BECOME A 'FISH SHARE'
CO-OP MEMBER
Our Catch in Your Hands
ABOUT
2024 Spring Community Membership Program
Decide ahead of time how much seafood you want to eat (aka your "share") during the 3-month season (April - June) and pay for your share upfront to help our fishermen shoulder the risk of our trips out to sea. When you're ready for some seafood, choose what you want from a selection of current local catch plus a variety of our in-house specialty products. Order what you want, when you want, and pick up your selection of delicious local seafood at one of several seasonal pick-up locations. Since you've already paid, all you have to do is cook, eat, and enjoy!
HOW IT WORKS
1. GET ON BOARD. Sign up to become a Spring Season Member and pay before the season starts in order to secure your share of the catch.
2. WE FISH FOR YOU. Our cooperative’s fishermen hit the seas knowing your membership helps shoulder the risk of upfront costs and guarantees a fair price to the boats.
3. CHOOSE YOUR CATCH. Browse our website and choose from our selection of local seafood as well as our in-house cooked and specialty items you won’t find anywhere else. Order the products and quantities you want at the frequency you want.
4. PICK UP YOUR DELICIOUS SEAFOOD. Collect your order of Chatham Harvesters seafood at multiple locations. You can order weekly or at whatever frequency works for you.
5. BUY DOWN. Our program is a buy-down system so just make sure to spend down your credit by the end of the season.
MORE ABOUT BECOMING A SPRING SEASON MEMBER
1. SHARE SIZE AND COST. This is a buy-down system where you decide how much seafood you will eat during the 3-month season and then pay upfront. Our minimum membership payment for the Spring Season is $100 (about $8/week). You decide how much you want to spend per week and what species you’ll eat. Just make sure to spend it all by the end of the season.
2. MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS FOR THE SPRING SEASON. As a Community Coop Member you'll receive priority access to all of our local catch via our website plus your own unique member's page where you can track your purchases, balance, and pickup location. You'll get a members-only invite to our in-house seafood cooking demos where you'll get to meet and talk with some of our fishermen. You'll also receive discounts on our merchandise, unique and locally inspired recipes, our weekly newsletter with more in-depth member-only content, plus an invitation to our annual Chatham Harvesters Local Seafood Fest.
3. BE PART OF A GROWING COMMUNITY. When you join CHC as a community member you become part of an exciting effort to use fishing as a force for good - sourcing only from local fishing families, paying good wages with benefits, reducing our food’s carbon footprint, increasing access to healthy food for all, and building a thriving local economy.
*Fair Warning: You might, on occasion, be earnestly moved by the deeper connection you feel toward the ocean and the fishermen who willingly risk their lives to feed you. You may also experience a growing sense of adventure when eating seafood and delight in your ability to distinguish quality seafood from some of the other stuff that's out there. None of this is guaranteed, but more than a few folks have echoed these sentiments.
WHAT TO EXPECT
1. About the FISH: You'll be able to decide which seafood is right for you. Our Spring Season will include seafood items such as sea scallops, mackerel, tilefish, squid, john dory, black seabass, monkfish medallions, skate wings, and more, plus our specialty items such as Chatham clam pies, smoked mackerel, and smoked bluefish. See our current list here.
2. About the FISHERMEN: We're all independent, owner-operator, family fishermen who live and work on Cape Cod. We want to get to know you and you to know us. We guarantee full traceability back to our boats. Our mission is to connect our community more directly to how we fish, where we fish, when we fish, and why we fish.
3. About FRESHLY-FROZEN FISH: All our website seafood products for the Spring Season will be freshly-frozen, which means freezing at peak freshness through a state-of-the-art method that suspends the seafood in its most flavorful and nutritious state. If you thaw your seafood correctly, it will be just as nutritious and delicious as the day it was caught.
THE PICKUP LOCATIONS
Choose the pickup location most convenient for you. Every time you order you'll have the option of choosing to pick up at any of the following locations throughout the season:
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CHATHAM. Chatham Harvesters Co-op Building | 95 Commerce Park | Thursdays 3-6pm
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CHATHAM. Body Strong | 11 Chicks Way | Tuesdays 3-5pm
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CHATHAM. Chatham Works | 323 Orleans Road | Wednesdays 3-6pm
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YARMOUTH PORT. Lighthouse Keepers Pantry | 173 Main St | Mondays 1-4pm
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S. YARMOUTH. Cape Cod Gourmet | 1126 MA-28 | Fridays and Saturdays 10am-6pm
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HARWICH PORT. The Nines Art Gallery | 562 Main St | Fridays 12-5pm
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DENNIS. Cape Abilities Farm | 458 Main St | Wednesdays 12-5pm
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ORLEANS. Sunbird | 85 MA-6A | Mondays 11am-2pm
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FALMOUTH. Aquatic Brewery | 661 Main St | Fridays 2-9pm and Saturdays 12-8pm
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PLYMOUTH. Fishing Partnership | 139 Court St | 3rd Thursday of the Month 12-5pm
* Other locations may be added throughout the season as permitted
THE PURPOSE OF OUR COMMUNITY SEAFOOD COOPERATIVE MEMBERSHIP
Our membership program aims to promote a positive relationship between fishermen, consumers, and the ocean by providing high-quality, locally caught seafood to members in a way that helps support a thriving fishing community. Inspired by the community-supported fishery (CSF) and community-supported agriculture (CSA) movements, these models help share the risk of food production through pre-payment methods while also strengthening relationships to food producers. The first CSF on Cape Cod was started in Chatham in 2006, and similar CSF programs have since been started across the United States with support from the amazing Local Catch Network.
SOME FEEDBACK FROM OUR MEMBERS
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