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Please send an introductory email, submitting your name, address, phone number and also telling how you heard about the co-op and who referred you. Please mention that you have read, understand, and agree to the FAQ page.

Your email address will be added to our email list. (For those without internet access you may call Becky to make other arrangements. The phone number and physical address are not published to this net site for safety reasons.)

There is no fee to join. You may want to pick up a full catalog of available grocery items for $1.50. We have sale catalogs on hand, for free. The sale catalog lists all current products that are on sale for the month, and introduces new products (UNFI is always expanding their line).

We also have arrangements for orders to be delivered through Azure Standard to be dropped. The only requirement for receiving an Azure order through Balanced Talents is notify us of your order total, when your order is placed. This lets us know what to expect. There is no fee to from Balanced Talents to order from Azure.

You are welcome to pick and choose which companies to order from. One hint, on full case items, UNFI is generally cheaper than Azure. You may want to compare brands, prices, and companies.

Prices may vary slightly from the catalog price so the final cost is determined from our invoice. You pay for your order after checking to see that you received everything on your invoice. Checks are the easiest way to pay. We do accept cash but making change is not guaranteed. If you have enough cash to pay within a few dollars difference, that balance can be carried over to the next order.

Azure orders are paid directly to Azure and any credit for missing or spoiled items is handled through them as well.

The most simple way is to type your quantities directly into the order sheet which you receive by email and return it by email. Please note that items are ordered according to the volume of the pricing. E.g., if the apples are listed as $.85/# then you know that you are ordering by the pound. So if you order 6 you will get six pounds of apples – not six apples. If the potatoes are listed as $2.35/5# then you know that you are ordering by the bag. If you order 1 you will get one 5# bag of potatoes. If you order 5 then you will get 25 pounds of potatoes. Please watch the pricing units carefully so that there is no confusion.

On the order form is a place to fill in your desired quantity. It says ___ to ___ . We prefer that you give us a range that you are willing to accept, e.g., 3-4, or 9-12. This makes it easier to tally the orders up to reach full case amounts.

We also will accept orders over the phone. Please listen to the recorded message, and leave your order in the order voice-mailbox.

No. You are welcome to order any amount of any item on the list or in the catalogs.

Orders are due typically by Sunday, the week of the order pick up (due dates are in the emails). Order sheets are emailed to members the week before. If you miss the deadline but had wanted to order, you are welcome to inquire about a late submission. If it is possible we will add it on. The worst that can happen is that we must say, ‘I’m sorry, it’s too late.’ Good communication is the key and flexibility on both parties is essential for the co-op to run smoothly. That is the spirit of the word, co-op.

We place orders according to the following schedule: produce is every two weeks; other grocery items from UNFI are ordered every four weeks; Azure is a bit more confusing. Basically we order from Azure every two weeks but their quarterly vacation schedule puts it out to three weeks. When this happens, Azure is picked up on the in-between weeks of produce orders..

The best course of action is to put the dates for Azure directly onto your calendar. You can check out the schedule of deliveries here. We are on route G1.

Orders are picked up at the home of Becky, the director. Once you have joined our co-op and placed an order, you will be given that address and the phone number. It is located in southeast Vancouver.

Orders are always picked up on Thursdays. Please refer to the calendar for specific dates. You may come any time on Thursday evening, as late as needed.

Your order should be all ready for you to take by about 5:30 PM. Sometimes it may take a little longer depending upon the size of the order, traffic, etc. If you are in a hurry to get it and leave, then you might want to consider coming later rather than earlier. Or you may want to make special arrangements ahead of time. We will try to do our best to accommodate those needs.

If it ends up that you must wait a short bit for your order to be filled, we ask you to be patient with us.

If you are unable to pick up your items during the designated times, you MUST MAKE ARRANGEMENTS IN ADVANCE. If you are not able to pick up your order until a later date we would ask for prepayment.

If these arrangements are made we ask that you be careful about ordering refrigerated or frozen items as these will have to be stored in a home refrigerator. Also be thoughtful of any produce ordered. Since there is no refrigeration for the produce, picking it up as soon as possible is in your best interest.

You are not required to accept any produce which is inferior. Please be aware that our goal is the best priced produce and sometimes that means that we will get a #2, produce which has blemishes on the outside but the inside is just as good.

If you find that an item is spoiled in some way, please report it immediately. We have 24 hours to get credit from our suppliers. The best way is to send an email description.

Any issues of quality with items ordered from Azure should be taken directly to Azure.

It is very important that you go through your order before leaving the co-op. Please check your receipt to see that you have all items for which you are charged. If there is a missing item, usually it can be found while you are still present.

If you order an item it is not a guarantee that you will receive it. The smaller the amount that you order and the fewer people who place orders, the less we’ll be able to get. Sometimes there isn’t enough interest to get a particular item. Your support in regular ordering is a help to the co-op.

Sometimes the price of an item may suddenly jump beyond what we predicted for the order form. If this is the case, we will decline to order it, to avoid sticker shock.

Due to many factors such as weather, transportation, supply and demand, etc., sometimes an item is not available.

If any item you ordered is not on your receipt, most likely it is due to one of the above factors. You can try to order it again on the next one.

How do I know how much to order?

It is recommend to keep your receipts for a time so that you can compare how much you ordered last time with how long it lasted for your family.

Here are a few rules of thumb to get you started:

About 2-4 lemons weigh one pound

About 2-3 apples weigh one pound

About 1-3 bell peppers weigh one pound

About 2-3 bananas weigh one pound

About 2-3 oranges weigh one pound

About 1-2 cucumbers weigh one pound

About 2-3 zucchini weigh one pound

About 1-2 tomatoes weigh one pound

About 5-8 carrots weigh one pound

About 2 medium yams weigh one pound

After you’ve been ordering from the co-op for a little while you’ll get a really good handle on how to store, what to expect in shelf life, etc. You might want to eat your produce in order of most perishable to least.

All the produce we order is organically grown. Occasionally something will be in the transitional phase to becoming certified organic. This is an important agriculture to support as the farmers must be able to continue making a living while they are becoming certified.

Other groceries that are ordered will be all natural, whole foods. But they may not necessarily be organic. Look for items with an asterisk* on our order forms to indicate organic.

The most important thing to do is to check off your order before you leave. Taking inventory in reverse is the most effective. That means finding an item in your box, then checking off on your receipt. This way you might also catch an item that you did not order. While taking stock from the receipt first, that doesn’t show up as readily.

Once you are certain that you have all that you are paying for, please write out a check and hand it to one of the co-op workers. Make checks payable to Balanced Talents.

Our sliding fee scale is intended to encourage members to help as their personal schedules will allow. If you can help out with the co-op in some way, you will pay a 6% fee on your invoice no matter what you order. If you get a new customer to order, you will get the 6% fee on your next order.

If you order only whole case items that we don’t need to split up, then you pay 9% of you invoice in a co-op fee.

If you order items which take longer for us to divide out, then you will pay 12%.

We understand that ordering whole case items may be too expensive and or impractical. Therefore we create a “split list” each month that is emailed out.

Besides the UNFI catalogs, you may order off this list. If there are any items you would be willing to take up to 1/3-1/2 of the case, but would like to find buyers for the other half, let us know. Those items will be put on the split list. You may be able to request special produce items as well.

Some bulk items may be especially impractical to order whole case lots. So we offer a schedule for these common staple items. This is for beans, grains, etc., items of which individuals might not want to take a huge bag. But if we know when we will be ordering these items again, then we will know how much of each we want to get for our own families. It helps the budget to be able to plan this out. This insures that we all order the same thing at the same time, thereby maximizing the amount ordered and the savings. We encourage everyone to use this list for their staple needs. All items are organically grown, as available.

UNFI offers our co-op the best prices of any distributor or buying club. Typically groceries are offered from anywhere between 30-75% savings off of retail prices.

More nutritional supplements and herbs can be ordered from Eclectic Institute at 50% off. Please ask for more details on order dates as it is not on a regular basis.

Additional suppliers we can order from include Pro-service for diapers and wraps; and Usborne books is another option.

Produce prices are comparable to commercial produce in local stores. Since prices can fluctuate almost daily on produce we can’t always predict with certainty. We try to keep within a 10% margin of price increase or else refuse to take the item. Please refer to the most current order form for prices on produce.

Our main supplier is UNFI. They carry a full range of grocery items as you might find at Wild Oats or Trader Joe’s, e.g.. This is referred to as ‘health food’. You won’t find many popularly advertised brands such as Kraft, Kellogg’s, or Hostess. But you will find a wonderful assortment of healthier versions of many items.

Common produce items will be listed on each split list along with seasonal ones.

We hope that you will find, as we did, that most if not all of your food and supplements can be supplied by the co-op. We now refuse to buy any partially nutritious foods for full prices when we can so easily get fully nutritious foods for partial prices! If there is any way we can help you with your orders, or using the products let us know. We look forward to working with you this year.