We’re delighted to introduce you to our Community Partner in Peace River . . .

PeaceFull Pantry has operated a buying club in Peace River, Alberta since 2007. Members support sustainable food systems by purchasing directly from food producers and co-ops in Peace Country as well as elsewhere in Canada, the US, Mexico, and Central and South America.  We are honoured that PeaceFull Pantry distributes CSF member shares in Peace River!

Skipper Otto’s CSF didn’t always deliver seafood to Peace River this way. From 2011-2014, my husband and fisherman, Shaun, would fish all summer, rent a freezer truck and drive across the Rockies to deliver CSF shares to our members in Edmonton and other western cities, hoping to make it there and back before the snow hit too hard. He would set up shop in a member’s driveway or a community parking lot and people would line up to get their fish. Members had to decide what they wanted on the spot, Shaun would weigh it all out and write it down, and members would head home with their seafood. Gradually, we noticed a growing number of members from Peace River, including Annette Rosendal, founder and CEO of PeaceFull Pantry. She and other members would coordinate the pick-up of member orders and one person would drive to Edmonton to pick them up.

Although this system worked, it also came with its obvious challenges for both us and for our Peace River members. We knew they must be a better way to meet the needs of our members in Peace River!

In 2013, Annette approached us about the idea of shipping member orders directly to her in Peace River. We’d never done anything like this before and were somewhat intimidated by the prospect of dealing with trucking companies! But Annette kindly and patiently guided us through the whole process. In October of 2013, we sent our first shipment to Peace River! It wasn’t without it’s stresses, but it worked!

Because of Annette’s help, patience, know-how, and willingness to experiment, PeaceFull Pantry and our Peace River members gave us the idea and the confidence to consider a more efficient distribution system for all our pick-up locations. As a result, in 2015 we were able to move all our distribution to the Community Partner Pick-up model that Annette helped us create including moving our Edmonton distribution to a partnership with The Organic Box! As a result, pick-ups in all our locations became more flexible and frequent, and it was now easy for us to add another pick-up location. We only needed to find Community Partners in new locations and this was proving to be completely do-able! We were thrilled!

I was even more thrilled in September of 2015, the first year we we avoided the annual scramble to rent a truck and coordinate the epic “prairie trip” as we’d come to call it. Shaun was even able to continue fishing when the salmon unexpectedly kept returning well into fall. Our kids had their dad around between fishing openings and our members didn’t have to line up for hours in the cold to pick up their fish. What a win-win this was proving to be!

Because of our partnerships with The Organic Box and PeaceFull Pantry, Peace River members are now able to order and pick-up seafood from our catch monthly throughout most of the year. We’re thrilled to continue our partnerships with these organizations and, if you are in Peace River, drop by and say hello to our Annette at Peacefull Pantry!

Check our event calendar for details of all our Peace River pick-ups!