Bed-Stuy Bounty ceased its buying club operation in 2015 after handing over the membership to Bed-Stuy Fresh & Local. Community food projects play an integral role in asset-based community development, using food as a connector and an economic driver.
Bed-Stuy Bounty is relaunching in 2023 to help residents grow their own food using container gardens and vertical farming systems as well as prepare for food emergencies caused by gaps in income, natural disasters, labor shortages, andy supply chain issues.
About Bed-Stuy Bounty
I (Melissa Danielle) launched Bed-Stuy Bounty in 2012 to increase access to local, organic, and natural foods at reasonable prices for Bed-Stuy residents. Using the Wholeshare.com platform, Bed-Stuy Bounty served over 200 neighbors, partnering with local businesses and community groups to offer bulk buying options at just over the cost wholesale.
I had spent the previous three years co-leading Bed-Stuy Farm Share, our neighbor-led, community supported agriculture project, and wanted to expand local food offerings to include added value goods such as meat and dairy, honey and grains, and local and organic fruits and vegetables year-round.
Bed-Stuy Bounty and Bed-Stuy Farm Share members collectively invested more than $200,000 into New York State’s local and regional food economy with 200+ members. Bed-Stuy Farm Share is unique in that it was one of the first NYC CSAs that prioritized working with farmers of color, accepted SNAP/EBT as payment, and offered a revolving loan fund to help members pay for their shares.
Wholeshare.com dissolved in 2016 leaving a gap in Bed-Stuy’s community-led bulk food buying options.
I am eternally grateful to her family, friends, neighbors, and businesses who supported Bed-Stuy Bounty’s Good Food Buying Club. Their patience and commitment to Bed-Stuy Bounty demonstrated to regional farmers, producers, and distributors that Bed-Stuy’s buying power and desire for local and organic foods was not to be overlooked or underestimated.
I am especially grateful for Bedford Hill Coffee Bar, Chaitty Coffee, and 462 Halsey Community Garden for hosting pickup days and for Bed-Stuy Fresh & Local, who not only hosted a pickup day but also took over the Wholeshare club and ran it until Wholeshare ceased operations.
Thank you to Brooklyn Kolache Co and The GoGo Grill, two businesses that placed significant orders on a regular basis. Their purchases helped us to meet our minimums.
Thank you to all who contributed to Bed-Stuy Bounty’s Good Food Fund, which allowed us to donate snacks to DIVAS for Social Justice and ingredients to With Food In Mind’s children’s workshops.
I hope that you will continue to support Bed-Stuy’s local businesses and advocate for more and better grocery options. Many of the owners and employees are your neighbors, and by investing in them, you are investing in the economic and social growth and vitality of the neighborhood you call home.
If you’re missing your favorite local, organic, and natural foods, I invite you to visit the following companies, where you can place orders online directly and have them delivered to your door:
Thrive Market
And please make sure to visit your neighborhood good food providers:
Hattie Carthan Community Market
Malcolm X Blvd & Marcy Plaza Farmers Markets
Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger
Press
Disclosure: I may receive a commission on any sales made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.