Update on community rate and sliding scale membership

We’re changing how our sliding scale rates work a little bit, especially community rate.  

Why?  

We crunched some numbers, and have figured out that we’re currently on schedule to run out of money and close in about a year.  So we’re implementing some systems that allow us to continue to offer low-cost seafood and also allow us to move toward greater financial sustainability.  

How does it work?

• Limited community-rate memberships.  The number of available community-rate memberships is limited and based on the number of sustainer and supporter memberships.  This inventory is rolling: as more sustainer and supporter memberships come in, more community memberships become available.  Update as of 3/21/22: Currently community rate inventory is closed until summer season sign-ups open in May.

  • Why? The actual cost of each seafood share is between $25 and $35.  Community-rate members pay $12.50/share, which means that each community-rate share costs us between $12 and $22.  This cost is covered by our sustainer ($50/share) and supporter-rate ($37.50/share) memberships. 

• Community-rate memberships are for members whose income makes them eligible for public assistance.  It used to be that members were eligible for community rate if they were referred by another community-rate member, but this system no longer makes sense for us.  You can read more about our rate tiers here.  

Let us know if you have any questions, and thanks for your support!