Several of our consumers were members of Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). The features that seemed to be mentioned the most in regards to CSAs seemed to be delivery, fear of waste, feeling a connection to the farm, and serendipity.

Nearly every consumer who was a member of a CSA had found their CSA through word of mouth, recommendations from friends, or random web searching. 

C3 said that she had heard about her CSA from a friend, and then did research on the farm's website about what kind of vegetables the farm had, whether all the items in the box came from one farm, and whether or not the farm delivered.  She liked what she saw, so she decided to get the box  C6 also heard of her CSA through "word of mouth," and simply trusted her friends to know.

C9 said that when she decided to join a CSA, she knew she wanted one that  delivered every month of the year “and had vegetables that were intriguing to me.”  So she looked on Yelp to see what others recommended, and did a Google search on "CSA SF."  In the end, she said that  “i think other than that we just got lucky... I didn't do that much research... I was like, I kind of like that name."  

C5 said that if he were to join a CSA, he would look for whether or not they were organic, the price versus the amount delivered, if the food was delivered or if he could pick it up in a central location, and something about the farm's history and  "how they came to do what they did"

Some CSAs were delivered directly to people's houses, while others had to be picked up. Many said that direct delivery to their home would be the preferred mode of receiving their produce, and that the lack of this was a barrier to entry. C3 paid extra for in-home delivery. C1 and C4 both canceled their CSA subscriptions because of difficulty involving pick-up. C4 said that not only was it hard to pick up the food, also her household would forget to pick it up when it wasn't delivered to their home. C7 said that one of the reasons he was not a member of a CSA was because he didn't own a car and would have difficulties getting the produce.

Another benefit of the CSA box was simply that it was less time shopping for the consumer, and participants didn't have to make a shopping list. C9 said that CSAs are “pretty convenient, you don't have to think about what you're buying you don't have to plan these things just come to you”