ABOUT GREEN CONNECT

Why choose a Green Connect veg box?

What is Green Connect?

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!

What makes our veg and fruit boxes so special?

 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 a small number of 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.

Where is the Green Connect Farm?

The Green Connect Farm is located at the boundary of Warrawong and Lake Heights.

Our 11-acre block of land is owned by the NSW Department of Education and surrounded by houses, Warrawong Highschool and Warrawong Public School.

Is your produce organic?

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.

What produce do you grow?

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.

Is everything in your fruit and veg boxes grown on your farm?

Our aim is to give our veg box customers as much produce that is grown our farm as we can.

We 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.

At this stage, the majority 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 aiming to grow more and more of our own fruit on the farm, though this is a work in progress for us. 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!

VEG BOX SUBSCRIPTIONS

How do I choose the right box for my household?

How flexible are your subscriptions?

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

You can make many of these changes when you log-in to your personalised subscription management page. You can also email us at fairfood@green-connect.com.au and we'll be happy to assist!

Do you offer 10% off on all your subscriptions?

Yes! Trials are available for our seasonal mixed boxes only. Both Seasonal Mixed boxes and Pick Your Produce (which are only available as a subscription) incorporate a 10% savings.

What type of box is right for my household?

We offer two different types of veg boxes - mixed seasonal boxes and Pick Your Produce (PYP) boxes.

Seasonal Boxes: Let us do the work for you! With our mixed seasonal boxes, we select a range of produce for you based on what is ready to harvest on the farm and what other items (such as fruit) we can source from other organic growers. This box type is ideal for people who love to try new produce and be inspired to try new meals and who don't want to log-in to update their weekly or fortnightly produce selections.

Choose whether you get veg-only, a mix of fruit and veg, or fruit-only or whether you get a mini, small, regular, or large size.!

Pick Your Produce Boxes: Choose exactly what you want from our list of available farm-grown and certified organic produce! Pick Your Produce (PYP) boxes are a great fit for people who plan their weekly meals, have food intolerances, cook for picky eaters, or grow some of their own veggies at home.

The selection of available produce changes weekly, though we should have a good range of staples and your favourite seasonal produce available every week. Customers will get a reminder email on Friday afternoon and must login to their customer account to update their produce selections before 10am on Monday for boxes delivered on Wednesday.

There are 4 sizes of PYP boxes so you can select the quantity that works for your household.

What box size is right for my household?

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.

Mixed Seasonal Boxes

VEG-ONLY BOXES

  • Small Veg Box feeds 1-2 people and contains 7+ seasonal vegetables and herbs.
  • Regular Veg Box feeds 2-4 people and contains 10+ seasonal vegetables and herbs.
  • Large Veg Box feeds 4-6 people and 13+ vegetables and herbs, plus a bulked up version of potatoes & onions* to make it better suited for larger households.

FRUIT & VEG BOXES

  • Mini Mixed Box feeds 1-2 people and contains 4+ seasonal vegetables and 2 varieties of fruit.
  • Small Mixed Box feeds 2-4 people and contains 7+ seasonal vegetables and herbs and 2 varieties of fruit.
  • Regular Mixed Box feeds 2-4 people and contains 10+ seasonal vegetables and herbs and 3 varieties of fruit.
  • Large Mixed Box feeds 4-6 people and contains 13+ vegetables and herbs, 4 varieties of fruit, plus a bulked up version of potatoes & onions* to make it better suited for larger households.

FRUIT-ONLY BOX

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

Pick Your Produce Boxes

There are 3 size options for PYP subscriptions

  • PYP Essentials box - 7 fruit and/or veg items
  • PYP Classic box - fruit and/or veg 11 items
  • PYP Family box - 15 fruit and/or veg items
  • PYP FamilyPLUS box - 20 fruit and/or veg items

When are veg boxes available for delivery/pick-up?

All veg boxes are packed and delivered to homes and hubs on Wednesdays between 9am-6pm.

After we confirm the week's orders on Monday at 10am, we harvest heartier veg (like broccoli and eggplant) on Tuesdays and delicate veg (like lettuce and herbs) first thing on Wednesday before your box is packed to ensure you get the freshest veg possible!

How often can I get a box? Can I just order 1?

Our fruit and veg boxes are set up as weekly or fortnightly subscriptions since this seems to suit most of our customers.

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.

One-off or trial boxes are also available. Please visit our online shop page to see what is available and place your order. in the 

If you can't find what you're looking for, contact the Fair Food Coordinator at fairfood@green-connect.com.au and we'll be happy to assist you

Please note that only mixed seasonal boxes are available in our 1-off purchase or trial format. All subscriptions can be changed or cancelled at any time.

How does home delivery work?

If you live between Kiama and Wombarra, 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.

What locations are available for local pick-up?

We have a range of local pick-up 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

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 fairfood@green-connect.com.au.

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. Please check the Local Pickup Hub webpage for the pick-up instructions for your chosen hub.

What produce will I get in my box?

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.

First thing on Thursday morning each week, we also update our list of available produce for next week's boxes.

For Seasonal Mixed box Subscribers: we choose what goes into Seasonal Mixed Boxes to ensure customers get a variety of freshly harvested, seasonal produce. We publish the weekly packing list in advance online in customer accounts (visible after you login) or on our Fair Food Blog. Customers are welcome to update their order notes to exclude up to 3 items from each box and we will pack alternative produce instead. Exclusions must be submitted before the seasonal box order cut off at 10am on Monday.

For Pick Your Produce Customers: you choose what produce you get by selecting from our list of available farm-grown and certified organic produce. Available produce will be updated on Thursday morning and customers must login before the PYP order deadline on Monday at 10am to update your selections.

Can I choose what I get in my box?

Yes you can! Our line of Pick Your Produce boxes to give customers the ability to choose exactly what they want in their fruit and veg boxes. For more information, visit the Pick Your Produce shop page.

Customer who order a mixed seasonal box are able to exclude up to 3 fruit or veg that they don’t want to receive in their box and we will pack something else instead.

Here's how exclusions work:

  • Check what the Weekly Packing Sheet to see what we're planning to pack in Seasonal boxes next week.
  • Enter up to 3 exclusions in the order notes section when you check out (e.g. Exclude: cabbage, onions, kale)
  • Ongoing, exclusions can be changed as often as you like of your subscription management page. Exclusions must be updated before 10am Mondays to be applied to your order for that week.

Can I add eggs, honey, flowers, or extra fruit to my order?

Yes! At our farm, we also produce free-range eggs, honey, and bouquets of freshly picked flowers.

These items (pending availability) 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.

Add-ons products can be added to an existing subscription via the subscription management screen of your account. Like all order changes, add-ons must be ordered before 10am Monday to be placed into your box for that week.

How do I place my first order?

All new orders can be placed by adding the veg box products you would like via the 'shop' drop down.

  • Click on the box size you would like to try.
  • If ordering a Pick Your Produce box, select what produce you would like in your first box.
  • Select your subscription frequency and click 'Add to cart'.
  • Add any add-on products you are keen to try to your cart.
  • Click on the purse icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to access your cart. Review your purchase items.
  • Choose your delivery option and enter your postcode to find your nearest local pick-up hub.
  • Then press Check out.
  • On the check out page, and delivery information followed by your payment information.

New subscription and trial orders must be placed before 10am on Monday for delivery on Wednesday. Orders placed after this time will be processed and sent out the following Wednesday.