Sign up to get fresh, seasonal, organic fruit and veg every week, to collect from any of our pick-up points across Waltham Forest.
Existing customer? Log-in to your customer dashboard
New customer? Read on for how to sign up!
Why buy from OrganicLea?
Paying the same amount every week for a supply of fresh produce is the best way of getting good value organically grown fruit and vegetables that are as local as possible. And every time you buy from us, you’re supporting Organiclea’s mission to transform the food system. It’s a shopping choice – but it’s also one of the strongest actions you can take to strengthen the economy of your community and support growers near you. And we offer a discount scheme for those who struggle to pay the full price.
This short film from 2017 includes a background to our veg boxes. Some things have moved on since then, but the film still gives an insight into the ethos behind the scheme.
How to sign up
- You decide which size of veg and/or fruit bag you’d like, and how often you’d like a delivery – it can be a one-off, weekly, or every two, three or four weeks apart. And choose which of our pick-up points you’d like to collect from.
- Go to our box scheme shop, click on Add for the fruit bag or veg bag and you can select the size you want and how often. You can also purchase extra add-on items including a range of dried goods and household items, and you can add a solidarity payment too – paying a little extra allows us to offer a discount to those who need it.
- When you go to check out you’ll get to select your chosen pickup point and set up your account details.
- Please note that occasionally a pickup point may be full – if that is the case we’ll email you to see if you want to find an alternative or go on a waiting list.
How the box scheme works
- For new sign-ups, we start delivering your bags as soon as we can – in most cases, the following Wednesday.
- Bags are available to collect from Wednesday or Thursday afternoons, depending on the location. Our pick-up points map reveals the delivery day for each collection point, and your welcome email will outline the approximate time.
- Payments are taken weekly. We accept Healthy Start vouchers and also have a solidarity pricing scheme. Paying a little more for your bag helps someone who can only afford to buy with a discount.
- Each week you’ll receive a newsletter via email, with news about the produce and the growers, cooking and recipe ideas, and other local food news. What’s in your bags is also posted online each week so you can see in advance what’s coming up.
- You have until Saturday evening to collect your bags – after that, uncollected bags are donated to a local food distribution organisation to minimise waste.
- Leave your packaging at your pick-up point when you collect your next bag, and we’ll reuse it. Our current record is a paper bag used 11 times!
Want something extra?
Log-in to the box scheme dashboard to see what’s in your next delivery (usually available from Thursday pm for the following week) so you can plan ahead and also select from a range of extra fresh produce and dried goods add-ons, including Palestinian solidarity products and useful household items like a vegetable scrubbing brush
Going on holiday?
You can book a box scheme break easily through your online account. When you’re away, you can either donate your bag to a community food project or simply skip the week and not be charged.
We need a bit of notice so the the deadline is the end of Tuesday of the week before your holiday starts. If you miss it, why not ask a friend to collect your bag and give our veg a try?
For more instructions on pausing your deliveries, click here.
Where does the produce come from?
Around 10% of the produce in our veg bags comes from our community farm in Chingford. Most is harvested a day or two before our bags are packed and delivered. We believe short supply chains and freshness of produce means more flavour, higher nutritional value and longer keeping time in your fridge, reducing waste.
Most of the rest of your veg comes from a number of small independent organic farms close to London. They supply us via the Better Food Shed, which has evolved through the strong co-operation and partnership between farmers in East Anglia and London box schemes over the years.
Better Food Shed also sources fruit for us from Langridge wholesalers, who are supplied by organic farms in Europe, this allows us to offer a bigger range than UK only fruit. And at certain times of year we source veg such as onions from Europe too, when UK stores have run out.
Storage tips and more
Take a look at our advice on fruit and veg storage and our answers to your frequently asked questions..