Why members join & stay with CSAs

As usual, we sent out member surveys this year. One of the things I try to get a sense of is what drives members to join CSAs, and what keeps them around. Here's some insight from this year's member surveys (50% response rate). Note that I removed the "Not Particularly" and "N/A" categories to keep the chart a little simpler to read:

How important are the following to you in motivating your choice to join a CSA?
Tuesday members (Kitchener pick-up):


Friday members (on farm pick-up):

As usual, eating locally outweighs eating organically. I remained concerned that people don't fully understand the difference... I was extremely pleased to see how important supporting a farmer's livelihood seems to be! What awesome members I've got!

How important are the following to you in your CSA experience?

Tuesday members (Kitchener pick-up):


Friday members (on farm pick-up):


"Involving my children" is a bit skewed, since it had a much higher N/A response rate than any other categories.

Look at how important having some choice is!! This is an option our CSA offers that is beyond the classic CSA model. I, too, like feeling more confident that members are ending up with food they'll actually eat, rather than worrying that I'm just growing food for their compost piles.

Not surprisingly, quality and organics rank high. As does being connected to the food story - awesome!