As many of you already know if you’ve been reading our updates (their a lot to take in so no worries if you haven’t) we are now offering online ordering and curbside pickup. We are still working extremely tightly with as few staff/volunteers as possible at one time to try and reduce exposure risks so we may be a little behind on processing some orders depending on when they come in. We also are limited in that we have one phone line at our location but we’ll do our best to take phone orders as we are able. If you’d like to look through our online catalog or place an online order please navigate to our website and click on the “Online Ordering” tab for additional instructions. We are hoping that by offering this service we can help those who are unable to come in our doors. We expect that there will be some kinks in how this all works so please bear with us as we work through them. Thank you everyone and please stay safe out there.
Popping out a note by our Board President Kim Jacobs regarding volunteering at the Co-op. We’ve made a lot of changes over the last month and we continue to evaluate things daily (just like everyone else) and we want to thank all the wonderful volunteers and staff who have made it possible for us to keep our doors open!
Needed – Volunteers to help keep the coop safe for all and food available for all.
DISINFECTING Volunteers have been coming in daily, after-hours to disinfect the commonly touched surfaces in the coop We still have some shifts unfilled. The tasks can be done any time after 6pm and before 9:30 the next morning and takes between an hour and an hour and a half. Also during the shift a few other tasks could be completed as needed –
Currently unfilled –
Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays(currently covered by one of our long time volunteers) – though there is a possibility of shuffling days if another one is better for you.
Stocking- First priority is cleaning- then if there is any restocking of the shelves to do, that would be next. Probably wouldn’t take too long extra
Repack of Bulk Items –There may be also repack to do at times as well. (You can volunteer for all or part of this daily routine)
FOR CURBSIDE PICKUP PROGRAM – If we are able to scale up our pre-order for curbside pickup program we will need volunteers to fill shifts. We don’t know yet what are needs will be. Please let us know if you are willing to be on a list to be contacted for filling one person shifts for packing boxes
Boxing up the preordered items, after hours, for pickup the next day. (could be done by two household members)
Putting orders outside of customers arriving – We might also need one volunteer at time in the back room during open times (away from contact with customers!) When the customers call to say they are arriving for their pre-order, the volunteer would add any frozen items to the box and put it outside the loading doors for pickup.
As part of the governors mandated orders we are implementing a half hour for folks in the at risk populations (over 60, medical concerns etc) to use the store exclusively. Starting tomorrow the Co-op will be open from 10:00am – 10:30am for the at risk population and then at 10:30am open to the general public. If you are visiting the Co-op please follow the instructions of our cashiers/volunteers. If anyone has any issues or concerns please feel free to reach out to us at (207) 722-3053 or marshriverordering@gmail.com. Thank you very much for your cooperation and everyone please be safe out there!
So a few new things going on here at the Co-op. The biggest one is regarding the mandatory restrictions for only having 5 customers in the Co-op at one time. We’ve come up with a system whereby there is a light bulb at the door to let you know if you need to wait before you come in. If the light is on please come on in and do your shopping. If the light is off please wait outside either in your vehicle or in designated spots. The light will go back on when we are below the 5 person threshold. We’d also like to hear from our at risk community what time they would prefer for them to be exclusive for them? Most places are going for the morning but we’ve noticed that more people are out during that time so maybe not the best time?
Also we didn’t receive very many online orders from our first trial so we thought we would open it up for folks to have it available everyday for 5-10 items. If you’d like to place larger orders please do so but it might take us longer to have that ready for you. We are still accepting call in orders at this time but we are trying to keep those to a minimum where we only have the one phone line right now. If you need help or have questions please call (207) 722-3053 or email marshriverordering@gmail.com. We’ve also added a tab to our website which has the direct link for our online ordering system. Thanks to everyone that has put in time and energy to make all these projects happen on almost a daily basis!
Marsh River Cooperative 