About the Source Food Co-op

Source provides and promotes convenient and affordable access to produce which is organic or spray-free, locally grown where possible, minimally packaged and fair trade. It is our belief that ethical and sustainable food choices should be affordable for all.

While Source provides some bags for sale at cost price, shoppers are encouraged to bring their own recycled bags and containers to Source to fill. 

At Source, there are two options for membership, active and non-active. Non-active members recieve a 20% discount on goods and support the co-op by shopping with us. Active members volunteer in the shop for 8 hours every 6 weeks and receive a 30% discount on food.

All members are welcome and encouraged to attend meetings and contribute to the running of the co-op. Decisions are made by consensus. A board of directors is elected each year by the members at the annual general meeting. Any paid staff are appointed by the board of directors and volunteers are managed by the paid staff.

Our knowledge of what is the most ethical, or the most environmentally responsible product is always evolving, and customers are invited to have input into our product range through the suggestion box. You are invited to ask questions and talk to the shop keepers and volunteers about why we stock particular products.
 

Why shop at Source?

Cooperatives are not for profit businesses run for their members by their members, with the aim of providing access to affordable goods and services.  

How our food is grown, where it is grown, the energy and resource consumption involved in processing, packaging and transport, and the waste generated all impact the earth. By keeping the environment in mind when you shop you can avoid contributing to land degradation, fossil fuel consumption and landfill. Here are a few key elements to keep in mind when buying food:

Organic and/or Biodynamic

Conventional farming practices such as the use of pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilisers, and excessive irrigation, are associated with widespread environmental damage. Salinity, blue-green algae in waterways and soil fertility decline are just some of the examples of land degradation from food production. Organic and/or biodynamic farming emphasises appropriate land management and aims to achieve sustainable agricultural practices which balance animal life, the natural environment and food crops. Organic farmers do not use pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified organisms, growth promoters or hormones. Organic food is also better for you, having consistently been shown to provide higher levels of essential and trace minerals than non-organically grown food. And it tastes a lot better too!

Locally grown

Buying food that is locally grown reduces the demand for transport, which involves huge amounts of fossil fuel use to get food from the place it is grown to the place where it is bought and consumed. Not only that, buying locally grown food means that you are supporting your local economy instead of multinational companies. Growers in Australia are much more likely to receive a decent wage than growers in Asia, the Pacific, South America and Africa, who often live well below the poverty line.

Unpackaged

Buying unpackaged food is a simple, easy and effective way to significantly reduce your impact on the environment. By reusing bags, jars and bottles to purchase bulk foods you are: minimising the extraction of raw materials that go into producing packaging in the first place (e.g. felling timber to make cardboard); reducing fossil fuel use (used in the manufacture of packaging); and reducing waste, thus reducing the need for landfill (the stupidest solution to waste ‘management’ ever thought of!) and the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans each day.
 

Co-operative

A cooperative is defined as ‘an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise’. Throughout the world, cooperatives provide their members with financial services, utilities, consumer goods, affordable housing, and other services that may otherwise not be available to them. The food co-op will expand the market for organic foods, with more affordable pricing for students and underemployed people. People who volunteer at the center will receive a significant discount on goods and also gain valuable skills in cooperative operation.
 

Wholefoods

Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as sugar, salt, fat, preservatives or other chemicals. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains; fruits and vegetables; nuts and seeds; legumes; unprocessed meat; and non-homogenized milk. Eating wholefoods has both health and environmental benefits. Less energy is consumed in the production and packaging of whole foods, and has been proofed that a diet rich in whole foods can be protective against diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Source volunteers will develop recipes and run cooking workshops to help dispell the myth that using wholefoods is too difficult or time consuming. The wood-fired oven on site will be used for social events such as pizza and curry nights, where informal recipe-swapping and discussion will occur.
 

Community Empowerment

Food co-ops are an important form of environmental and social activism. By making ethical decisions about how we spend our money we exercise our power as consumers. In a society where decision making is dominated by economics how we choose to spend our money is a way of voicing our values and supporting the things that are important to us.....like sensible and sustainable agriculture, reducing waste, taking responsibility for the impacts of our personal consumption on our environment, supporting local economies and building community. You are supporting a transparent LOCAL non-profit organization, not accountable to multinational conglomerates. You are changing the food distribution system to one that is a community run social activity - not a business. This scheme also provides a place for people to step outside their friendship circle and meet people from a variety of backgrounds. At Source people will have the opportunity to learn skills such as home vegetable gardening and wholefoods cooking, which will give them greater choice and control over their diets. Where possible, Source will provide support for others to take similar action in their own communities. All resources produced by the group, including building, garden and business plans will be publicly available on the website.