Community food network targets five Brisbane suburbs after growth in three
Box Divvy is preparing to open its first Queensland hubs, with the initial five locations in Browns Plains, Kingston, Regents Park, Zillmere and Banyo.
The move comes less than a year after the community food network expanded into Victoria. It now has more than 400 neighbourhood hubs supporting almost 16,000 families across NSW, the ACT and Victoria.
Box Divvy began as a small street co-op run by husband-and-wife team Jayne Travers-Drapes and Anton van den Berg. It has since grown into a network that links households with fresh produce, pantry staples and ethical suppliers through community-run hubs.
Members place orders online each week and collect them from a hub in their neighbourhood. There are no membership fees, but members commit to ordering regularly.
Because orders are placed to match demand, produce spends less time in storage and less time moving through the supply chain before it reaches households. Box Divvy also says members can see where food comes from, what suppliers are paid and how the money is distributed through the supply chain.
One of the first Queensland hub operators is Regents Park mother of four Martina Rewha. She had been looking for a way to buy better quality produce at a lower cost for her family before finding Box Divvy.
Rewha said her family goes through a large amount of fruit and vegetables each week. Before joining, she had looked at buying directly from the markets and splitting bigger orders with relatives and friends.
Her Regents Park hub already has 25 members signed up, largely through word of mouth and local community groups. Rewha said that response showed other families in the area were looking for the same option.
Queensland basket priced below online supermarket
A Queensland price comparison conducted on 17 August found a basket of 21 fresh produce items cost $86.37 through Box Divvy. That figure included the Hubster fee.
The same basket cost $142.62 from an online supermarket, according to Box Divvy. On those prices, the Box Divvy basket was 39% cheaper.
The organisation did not name the online supermarket in the pricing comparison. It also did not set opening dates for the five Queensland hubs.
