Starting from this April, we are changing how we charge for our veg bag holidays and we are raising our veg bag prices to take into account the impact of steadily rising food prices locally and globally. The combination of holiday charge changes and the price rise together makes for a bit of a hit but we hope you understand the reasoning.
Changes to our holiday system:
Currently our bag prices are calculated on the basis that all our customers will take four weeks holiday each year and if you don’t then you’re not charged extra. This means two things, firstly that people often forget to tell us they’re going away and veg is often uncollected leading to some waste. We try to divert it to places like the People’s Kitchen at the Hornbeam, but especially in summer months some has to be composted. Secondly, it means that different members of the scheme pay a different price depending on how much they go on holiday.
From April we will be introducing a pay-per-bag system, where our monthly price assumes you get bags for 52 weeks of the year. When you inform us of a holiday, we will cancel your bag for the week/s and no payment will be taken. This will look like a price increase at the outset, but in real terms you will only pay for the veg bags that you receive and the price difference will cancel out over the year.
Responding to food price increases:
Over the past 12 months food prices have risen steadily and we expect that to continue over the next 12 months. Ultimately this price increase will end up going directly to our growers and the farmers we work with – and any surplus we make on our box scheme going to support Organiclea’s other work in providing volunteering and training opportunities for a wide range of people.
We’ve done our homework and checked our new prices with all the other major veg box schemes and we are cheaper.
In fact, even in comparison to supermarkets, our veg bags are cheaper than the equivalent organic produce (based on average price of equivalent produce from Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose).
We appreciate the impact even small price rises have on households and humans. We have kept our price rise to a minimum and are talking together as a Co-op about ways we can support lower income families and households across Waltham Forest to continue to access to local, organic veg and fruit that doesn’t cost the Earth. Please remember and let others know we do accept Healthy Start vouchers.
The new prices from April 2018 are:
| Bag Type | Monthly price | Weekly price |
| Standard Veg | £55.00 | £12.69 |
| Standard No Potato | £62.00 | £14.31 |
| Large Veg | £73.00 | £16.85 |
| Large No Potato | £78.00 | £18.00 |
| Medium Veg | £44.00 | £10.15 |
| Med No Potato | £50.00 | £11.54 |
| Small Veg | £33.00 | £7.62 |
| Small No Potato | £40.00 | £9.23 |
| Standard Fruit | £44.00 | £10.15 |
| Medium Fruit | £33.00 | £7.62 |
| Small Fruit | £28.00 | £6.46 |
Yours Sincerely,
The box pack team
