VEG BOX FAQ

NEW VEG BOX CUSTOMERS

CURRENT VEG BOX CUSTOMERS

NEW VEG BOX CUSTOMERS

WHY CHOOSE a Green Connect Veg Box?

Green Connect is a social enterprise – a not-for-profit business that trades for a social purpose. We employ former refugees, young people with multiple and complex barriers to employment, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to reduce waste and grow fair food. By purchasing from us, you are supporting the Illawarra community and investing in a sustainable local food system. You’re also getting fresh, seasonal, and sustainable fruit and veg!

✅ Local

  • We grow most of the veg in your boxes on our 11-acre urban farm in Warrawong. We produce eggs, honey, and free-range meat too!
  • We are one of only 3 market gardens or farms in the Illawarra that sell vegetables direct to the community.

✅ Sustainable

  • We grow everything on our farm according to organic principles and regenerative farming practices. This means that we don’t use synthetic chemicals and we leave the land healthier than it was before.
  • We plant with the seasons and select what goes into weekly veg boxes based on what is ready to be harvested. This helps to reduce food waste too, as we harvest only what we need for each week and leftover veg doesn’t get left on the shelf.
  • Our boxes are plastic-free and zero-waste. If you leave your old boxes in your pick-up or delivery spot, we’ll use them again!
  • We only deliver locally to the Illawarra, which reduces food miles that are so harmful to our planet.

✅ Ethical

  • We employ former refugees, young people with multiple and complex barriers to employment, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to grow, harvest, and pack the veg in our boxes.
  • We pay award wages and provide a supportive workplace to help our employees build skills and experience they can use to become work ready and secure mainstream employment.

✅ Fresh & Healthy

  • Our produce is hand-picked from the farm just before you receive it.

✅ Community- and Customer-Focused

  • You get direct communication with the team that is growing your veg. It’s important to us to be transparent with you about how everything is grown.
  • You get to be a part of the journey by visiting the farm for tours, morning teas and community days.

The Green Connect Farm is located at the boundary of Warrawong and Lake Heights. Our 11-acre block of land is owned by the department of education and surrounded by houses, Warrawong Highschool and Warrawong Public School.

We follow organic growing methods, but we are not certified organic. The cost and time/administration required to certify each vegetable, herb, and fruit we grow is so high that it is prohibitive to a farm of our size. Also, organic certification is most useful when customers want to be sure they are buying food that was grown in a responsible, sustainable way and they don’t know exactly where their food is coming from. By creating a relationship with our customers, inviting them to visit or get involved on our farm, and offering transparency about how we grow our produce, we prefer to prioritise our ‘customer certification’ instead.

All produce that we source from other growers to include in our fruit and veg boxes, which we mainly purchase through the Sydney wholesale market, comes from certified organic farms.

We grow over 50 different types of vegetables, herbs, and fruits on our farm. These include fruit trees and perennial crops (including ginger, turmeric, sunchokes, and more) in our food forests and annual food crops including flowering veg (tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli, cabbage), leafy greens (lettuce, silver beet, kale, salad mix leaves), roots, starches, and alliums (leek, beetroot, radish, carrot), and herbs (rosemary, coriander, thyme) and more.

For a full list of what we grow seasonally, check out our What’s in Season posts. You can also see packing lists for recent veg boxes on our Fair Food Blog.

Normally, most of the vegetables in our boxes are grown on our farm and our aim is to maximise what we grow and pack from our own farm first. However, we do source some vegetables from other organic growers and suppliers, either because we can’t grow them in the quantity needed to fill all our veg boxes (such as with potatoes and onions), a certain crop wasn’t as successful as we expected, or to give customers a bit more variety.

We are aiming to grow more and more of our own fruit on the farm, though this is a work in progress for us. At this stage, most of our fruit is sourced from organic growers that sell through the Sydney organic wholesale market. We will likely always source fruit like apples and bananas because we can’t grow them in our microclimate or in the quantities our customers want. We are working towards increasing our production of other fruit in our food forests, which include a good variety of citrus and other fruit trees. Our farm is young and our trees are still maturing. Watch this space!

choosING the right box for my household?

Much more flexible than you might think! Our veg boxes are set up as subscriptions so customers can automate their weekly or fortnightly orders to suit their needs. However, there are no commitments or contracts, and you can cancel or change your order as often as needed to ensure what you receive meets your needs. Changes you can make at any time include:

  • Pausing your box for a week or longer
  • Changing your box size and/or type
  • Adjusting your excluded items and preferences; many customer update their exclusions weekly based on the items we are planning to pack
  • Changing your pick-up location or address for delivery
  • Adding products, like honey, free-range eggs, freshly picked flowers and extra fruit to your order
  • Changing the frequency of your box (every 3 or 4 weeks is possible)
  • Cancelling your subscription

The quantity of produce that each person and household goes through in a week varies drastically, so this is a difficult question to answer. Below is a guide for each box type and size. Customers are very welcome to change their box size, type, and frequency until they figure out what works best for them. You can also change your subscription as often as desired to meet your changing needs.

VEG ONLY BOXES

  • Small Veg Box feeds 1-2 people and contains a minimum of 7 seasonal vegetables and herbs.
  • Regular Veg Box feeds 2-4 people and contains a minimum of 10 different kinds of seasonal vegetables and herbs.
  • Large Veg Box feeds 4-6 people and a minimum of 10 seasonal vegetable. In the large box, we bulk up the portions of four veggies to make it better suited for larger households.

FRUIT & VEG BOXES

  • Mini Mixed Box feeds 1-2 people and contains a minimum of 4 seasonal vegetables and 2 different kinds of fruit.
  • Small Mixed Box feeds 2-4 people and contains a minimum of 7 seasonal vegetables and herbs and 2 varieties of fruit.
  • Regular Mixed Box feeds 2-4 people and contains a minimum of 10 seasonal vegetables and herbs and 3 varieties of fruit.
  • Large Mixed Box feeds 4-6 people and contains a minimum of 10 different kinds of seasonal vegetables and herbs and 3 varieties of seasonal fruit. In the large box, we bulk up the portions of four varieties each week to make it better suited for larger households.

FRUIT ONLY BOX

  • Large Fruit box contains a bulk of at least 4 different varieties of seasonal fruit and is well-suited for larger households.

All veg boxes are packed and delivered to homes and hubs every Tuesday between 9am-6pm. We harvest heartier veg (like broccoli and eggplant) on Monday and delicate veg (like lettuce and herbs) on Tuesday morning, to ensure you get the freshest veg possible!

Our fruit and veg boxes are set up as weekly or fortnightly subscriptions since this seems to suit most of our customers. However, if you would like to get a single veg box, order a box irregularly, or start a subscription at a different frequency, such as every 3 or 4 weeks, that is possible.

If you can’t find a subscription that works for you in our Green Connect Shop, contact the Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected] or 0437 038 151 and they will be able to let you know what is possible.

If you live between Kiama and Coledale, we can deliver your box to the doorstep or your home or business. The delivery fee is $8.

We can leave your box anywhere on your property that is accessible and safe for our drivers. We can also bring a veg box inside your apartment or office building if you can provide our delivery drivers with reliable access. Please tell us where you’d like your box left in the ‘Delivery Instructions’ field when you place your order or speak with the Fair Food Coordinator, and they will share these onto our delivery drivers.

If no delivery instructions are provided, our driver will leave your box near your front door in the most protected and secure location available.

All home delivery customers receive an SMS notification the day before delivery with an estimated delivery time period. They also receive an SMS when their box has been delivered.

We have range of collection hubs areas across our delivery area and we are always looking for more. You can find all our collection hubs, with their address and collection times, here: https://green-connect.com.au/pick-up-location/. Our hubs are all local businesses with like-minded staff and aligned values.

Each hub has a specific pick-up time window. Final pick-up times at some hubs are a bit flexible, and others are strict. If you have questions, please speak with our Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected].

Because specific delivery times vary from week-to-week, hub customers will get an SMS to confirm when their box has been delivered and is available for pick-up.

The details of how to pick up at each hub are a bit different. All hub customers will receive specific instructions for how to pick-up their box from their chosen pick-up hub in the ‘Welcome Email’ when they first sign up for their subscription.

We plant according to the season and select what goes into weekly veg boxes based on what is ready to be harvested. We also supplement what we harvest by sourcing from other organic growers through the Sydney markets, as needed, to ensure you get a consistent quantity and variety of produce.

At the start of each season, we publish a ‘What’s in season’ update with information about what we’re growing and what you can expect to see in veg boxes over the coming months. Take a look at What’s in Season now!

On Friday each week, we also post the packing list for next week’s boxes on our Fair Food Blog. This gives customers time to plan their meals for the following week. You are always welcome to send in exclusion and preference requests for your next box before 12pm on Monday.

You can’t choose what goes into your box each week, but our exclusion and preference system allows customers to select up to 3 fruit or veg that they don’t want to receive in their box each week and 3 fruit or veg categories that they would like to receive. Exclusions and preferences can be updated anytime and as often as desired, whether that is seasonally or weekly, by emailing us before 12pm Monday at [email protected].

We have this system in place to support our mission to grow and distribute food in the most sustainable way possible. By growing seasonal veg that suits our microclimate and delivering mixed boxes to our local community within 1-2 days of harvest, it helps to minimise the food wastage that inevitably comes from changing demand for individual vegetables and products.

Also, by ‘curating’ our fruit and veg boxes, we provide our customers with the freshest offerings from our farm based on what is ready to be harvested. Find out what we’re planning to pack in next week’s boxes each Friday on the Fair Food Blog to help you plan your meals.

Yes! At our farm, we also produce free-range eggs, honey, bouquets of freshly picked flowers. These items can be added to your veg box weekly, fortnightly or as a 1-off. We also offer fruit top-ups as an add-on item if you’d like a bit more fruit in your order. Click here to check current stock levels and order your add-ons. You can also email us at [email protected] and let us know what you’d like to add-on. Like all order changes, add-ons must be ordered before 12pm on Monday to be placed into your box for that week.

All new orders must be placed through our website – https://green-connect.com.au/green-connect-shop/. Decide what box size you would like to try, then select your pick-up option and frequency, and add your selection to your cart. When you check out, you can enter exclusion requests and delivery information (if desired) followed by your payment information.

Please note: new orders must be placed before 12pm on Monday for delivery on Tuesday of that week. New orders placed after this time will be processed and sent out the following week.

Our preferred method for veg box payments is credit card. We manage credit card payments through our website and the external payment platform Stripe to ensure your card details are protected.

To pay for your subscription, you will need to set up your order on our website and enter your payment details there. After your payment is set up, we will automatically process the charge for your box on Monday at midday, either weekly or fortnightly, depending on your subscription frequency. This coincides with the deadline for veg box order changes and holds/cancellations. You will receive your veg box on Tuesday.

If you don’t want to pay by credit card, please contact the Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected] to find out what other payment options are possible.

CURRENT VEG BOX CUSTOMERS

changing My Subscription

Currently, the easiest way to make changes to your subscription is to email our Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected]. . The deadline for all veg box holds, changes and add-ons is 12pm Monday for boxes packed and delivered the following day.

We are hoping to improve the customer portal of our website in the near future.

The deadline for all order changes, including cancellations, holds, box size/type, delivery location or exclusions, is Monday at 12pm (midday). This is when the farm team start harvesting and the admin team finalises and prints the packing lists, box labels and delivery routes. Change requests received after the 12pm Monday deadline will be actioned for the following week’s order.

As often as you like! Our veg boxes are set up as subscriptions so customers can automate their weekly or fortnightly orders to suit their needs. However, there are no commitments or contracts, and you can cancel or change your order as often as needed to ensure what you receive meets your needs. Changes you can make at any time include:

  • Pausing your box for a week or longer
  • Changing your box size and/or type
  • Adjusting your excluded items and preferences; many customer update their exclusions weekly based on the items we are planning to pack
  • Changing your pick-up location or address for delivery
  • Adding products, like honey, free-range eggs, freshly picked flowers and extra fruit to your order
  • Changing the frequency of your box (every 3 or 4 weeks is possible)
  • Cancelling your subscription

Email all change requests to [email protected] by 12pm Monday.

Absolutely! You can pause your veg box for any reason, at any time. Simply send an email to [email protected] before 12pm on Monday to request your hold, making sure to specify the start date that you would like to go on hold and the date you’d like to restart. If you don’t know the restart date, that’s okay too.

Please note that the deadline for all box holds and changes is strictly at 12pm Monday. If we receive your request after this time, we will action your request for the following week’s box.

Yes! You may wish to exclude items because you are allergic/intolerant, because you grow them yourself, because you don’t like them, or because you just don’t feel like eating them this week. Our exclusion system allows for up to 3 fruit or veg to be excluded from your box.

Here is how our exclusion system works:

  • Send us your exclusion requests via email at [email protected]. Make sure to specify whether you would like to exclude the items for a certain period of time or ongoing.
  • Exclusions can be specific (e.g. beetroot, lettuce) or general (e.g. leafy greens, alliums) and they can be changed seasonally or weekly or as often as needed!
  • We can’t pack less of something in your box, but we can reduce the frequency you receive commonly packed items by applying an alternating exclusion, which means you will receive the item in one box but not the next. This works particularly well for potatoes and onions, which are packed in most veg boxes by default each week.
  • We will replace excluded veg in your box with something else to ensure you get the quantity and variety of produce that is promised for each box size. We aren’t able tell you in advance what we will pack, as this depends on what we are able to harvest or source in smaller quantities. However, you can tell us what you would prefer us to pack in place of your exclusion items. Like exclusions, preferences can be specific or general, and changed anytime.
  • You can find out what we’re planning to pack in next week’s boxes each Friday on the Fair Food Blog to help plan your meals.

In addition to your “Exclusions” list, where you can specify up to 3 produce items/groups you with to exclude from your box, you also have a “Preferences” list, on which you can list the veggies or fruit you would prefer us to pack when we exclude items from your box. You can list up to 3 preferences and these can be as specific (e.g., broccoli) or general (e.g., leafy greens) as you like. We can’t make any guarantees, but if we have your preferred items available, we will do our best to use them as replacements for your exclusion items.

Please note: We will only look at your Preferences list if we are excluding an item from your box.

In addition to fruit and veg, we also produce free-range eggs, honey, bouquets of freshly picked flowers at the Green Connect Farm. These items can be added to your veg box weekly, fortnightly or as a 1-off. We also offer fruit top-ups as an add-on item if you’d like a bit more fruit in your order. Click here to check current stock levels and order your add-ons. You can also email us at [email protected] and let us know what you’d like to add-on. Like all order changes, add-ons must be ordered before 12pm on Monday to be placed into your box for that week.

Yes! Of course, you are always welcome to pause your order if needed. But we also welcome you to change your box size or type based on what you need for the week. Just send us an email at [email protected] before 12pm Monday and let us know what box size and type you’d like.

You can change your delivery or pick-up location for the week before 12pm on Monday. After this time, when orders have been processed and deliveries scheduled, it is likely that we cannot change your delivery destination. Contact the Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected] or 0437 038 151 to see what is possible.

Yes! We offer veg box customers a 75% discount on tickets on our guided farm tours so they can experience the magic of the farm and learn more about our organisation and how we grow food. We also organise 2-3 get-togethers for veg box customers throughout the year so that everyone can get to know each other and the team that grows their food.

We run a range of other activities where anyone from the public can visit the farm and/or get involved. You can also get involved as a volunteer! Go to our Visit Us or Get Involved webpages for more info.

Please note that we can’t allow members of the public to freely access the farm without a prior appointment or tour booking.

Payment Issues

  1. Log in to the website http://green-connect.com.au/my-account/
  2. Go to “Payment methods” & “Add payment method”.
  3. Fill in new details, click ”Add Payment Method”, then choose to MAKE DEFAULT

If you have any questions or issues, please don’t hesitate to contact the Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected].

There’s no need to worry about failed payments initially. We will still pack your box even if your initial payment on Monday at midday has failed. Our system will keep trying to process the payment according to a set schedule over the next week. If at the end of the week, your payment still has not gone through, we will put your subscription on hold and not pack anymore boxes until the payment is made.

There’s no need to worry about failed payments initially if you’ve had to cancel your credit card due to fraudulent activities or for any other reason. Just reach out to the Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected] to let them know and we can share other payment options with you.

Pick Up and Delivery Issues

If you realise after your pick-up window has ended that you forgot your box, you can contact your hub directly or, if you’re having trouble contacting someone or if the hub is not manned, you can contact the Green Connect Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected] or 0437 038 151.

We will do our best to reach out to customers who have not collected their boxes, though this is dependent on hub staff alerting us that your box is still there. If your box is still at the hub 24 hours after the end of the pick-up window, we will encourage the hub staff to take the box home to reduce waste.

Green Connect and our pick-up hubs cannot take responsibility of veg boxes outside of collection hours.

Before 12pm Monday: If you know in advance that you won’t be able to collect your box during collection hours, please get in touch with us before 12pm on Monday so we can update your order for the week. This may include changing your delivery/pick-up option or placing your order on hold for the week.

After 12pm Monday: After 12pm on Monday, we cannot make changes to veg box orders for the week, as this is the time we finalise and print all orders for the week (including harvest, packing lists and delivery runs).

If something comes up at the last minute and you can’t pick up your box, please organise for a friend or family member to collect on your behalf. Our pick-up hubs can’t take responsibility for boxes that are not collected during the allocated collection hours.

If no other arrangements can be made, you can try to call your hub and see if they can hold your box for an extra day or you can call the Fair Food Coordinator at 0437 038 151 for guidance.

Call the Fair Food Coordinator right away on 0437 038 151 and they will assist you.

If you didn’t get an SMS pick-up reminder, it may be that you were not scheduled to get a box that week or that there was an administrative error and we didn’t pack a box for you

If you did get an SMS pick-up reminder, make sure you look at every box label at the hub, as sometimes labels are hidden or we may have packed your box in a different size box than normal. If your box definitely isn’t there, we’ll try to figure out where it has gone and we’ll do everything we can get you a new box or get the original box back to you.

Quality Issues and Packing Errors

We ask and encourage all customers to report errors, however small, with their fruit and veg boxes. This information helps us assess how we’re doing, review and improve our systems, and ultimately create the best local & sustainable veg box in the Illawarra.

If you received one or more of your exclusion items, please contact our Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected]. We will work with you to find a solution.

Please take a photo of whatever you are unhappy with in your box and send it to our Fair Food Coordinator via email at [email protected] or via SMS to 0437 038 151.

We aim to pack the best quality produce and want to know if we’ve missed anything in the packing process.

The total weight and bulkiness of boxes varies from week to week depending on the types of produce we pack and the value of that produce by weight. For example, carrots with tops will fill more space in the box than radish and a large bok choy will be heavier than a bunch of kale.

You can always check what you received by comparing the contents of your box to the packing list in the latest Fair Food Blog. You can also count the varieties of produce you received. Mini mix boxes should have at least 4 veg and 2 fruits. Small boxes should have at least 7 veg, plus at least 2 fruits for small mixes. Regular and large boxes should have at least 10 varieties of veg, plus 3 varieties of fruit for mixed boxes.

If in doubt, contact the Fair Food Coordinator via email at [email protected]. If you can, send a photo of your box contents. We can help figure out if something is missing. If it is, we’ll offer you a credit or refund for the missing items.

We aim to give information about lesser know produce in the insert that comes in your veg box. But if you receive something and you don’t know what it is, you have a couple of options:

Unlike exclusions, which we will always follow to ensure you don’t get items that you don’t want, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to pack preferred items. Each week, we harvest or source a limited number of items to pack in place of exclusions. If we have your preferred items available in sufficient quantities, we will pack it! However, this is not always possible. Please speak with the Fair Food Coordinator if you are receiving items that you aren’t happy with or aren’t able to use.

Other Issues and Questions

We have a range of resources to help you with identifying new veg and tips on how to cook with our produce.

  • We post what is going to be in next week’s box each Friday, so that you can access that list and have time in advance to organise your meals for the week.
  • We aim to provide information on lesser-known veggies in the ‘Feature Veg’ section of the blog each week, which also appears on your veg box insert.
  • For many produce items, we have created a produce page with information on how to store it, cook it and recipe ideas.
  • You can always contact us to ask! Either email the Fair Food Coordinator at [email protected] or jump onto the Fair Food Facebook Group to ask other customers.

If you’re getting a back-log of produce, you are always welcome to pause your veg box for a week to give you time to catch up. If you are consistently struggling to use up your produce, you have a few options:

  • Utilise your exclusions and preferences lists to ensure you’re getting less of what you don’t want, and more of what you do!
  • Learn a bit more about how to cook unfamiliar veg. We have a range of ‘Our Produce’ with general tips and links to recipes. There are heaps of veg box customers and fair food enthusiasts on our Fair Food Facebook Group that will share their tips and advice. And, of course, your favourite internet search engine can provide a wealth of information and inspiration too!
  • Reduce box size or frequency of your box. You’re always welcome to chat with our Fair Food Coordinator who can provide advice on possibilities that might work for you.

If you ever have any questions or issues with your box, please don’t hesitate to let our Fair Food team know! We’re very keen to make sure you receive produce that you love and are confident using. We also know all the tricks to tweak your subscription to ensure your produce box is meeting your needs. Contact us via email at [email protected] or via phone/SMS to 0437 038 151.