How Our Co-Op Works

Cooks' Co-op operates differently from a store. Our members are active participants and owners of our cooperative. We meet to share the provisioning labour, and all (but a very few) of our products are discounted to below retail price.

Here's how it works:

Weekly Boxes

• Packaged products, eggs, fresh produce and bread are available to order as a box for a Thursday pick up from our Co-op in Moorooka.

• Boxes are ready to pick up from about 1pm and into the evening. They are organised neatly and labelled as yours in our our Co-op fridges, freezers and pantry shelves - so you can come in and out at your convenience, self-service style.

Monthly ‘Meetups’ - 3rd Saturday of the month

• On the third Saturday of every month, ALL our products, including everything we offer that is unpackaged (eg. grains, nuts, flours, oils, chocolates that you weigh out into your own containers) are available.

Behind the Scenes…

• A small core team of members places orders with our network of producers and suppliers (over 40 of them at last count)

• Deliveries arrive throughout the month, and we organise and maintain the stock carefully.

• Some products are pre-portioned and available for our weekly grocery boxes, others arrive in bulk to be split on a Saturday

• Working members help with various aspects of all of the above (around 3 hours a month or more if you like). Members start by learning the basics of our Saturday split day tasks, and then over time, they find work that suits their talents, joys and capacity.

• General members aren’t required to make this time contribution.

What happens at Meetups exactly?

• We gather third Saturday of the month at our Moorooka Co-op location. (As it is associated with a private residence, we only provide the address when you express your interest directly to us.)

• Working members set up our various stations (grains, gluten free flours, dairy, meat, dry goods…)

• General Members arrive with their pre-ordered shopping lists and start gathering with the help of working members. Extras are easily added if you’ve forgotten to order anything, or see something that catches your eye.

• People brings snacks to share and kids a plenty, grab balls and scurry after chickens, watched over by whoever’s taken on that role.

• We share updates, solve problems, and make decisions together

• There’s always a few members who can’t attend but still order and organise to pick up from another member who lives nearest to them. So we pack up their produce for them, like it’s Christmas Eve.

Anything else?

• Some working members help out between events with various tasks rather than on Meetup days themselves. Tasks like receiving deliveries, cleaning and sweeping, stock take, new member onboarding, and helping us perfect our ordering spreadsheet (hello excel wizards we love you). The list grows with the talents and needs of our co-op.

• A small core team handles any tasks that are still a little fluid or require an excess of 3 hours a month to complete. Eventually we will be appropriately paid for this contribution. For now, we invest and receive the joy of creating something beautiful, along with a little credit that goes towards our grocery shops.

• We are intent on creating a supportive and open space, where all our members can participate to the best of their strengths, and propose improvements to our cooperative.

Our approach isn't designed for maximum efficiency—it's optimised for connection, trust, quality, participation, ethical behaviour and intentionality. The labour of Working Members allows us to offer affordability to the whole community. Cooks Co-op isn't a service—it's food system renewal, and we're building it together.

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Interested in becoming a member? Email [email protected].