Open + *NEW* Thursday Box Pickup Pre Meetup

Author

Angela Hirst
February 12, 2026

COOKS CO~OP

Harvest for a ‘herb medley’

HELLO! MEMBERS AND YET-TO-BES…

Is Summer easing? The heat certainly did its job on us — we’re bubbling over with momentum! It’s a year of honing… honing our workflows, our agreements, our abundance… our friendships! We’re sincerely looking forward to bumping into each other more. Hanging out with the people behind the containers.

Big news this month: Thursday before Meetups is now a Box Pickup Day. We’ll be asking you to CHOOSE whether you’re picking up on a Thursday or a Saturday next week. More on that below.

Co-op working crew has a great lunch

ORDERING IS OPEN FOR: 19th or 21st February Meetup

Early close for coffee : Sunday 15th February 11am.

Everything else closes Tuesday 17th February 11am.

Billy’s bouquet of brassicas

The Report

HOW’S THE CO-OP DOING?

Here’s a report out on some Co-op facts. The coverage morphs depending on what’s on top around here. Interested in knowing something in particular? Post suggestions in our #systems slack channel.

MEMBERSHIP

We’ve increased from 13 member households this time last year to 34 committed member households (and 2 trialling households) this month. We have 24 Working Members & 10 General Members, so the proportion is shifting slightly towards General Membership.

By the way, more General Members means more money flowing into the system — one very important (crucial!) input to the Co-op. We hope our General Members know they’re appreciated for this contribution — just as much as Working Members are for their physical contributions. We need you all for this Co-op to work.

CORE TEAM HOURS

The core team accumulatively did many hours, which we have been recording over the last couple months to help us make decisions based on actual data. We’ll be able to tell you more about this next month.

NUMBERS FOR NERDS

We are gradually going over the list and finding reasonable alternatives for suppliers or products that require us to hold less stock on hand. There is a limit, however, to how low this stock can get without impacting diversity and quality — both very important to our Co-op model. $28k stock — our current holdings — may end up being the new normal.

Our monthly intake of orders is up on our last few months. It's currently sitting at about $18k, compared to $15k in December. That’s largely due to more weekly shoppers. We’ll see if that’s a trend.

Sato helping with our weekly pack

TWO CHALLENGES AND A PROPOSAL INCOMING

There’s two substantial (and exciting) challenges facing the Co-op this year.

1) making enough money to be able to compensate our main labour contributors (Ange & Billy) so they (we) don’t run out of money to live,

and,

2) distributing the work volume to more members so that Ange & Billy don’t fall to pieces as we grow.

Basically, we need membership numbers to grow, we need spend to grow, and we need some members to want to grow their work contribution.

We’re in the process of making a proposal around this that we’ll be seeking your advice on. We don’t want to rush things, so while this is in progress, we think it's best if we postpone asking people to commit to another full year of admin fees. Instead, as members hit their one-year anniversary with the Co-op (starting this month!), we'll revert to taking the equivalent of one month's admin fee ($10) once a month from your balances. If anyone has any issues with this approach, please let us know! Best spot for the discussion is probably #systems.

INTERESTED IN JOINING OUR CO-OP?

We’re now open for new members (again) and it’s simpler than ever to join.

Reply to this Newsletter if you’re interested in trying us out. We can even get you set up by next week if you’re super eager!

A medley of tea herbs

Co-op News…

YOU CAN NOW GRAB YOUR GROCERIES EVERY THURSDAY - EVEN JUST BEFORE MEETUPS

We're growing and we're not scared! That's because our systems are flowing pretty smoothly, and we’re experimenting with ways to keep them that way while we grow.

First, we've been pre-packing our bulk goods into standard sizes so they're easy to grab and box for you every week. (Thanks Jessie, Naomi and others for suggesting this!) This means more bulk goods are being ordered every week, and it doesn’t take us as long to pack them. Second, we've decided to open up the Thursday just before the Saturday Meetup (i.e. just over 48 hours before) for pickups. This means we can relieve our cold storage of some ‘heave’ before the Saturday push.

The main thing we need from each of you is a decision about next week’s shop: will you pick up on Thursday (19th) or Saturday (21st) next week? Then, we need you to tick the box we've added to the produce sheet to indicate which it'll be. As for why you’d choose a Thursday or Saturday — no explanation is needed. The choice is yours to make. But to help you decide…

Thursday looks like this

Thursday Pro: you get everything packed for you, and you can pick up whenever you like from 1:30pm into the evening.

Thursday Con: you don't get to do random shopping, snacking, sampling, or have fabulous conversations (well, you might bump into someone — this is unpredictable.)

Thursday picker-upperers — use multiples of the Order Size in Column I in the Produce List. These are the weights we’ve bagged up bulk products. Your full order, including all bulk purchases, will be packed for you. If you want different amounts than what's specified in Order Sizes, then come to the Saturday Meetup! And if you stuff this ordering number up, don’t worry, we’ll fix it for you.

Saturday looks like this

Saturday Pro: you get to order exactly the amounts you want, and pack them into your own containers. And you get snacks, samples, random shopping and fabulous conversation.

Saturday Con: ??? you might have other stuff going on ???

Saturday picker-upperers — put any amount you like into your order column. Bring your containers, labelled as usual, on Saturday.

The List

SO SO SO MUCH NEW

We’re trying out a whole lot of fresh produce on you this week, so play around and we’ll see what we meet minimums on.

Also new to the list — pecan pieces (reducing the per-kilo price), bulk organic sunflower oil at a much-reduced price, cornstarch, and pâté in bulk pieces (same pâté, much cheaper!).

Below are a few things we're trying out — just one or two items of each. Please grab them if you're into the experiments, and let us know in #product-reviews if you want more or a variation:

Drinks — Tonic Water (Fever-Tree for now, but we'll keep looking for something less corporate as well). Plus additions to our herbal teas: Dandelion Tea (loose and in filter bags, plain and chai), Rooibos, and a 'Bengal Spice' Tea.

Body care — Extending the range, we now have: a new spray deodorant, tallow balm, shampoo, massage oil, cotton buds, and throat spray (for kids' sore throats).

Kitchen — Various brushes for dishes, pots and veggies.

Pantry — Variations on crackers, crispbreads and rice cakes — all interesting for their various possibilities and better price points. Plus marinated olives, new varieties of canned beans (pinto, haricot, mixed), brined capers, marinated artichoke hearts, Nuffin Dips (Hommus, Roasted Capsicum & Onion, and Basil & Feta) and gluten-free pastas (a few brands of penne to try out which is best), including a kids' animal-shaped pasta.

Snacks for the littles — Let's face it, sometimes you need a quick release: fruit strips and cookies have hit the list.

ENOUGH FROM US, TIME TO SHOP

Hope to see you Saturday 21st February at our Meetup, or the Thursday before for a quick box pickup. Up to you!

Members: please alert us to if you’re picking up Thursday or Saturday by picking the option in the Produce List.

Non-members: we would still love to know if you’re interested in joining in 2026. Reply to this email and we’ll prioritise you for a trial next week even.

xx your Co-op crew.

Exquisite blood plums