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Please review the following membership terms, then complete the application form to start your free trial. The free trial lasts two cycles. When you decide to shop after the trial period, a one time $50 membership fee will be applied to your cart, and your membership will be reviewed for approval.
Membership Terms
Members of the Iowa Food Cooperative are interested in Iowa-grown food and other Iowa-made products. Members value farmer-consumer relationships, environmental stewardship, and community vitality.
The Iowa Food Cooperative strives to be a business that is financially viable, environmentally sustainable, and socially just.
Membership in the Iowa Food Cooperative is $50 and is fully refundable for members who are current with payments for purchases and our $10 annual fee. Beginning in year 2, an annual fee of $10 is required. Handling fees are 17.5% for farmers and 15% consumers. Thus, if a farmer sells $100 worth of product, a fee of $17.50 will be subtracted from their check, and if a consumer buys $100 worth of product, a fee of $15.00 will be added to their invoice.
Every member of the cooperative is eligible to buy products from or sell products to other members.
The cooperatives has nine distribution sites for order pick up. Please click here for the complete list. We also offer home delivery in the Des Moines metro area within a 2 mile radius of 4944 Franklin Ave, Des Moines, 50310.
Producers must disclose the practices they use to raise livestock or grow crops so consumer members are able to choose from producers with a particular type of product. Examples of practices that need to be disclosed are the use of petroleum based fertilizers, herbicides or insecticides on crops, or the use of hormones or antibiotics in animals.
Every producer member is responsible to know and be in compliance with all appropriate federal, state and local inspections, licenses, statutes and ordinances.
Producers may only sell products they themselves have grown, processed or crafted. A producer may not buy wholesale from someone else and then retail the product through the Iowa Food Cooperative. An exception to this is when a member purchases ingredients for further value-added processing. In this case, purchasing ingredients for a value-added product from other Iowa farmers is encouraged. Also, the producer must add value to the product; simply repackaging ingredients is not adding value.
Each order is a legally enforceable contract to pick up and pay for the products ordered unless the products are damaged or broken. Everything in a consumers online shopping basket when the order window closes becomes an order for those products. Note that consumers can remove products they have placed in their shopping cart if they do so before the ordering window closes.
When consumer members pick up orders, they need to make sure they get all the items ordered. Also, all orders must be paid for before members leave the pickup site. Prompt payment is a condition of membership.