Common Questions
Questions about the local buying club, the bakery, and how to take part. Click a question to see its answer. Have a question that isn't here? Ask it through our contact form.
Bringing back the gluten free bakery
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Whether we're baking again in time for the holidays is up to us. It depends on three things coming together:
One or two experienced bakers interested in transition to co-ownership after an apprenticeship period. As an early start to the apprenticeship, they could restart the bakery line we've made before and/or introduce new items.
Backstop funds for bakers, through an early version of the apprenticeship crowdfunding campaign.
Monthly client commitments for the holiday period that reasonably match the bakers' revenue targets. These cover the bakery through December, and they would give us a trial run of buying as a club.
To help now: pass the invitation along to an experienced baker, join the buying club project list to hear when the crowdfunding and holiday commitments open, and weigh in on meeting times.
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Loca Vivant Kitchen showed that something that doesn't exist right now is possible: fresh, healthy, high-quality gluten-free baked goods with no compromises, at a fair price, and a living wage for the baker. That living wage depended on a lot of my own unpaid labor. I was operating the bakery as if it were part of a broader prepared foods business.
The buying club invitation is an invitation to help create that broader system, built by a community. Members pool what they buy, and a network of local producers and service providers works together to serve the club. Baked goods come back as one part of it, alongside prepped local vegetables, chef-made meals, and items from other local businesses.
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Our kitchen is a dedicated gluten-free kitchen. Because the kitchen is under my control, we can keep it GF, as long as enough chefs, bakers and members want that.
The buying club idea is broader than gluten-free. Members can also order add-on products from other local producers, including products that aren't GF. Add-ons join an order only after everything from our kitchen has been packaged and taken to the warehouse facility. That poses no risk of cross-contact for GF items, and it gives members who aren't GF more chances to get products from other local producers.
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Baking kits are available from Loca Vivant Kitchen through the end of the year. If we decide to move forward with the buying club and the apprenticeship, bakers or chefs may continue to offer them during the apprenticeship and beyond.
The local buying club
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A local buying club is a group of households that pool our demand and resources. By pooling what we buy, we can get things like GF bread, prepped local vegetables, and chef-made meals, tailored to our households, at a fair price, with the costs open for every member to see.
Membership is a commitment to buy each month, at a level each member chooses. Because we commit to buying over time, producers can plan ahead, and we can ditch disposables and respect the ecosystem we depend on.
On the other side is a network of local producers and service providers (chefs, farms and local businesses, plus the people who handle ordering, logistics and pickup) who work together to serve the club. The people who start the club decide how it's organized and governed.
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Each member chooses their own monthly commitment level. The group that starts the club will set the minimum. We expect the minimum to be around $50 a month.
Prices are built from what goes into each item: the ingredients, the kitchen, and fair pay for the people who make and transport it. Each item shows what's in it, where the ingredients came from, and how its price is built.
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The club pools demand at the level of broad options, not details. The limits are what's in season and available from local suppliers, in preparations the kitchen is equipped for.
Within those, each household customizes: avoid particular ingredients, choose specific preparations, and choose from a large selection of spice blends, marinades and sauces with a range of flavor profiles. The custom software, production process and value-based pricing make this possible. Beyond what the collaborative kitchen makes, add-on items from other suppliers fill in what members want.
That's the customizable part. There are also frequently updated chef-designed meals and dishes, with less customization but more novelty and culinary creativity: a chance to taste a chef's take on the best of the season.
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The plan is one or two weekly pickups at local businesses. One of the first things the club's organizers will do is identify and prioritize candidate pickup locations across the area from Carpinteria to Goleta. If you know a business that might like to host pickups, let us know through the contact form.
Getting involved now
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The list is where the people helping to get the club going will gather and share information. You'll get invitations to this fall's community meetings and short updates on where help is needed. Its first message will be the meeting time poll. Joining the list does not commit you to anything (except receiving our messages), and you can leave the list any time.
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No. Joining the list and filling out the meeting time poll just lets us know you're interested in joining the conversation. In my next message, I'll share a way to let us know you'd like to join the club as a member: a pledge, with no payment at this time. Membership itself opens once we decide together to move forward.
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Members are what make the club possible: a club can only buy what its members commit to. In future messages, I'll share information about ways to let us know you'd like to join the club as a member, even if you don't have time to help start it. Until then, you're welcome on the buying club project list to follow along, or you can simply watch for that message.
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This fall (October to December), I'll host a few community meetings where we can explore together whether there's a community here for this different way of doing food, and of doing local business. We'll share our own ideas and decide whether to build this, and how: who else would be interested, how the club is organized and governed, which producers and pickup spots we approach first, and what containers we use.
The meetings are shaped around Peter Block's six conversations: invitation, possibility, ownership, dissent, commitment and gifts. The info meetings earlier this year introduced the shared personal chef service I had planned. These meetings are where we decide together what to build.
Meetings will be in person. If it's hard to find a time that works for everyone, we may hold each theme's meeting at more than one time. If one or two people would like to take part but can't make it in person, we'll support joining one of the in-person meetings by Zoom. If more people need to join virtually, we'll host a virtual meeting as well.
Chefs, bakers, producers and service providers
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We'd love to hear from you through the contact form. One or two experienced bakers could start before the holidays, as an early start to the apprenticeship.
If you'd like to explore the apprenticeship, the culinary self-evaluation questionnaire helps you assess your own fit with the opportunity: your culinary focus (prepared foods, bakery, or both), the roles you're drawn to (creative, production or prep), and how you like to work. You can browse through all of the questions without answering them, to see what the apprenticeship involves. If you'd like to let us know you're interested, fill it out and submit it. It takes about 60 to 90 minutes, and you can save your answers and come back later.
You can also sign up for the producer and service provider network newsletter to hear about how to get involved in the network.
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The network of producers and service providers is the other half of the buying club. A separate invitation for producers and service providers is coming. To get it, sign up for the producer and service provider network newsletter, or get in touch through the contact form.
If you'd like to join the apprenticeship in a supporting role, see the next question.
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It's for people who are already experts in what they'll contribute to a co-owned company: chefs and bakers, and a few people in supporting roles like business operations, logistics, and marketing and communications. It's for people who want to try out and learn how to be a collaborative co-owner, serving a community of membership clients.
They'd bring their own expertise, and a paid six-month apprenticeship would be where they learn to run their part of the business as co-owners. At the end, each apprentice decides whether to continue into an ownership role. I'll share more in my next message. More about the apprenticeship.
Each role has a self-evaluation questionnaire: culinary, business operations, logistics, and marketing and communications. You can browse through all of the questions without answering them. If you'd like to let us know you're interested, fill one out and submit it.
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It's a new kind of product: prepared foods and baked goods customized to our households, made by chefs working together. Some of you heard about it at my info meetings. It would be the first group of producers in the network that serves the club. More about the shared personal chef service.
The bigger picture
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My business, Flourish Local, provides services to both sides of the club: the kitchen, tools and expertise. It would also operate the apprenticeship program, until the business transitions to co-ownership by the apprentices who want to continue into an ownership role.
The club itself, and how it's organized and governed, is ours to build together.
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By October 30: fill out the meeting time poll so we can choose meeting times that work for you.
October to December: community meetings, decision making and planning.
As soon as possible: one or two experienced bakers, as an early start to the apprenticeship. Because this means picking up production we've done before, the bakery line could be back in time for the holidays.
End of January: the goal for the full apprenticeship to start. This is also when I'll assess whether we're on track for what's needed to keep the kitchen side of this work going.
May 2027: I need to decide about my kitchen lease, so the apprenticeship needs to be underway and on track by then.
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The bakery line can keep going. The baker or bakers who restarted it would have the option to take over ownership of the bakery product line (the recipes, brand and client list, along with the equipment). They could take a post-holiday pause to set up their own company, then restart production in the kitchen.
Work on the buying club and the network of producers and service providers continues either way.
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In May 2027, I need to decide about my kitchen lease. If neither is underway by then, I'd look for someone else to lease the kitchen. The network of local producers and service providers, and local online shopping, can serve a buying club with or without a commercial kitchen. I'll keep working on them either way, and anyone interested can join in.
I'll hold on to the bakery's intangible assets (the recipes, brand and client list), in case an opportunity comes up later for someone to begin producing any of the products in another kitchen.
Get in Touch
Have a question that isn't here? Ask it through our contact form, and we’ll get back to you.