Saving with Healthier, Local Food
Helderberg Food Club is made up of a group of people from the Helderberg area that believe that small things make a big difference! We pool our collective food budgets, to buy in bulk directly from local farmers and producers that priorise farming and production practices that are good for our health and good for the planet.
How Food Clubs Work
testimonals
What members are saying
“I really love shopping through the food club. It’s like a one stop shop for all your health goodies including healthy snacks. It’s very convenient and I appreciate the transparency with the supplies and what’s on the food club. I would highly recommend making using of the Helderberg Food Club 😃”
– Linique Koopman
“Helderberg Food Club have been saving me a great deal with my monthly Quinoa and Macadamia Milk – especially in the current economy, food is getting more and more expensive. The Food Club helps a lot in saving on my groceries! Thank you Christelle.”
– Johannes Swanepoel
how to get started
Join, Order, Pick Up
1
Join The Club
Create your online profile to be notified of our order windows and be able to place orders. No joining fees or expectations.
2
Join Our WhatsApp Community
This step is optional, but recommended. If you do not wish to be on the WhatsApp group, you will still get  one email newsletter per month, but might miss last-minute correspondence.
3
Place Your Order
As soon as the next order window opens, you can place your first order. We have resources available to help you make the most of your membership and get to know more about our suppliers.
4
Pick Up
Pick up your order, or opt to have it delivered to your door at an additional fee. We ask our members to EFT on collection day, as we need to adjust for out of stock and weighted items.
Why do we shop this way?
because we care about
4 types of Health
Our Bodies
The quality of what we eat has an enormour impact on the nutrition we receive and the quality of cells our bodies are able to create.
Our Finances
By pooling our finances, we save money to free ourselves up to spend on more nutritous food (or save it for something else!)
Our Local Economy
We prioritise supporting locally sourced and produced items, which creates jobs and keeps our economy thriving.
Our Planet
We choose farmers and foodmakers that use methods that are kind to and regenerate the earth, use minimal packaging, and minimise our food miles.
Categories
What do people buy through the club most often?
We offer a variety of wholefood alternatives, so you will find many products that might look familiar, but slightly different. This is because we prioritise suppliers that use environmentally friendly practices, less refined ingredients, and less chemicals and preservatives.
Grass-fed meat
We have a large selection of chicken, beef, pork, venison and even seafood.
Vegetables & Fruit
Both organic and not chemical-free, carefully labeled so you can choose
Nuts, Legumes, etc.
Nuts, seeds, legums, grains, herbs and spices make up the backbone of a well-stocked pantry.
Dairy & Eggs
Pasture raise dairy and eggs are an excellent source of healthy Omega-3 fats.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ
Why is the shop only open at certain times?
The Food Club system is built on the premis that a group of people that live relatively close to one another can pool our collective grocery budgets and buy together in bulk directly from suppliers at wholesale prices, so that individual members can buy those items at close to wholesale prices. With each supplier, we firstly need to consider whether we would reach Minimum Order Quantity, as the volume of our orders need to justify that supplier to give us their wholesale prices and deliver the goods to us. Secondly, the logistics of this is very consuming. The process of getting the shop ready before a market, opening for order, giving everyone time to shop, posting updates, collating orders when the shop closes, placing orders with suppliers, receiving orders, etc. takes a lot of time! It would be a full-time job to do this multiple times a month!
What is market day?
Market day is the day that everyone collects their goodies from the agreed location (Jennings Street, Strand) or that your order gets delivered to your door!
Why do we sometimes not have stock?
One of the ways that we keep overheads down is by not keeping stock on hand if we don’t have to. Certain suppliers only sell in specific quantities, but in most cases, we order just what our members have ordered from suppliers, and everything is made, harvested and slaughtered freshly for our market day. This means we don’t keep extra stock on hand.
We work with smaller businesses, and the reality is that they sometimes don’t have stock, due to real-world circumstances. We try our best to communicate this to our members beforehand where we can, but also ask that members understand that this is not always possible.
When do I pay?
Due to the fact that items are sometimes out of stock and some items are weighted (some chickens weigh more than others), we only know 100% what your final invoice will be when your order is packed on Market Day.
You are able to see what your total will likely be while doing your order online, and we will communicate any price change that is more than 10% beforehand.
We send invoices when you have checked and confirmed your items and ask that members pay via EFT when they collect.
Is the Food Club more expensive than retail?
When we compare like-for-like products (for instance, a glass jar of sugar-free, additive-free peanut butter), the Food Club price will almost always be around 20-35% cheaper than normal retail stores if that item is not on sale, because we don’t have overheads like rent and staff, and we don’t keep fully stocked shops of items that need to be discarded due to expiry dates.
When you compare price of items like meat and bread, the retail supermakets will likely have a cheaper product that is not comparable to the product you find in the Food Club, due to either the ethical treatment of animals or the types of highly refined inflamatory ingredients used to make that item cheaper.
Get Started
Become a Member
Becoming a member simply means creating a profile on the website so that you can create orders, and get notified of our order windows. There is no joining fee, and no obligation to order at any time. You simply place an order when it makes sense to you.
Join The Club