Vege Co-op Controversy

The vege co-op is a food distribution operation organised by a local church to get fruit and veges to local families at an affordable price. It is $10 for a supermarket-sized bag full of veges and another bag ½ full of fruit. The people running the co-op go to the growers market on a Wednesday morning and buy vegetables and fruit in bulk amounts. They take these back to the church and make up bags of the produce. Cassie and I (Gabby) have been along a couple of times to help out with the vege co-op to take the pressure off the older volunteers who help out every week. Our flat signed up to get a bag each week because cuts out the middleman and is local. A few weeks into it we were surprised to find bananas and mangos, which are definitely not from New Zealand. It turns out that when the supermarkets have excess bananas and mangos they sell them at the local growers markets. So in a way we are not creating a demand for food from overseas and perhaps not ethically grown (bananas mainly) but rather are mopping up excess food. So we will continue getting the co-op veggies!