Host a Community Site: Support Wellness, Increase Sales, Build Community

Do you have a business such as a yoga studio, coffee shop, wellness clinic, fitness club, juice bar or another kindred business? Do you want to do more for the wellbeing of your staff, your clients and your greater community? Hosting an Angelic Organics Community Wellness site will increase foot traffic to your business, boost sales, and build community.

Or are you a religious organization that would like to offer a wellness program to both your congregation and your greater community?

Angelic Organics encourages you to consider hosting a Community Wellness Farm Share Delivery Site. The Community Wellness Site will be located on your premises, and will receive weekly deliveries of fresh, organic vegetables from Angelic Organics from mid-June until late Fall. The distribution of the farm shares will be monitored to ensure that each farm share member receives the correct labeled box of vegetables customized to his or her preferences.

It is a privilege to be of service…to encourage people to support locally grown organic vegetables.
     ~ Evanston Community Site Host

Complimentary Vegetable Share for the Site Host

The host of the monitored Community Wellness site will receive a complimentary weekly vegetable share for the duration of the 2020 season and following seasons–as much as an $800 value per season–for as long as the site is being hosted. Keep reading for more details. (Site hosts of existing unmonitored sites do not receive a complimentary share. We will be gradually phasing out many of our unmonitored sites.)

Seedlings Enjoy the Spring Sun

Closed or Open to the Public?

There are two basic types of monitored delivery sites that our farm facilitates: those open to the public and those closed to the public.

Our Community Wellness Program, Open to the Greater Public
Our Community Wellness Program is hosted by places such as yoga studios, coffee shops, fitness clubs, juice bars and certain places of worship. This program is open to the greater community, fostering business, cultural and personal relationships between the Wellness site and the public. The pickup time at these locations will be at least a few hours long.

Our Workplace and Worship Wellness Program, Typically Closed to the Greater Public
In addition to our Community Wellness program, we also have a Workplace and Worship Wellness Program. This program is intended for workplaces and places of worship that are closed to the greater public. The pickup time at these locations is short, often scheduled for after the work shift or the worship service ends.

Which Type of Site Is Suitable for You?
If your Wellness site will be open to the greater public–a Wellness Site for the Greater Community–then this is the program for you to consider. 

If your Wellness site will be closed to the greater public–a Workplace or Worship Wellness site–go to Angelic Organics Workplace and Worship Wellness Program.

Cabbage at Angelic Organics

Angelic Organics Farm Share Program At-a-Glance

• Vegetable shares are customized to the preferences of each farm share member
• Vegetable shares are available as 20 weekly deliveries or 10 bi-weekly deliveries
• One vegetable box is 3/4 bushel (equivalent to about 1 1/2 paper grocery bags)
• $40 per vegetable box 
• Deliveries take place from mid-June until late Fall

Requirements for Hosting a Wellness Site for the Greater Community

We look for a variety of criteria for a suitable site:

• Site needs to be within 50 miles of Chicago or within 25 miles of Rockford, IL
• A minimum of 25 (ideally 50 or more) farm share members is required to open a new site. Your business or place of worship will reach this quota, with support from Angelic Organics, by encouraging your employees or congregation to become farm share members.
• Compatibility between our farm’s delivery schedule and your site’s receiving schedule
• Convenient access for the delivery truck to unload
• Safe unloading area and pickup area
• No guard dog threatening the farm share members or our delivery person
• Ideally, few or no steps to navigate between the delivery truck parking area and the location where the boxes are stored. This facilitates the convenience of handcarts for box transport.
• Reasonable parking access for people picking up their boxes
• An air conditioned or refrigerated space to accommodate at least 75 boxes (number slightly negotiable) that each measure about 16”L, 10”W, 12”H
• The boxes are typically stacked in columns 5 high
• The boxes are stacked only one row deep so that the labels that identify the recipients of the customized boxes will be visible with one glance, and the boxes will be readily accessible
• Box distribution must be monitored
• Materials and signage will be kept at your site over the course of the season, such as a container for folded-up, empty, returned vegetable boxes
• The pickup timeframe will, as much as is reasonable, accommodate the schedules of farm share members. Many members pick up their boxes after work, so the ideal pickup timeframe would be from an hour after the boxes are scheduled to arrive at your site until 6 p.m. 
• The site needs to be open for 20 weekly deliveries from mid-June until late Fall

Delivery and Pickup Schedules

We deliver our farm shares in a refrigerated truck, to ensure freshness of the produce. We strive for consistent delivery times.

• Your Community Wellness Site’s single weekly delivery day will be on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday, day to be determined by your site’s proximity to our existing delivery routes
• A time of day will be scheduled for when your delivery will be made according to our delivery route. Some variability in the delivery times will occur, due to unanticipated traffic developments or other causes; therefore, some flexibility is required from the site host regarding delivery schedules.
• A time of day will be scheduled for when farm share members will be able to begin to pick up at your site, which is typically about an hour after the delivery is made. (We like to have a cushion of about an hour between when the delivery is made and the start of the pickup time in case the delivery is running late.)

Summer Bounty

Hosting and Monitoring the Site

We refer to the main person in charge of the Community Wellness site as the site host. The site host is probably the owner or manager of the business, or in the case of a place of worship, the person in authority or their assistant.

Community Wellness sites must be monitored throughout the pickup timeframe. If the site host is not able to also be the site monitor, he or she will assign monitoring duties to another, and ensure that this monitor follows the protocols. In some cases, the Community Wellness site might have several staff members who share the responsibility of monitoring the site. For instance, in a café with several employees, the site host will train all appropriate employees to follow the guidelines for monitoring the site on delivery days. Monitoring the site consists of following a few simple instructions outlined further below.

Responsibilities of the Site Host

The site host is responsible for the following:

• Your business or place of worship will reach the quota of at least 25 farm share memberships by encouraging your employees or congregation to become farm share members, with support from Angelic Organics.
• Serve as the liaison between your Community Wellness Site and Angelic Organics. For instance, the site host will let the farm know of any events such as construction, parades, or block parties that might affect deliveries and/or pickups at the site.
• You are responsible for upholding the site monitor’s duties, whether you are the site monitor or you appoint someone else as the site monitor.

Responsibilities of the Site Monitor

Remember, the site monitor could be the same person as the site host. If the site host is not able to also be the site monitor, the site host will designate an appropriate person to be the site monitor, and the site host is responsible for making sure that the site monitor upholds the standards below.

The site monitor is responsible for the following:

• Boxes must be stored behind the counter or in another place not accessible to the farm share members or the general public. The farm is not responsible for boxes that are delivered to the site that go missing.
• Each farm share member will be handed his or her box by you
• Farm share members return their empty vegetable boxes to the site for Angelic Organics to re-use. (The fruit boxes are not re-used by the farm.) Occasionally, farm share members neglect to fold their returned vegetable boxes, though you will be present to encourage them to fold their boxes properly without ripping the tabs. (Here is a video on how to properly fold the box.) If the boxes are returned damaged, the site monitor will gently coach farm share members on how to properly fold the boxes.
• Some members may opt to share a box. If they want to split their box contents on the premises, encourage them to do it in the parking lot to keep your site clean.
• You may need to respond to members who let you know that they are unable to pick up their farm share within the stated timeframe to arrange an alternative pickup time.
• At the end of the pickup time, if there are unclaimed boxes, it is your responsibility to contact the members who do not pick up their shares to determine if they can pick up soon or will donate their shares to the site. It will be easy to determine who these members are, because each box is labeled with the contact information of the respective member. 
• If you are unsuccessful in contacting the farm share members who do not pick up their boxes and who do not arrange an alternative pickup time, these leftover boxes will be donated/distributed by you to others who will make good use of the produce.
• The site must always be monitored. If you are unavailable to monitor the site on a pickup day, someone must be designated to be in charge of box distribution.

Benefits of Hosting an Angelic Organics Community Wellness Site

I love being a [farm share] member and hosting a site, receiving such wonderful veggies every week, meeting the people who pick up veggies…telling people about the [farm share] concept and local food, and interacting with the farm. I can’t wait for the season to start!
       ~ A Community Wellness Site Host

Complimentary Vegetable Share for the Site Host
If your application is approved and the minimum of 25 farm share members is met for your site (this minimum does not apply to hosts of replacement sites), then you, the site host, will receive a complimentary weekly vegetable share (up to an $800 value per year) for each year of hosting as long as the minimum number of farm share members is met and as long as the standards for hosting the site are satisfactorily upheld according to Angelic Organics. (Site hosts of existing unmonitored sites do not receive a complimentary share. We are gradually phasing out most of our unmonitored sites.)

Other benefits of hosting a Community Wellness site include:

• Increased walk-in traffic to your business or place of worship
• Provide convenient access to fresh, local produce for your community
• Support the health and wellness of your staff, customers and greater community
• Foster relationships with like-minded people in your community
• Invitation to two free Farm Field Days per season
• Support a regenerative and organic local farm

Farm Field Day

We Are Currently Seeking Community Wellness Sites at This Location

The Community delivery site below has closed for the upcoming 2020 season. Please consider hosting a Community Wellness site if you live in one of these communities, or encourage a suitable local business or place of worship in your community to host a Wellness site. (Closing times for the pickup timeframes below are somewhat flexible.)

Naperville, IL
We deliver to Naperville at noon every Thursday from mid June until late Fall. Farm share pickup time will be 1:15 p.m. to 6 p.m.  

You Can Apply to Host a Site Any Time

We currently have most of our delivery sites in place for the 2020 season. We still welcome your application, however, as occasionally an existing site will unexpectedly close. Also, your site could fit our existing delivery route so well and be so compelling, that we would consider opening it for the 2020 season. Please note that your proposed site needs to be within 50 miles of Chicago or within 25 miles of Rockford, IL. If we don’t open your site in 2020, we’ll keep your application in our files for the future.

Apply to Host a Wellness Site for Your Greater Community

If you think you’d like to host a Community Wellness site, please fill out our Community Wellness Site Host Application. It will take you about 30 – 40 minutes. After we receive your application, we will contact you to further explore a Community Wellness partnership.