5 minute read
Cooperatively Fresh
By Muriel Cooper Photos Yanni
It’s a stretch to imagine that a fresh local produce enterprise on the peninsula began with a tennis racquet, but that’s exactly what happened when Peter Forrest set out to buy one.
Peter says, “You could buy one at full price or two for a discount, three for more money off, and five came with even more of a discount. I had no one to buy with, and I thought that there had to be some way of getting together with others online to buy together to buy in bulk. So I talked to Mark Dingwell.”
Mark is an IT wizard who helped to set up the website and the ordering system for Jointly Harvest, which makes running a co-op easy. Peter and Mark are part of the New Baptist Church at the New Peninsula Centre in Mt Martha. They began to explore what could be done to help people buy smarter.
we thought about what we could do that might really help people at the moment
Initially, Peter took time off work and they began to make inroads into things other than tennis racquets. In 2019 they learned just how much the big companies actually have their hands in many little people's pies. Peter says, "The consumer was ready to go, but the actual retailers weren't so ready. It was going to be very expensive to get the numbers up. So we thought about what we could do that might really help people at the moment and the answer was veggies!”
And so Jointly Harvest was born.
The original model was to deliver the fruit and veggie boxes and other local artisan goods direct to members, but the pair soon realised that was going to be too expensive. So Peter and Mark came up with the idea of a ‘super group’. Peter explains, “That’s the idea where you deliver to one address (a hub), and then everyone comes and picks it up from there, so everyone shares the cost. We’ve come up level with the supermarkets in price, but the produce is super fresh. We didn't realise how used to buying older produce we’d become. We buy from the Epping market, where there’s a whole heap of farmers, plus wholesalers that represent farmers. After the pickup at 2am this morning I dropped into a little egg farm, then I dropped in to other local farms. Yesterday, I went to the Red Hill farms to get our local produce, including Island Pasta and Peninsula Nut Co in Mt Martha and Boatshed cheese in Dromana. We have all the produce you usually get at the market for our boxes. The idea is that we want to get as much local produce as possible. Although some of the produce is sourced elsewhere, it’s all Australian. The other idea of the hub is that it builds community, so people interact with each other and, obviously, by buying together, we can be competitive with supermarkets. When we deliver to the hubs, the kids come running and grab the fruit out. They might not have been eating fruit, but they love ours because they’re so fresh, juicy and crunchy.”
Jointly Harvest is a whole family affair. Peter’s wife Mel, his daughter Emily, and Mark’s parents Jim and Jane Dingwell are all packing boxes at the community centre, and Peter’s sister organises one of the hubs. Mark is taking time out to look after his newborn twins, Hattie and Alfie, but is usually there packing boxes.
As well as providing boxes to members, Jointly Harvest provides fresh produce to wholesome food enterprises and childcare centres. It also has a branch that provides boxes to the Community Caring Back on Track program. Peter and Mark noticed one day that the meals provided by the program could do with more fresh and seasonal produce, so they set up Nourish.
“We commit 5% of all boxes, and provide what's left over after packing them too, since exact numbers of fruit and veggies can’t be bought from the market. Jointly Harvest members can also give $15 Jointly Nourish food parcels to the community group of their choice.”
Now that we can buy most fruit and veggies all year round, many of us have lost track of what’s in season. Peter provides his Weekly Market Update on their website, which he calls his ‘Veggie Stock Market’. It outlines what’s in season and which are the best buys. Boxes can be chosen by members, or a ‘mystery box’ can be offered to them.
It’s not well known that most of the fresh produce in Victoria comes from the Melbourne Market in Epping. Jointly Harvest’s hub idea has caught the attention of others, and wholesale markets might pop up in other areas soon. This means fresher fruit and veggies and a smaller carbon footprint.
