CSa policies & FAQs

Pick up locations are available in Bellingham, throughout Skagit, Lynnwood and throughout Seattle. For specific locations and times, please visit vivafarms.localfoodmarketplace.com.

All members must create an account on our website and pay by credit or debit card. Payment must be made prior to the start of each season. Customers have the option to pay in 4 installments or make payment in full at the time of sign-up. SNAP customers may pay by the week. If you sign up to pay in installments, it is your responsibility to update your payment information as needed. If payment is declined, your boxes will be placed on hold until payment is made.

Membership is not confirmed until members have created an online account and Viva Farms has received a payment. We accept sign-ups on a rolling basis throughout the season, and will charge customers a prorated amount based on the remaining weeks. The prices are as follows:

SKAGIT/WHATCOM COUNTIES:

KING COUNTY: 

Viva Farms is unable to provide refunds for CSA memberships after payment is made. Customers who pay in installments can cancel before their next payment goes through, but will continue to receive the boxes paid for under their current installment. After their most recent payment runs out, they will not be charged the scheduled future installments nor will they receive boxes.

If you are dissatisfied with the quality of an item included in your box, please contact us within 24 hours so we can discuss how to compensate you for it.

As a small farm, we rely on our CSA members’ financial commitment for the entire season. If you are unable to continue receiving your share for whatever reason, you are free to cancel your membership at any time, or transfer it to another person, but will not receive a refund for payment already made. Please contact us in writing by midnight on the Sunday prior to delivery to arrange for a transfer, or one week in advance to cancel. In the event that Viva Farms is unhappy with a member’s participation in the CSA, we reserve the right to cancel membership and refund the remaining balance at our discretion.

Viva Farms will not refund any remaining balances left over at the end of the season.

If you are away or unable to pick up your box, please arrange for a friend or neighbor to pick up for you. It is not necessary to notify us but please give your friend clear instructions regarding pick-up procedures. You may also opt to donate your box to our sliding scale program for the week you will miss. Your donation will help us to offer our discounted CSA boxes to lower income households. You must make this change on your account at least 7 days in advance of your delivery in order to not receive a box for that week. If you have difficulty making the change through the website, you must contact Viva Farms for assistance by email at least 7 days in advance of the delivery at sales@vivafarms.org.

Any remaining customer balances left over at the end of the season will not be refunded. 

Some members may choose to share their box with a friend. If you do this, designate one person to be the contact person and divide up the box yourself. Either person may pick up and sign for the box, which will be listed under the name of the contact person. Viva Farms is unable to facilitate separate payments on shared boxes.

• It is the responsibility of the CSA members to pick up their box during the designated time at the designated pick-up site. If you can’t make the pick-up, you may send a friend to do so. There is no need to contact us, but please give your friend instructions on pick-up procedures.
• If a box is not picked up on the designated day, during the designated time frame, we make no guarantees that your box will be available for later pick-up. Some sites are able to hold your box for you, but this depends on the individual businesses that are hosting our pick-ups. Contact Viva Farms for assistance and more information. Freshness of box contents is guaranteed only on the day and time of original pick-up schedule. Pick-up locations are all covered and out of the sun, but most do not offer refrigeration. Please consider the pick-up times firm.
• We ask that members do not show up early or late and do their best to keep the pick-up site clean and orderly. Upon arrival at your pick-up site, please find your name on the pick-up list and sign or initial to show that you took a box. Do not take a box if your name is not on the list. If your name is on the list but no boxes are available, or if your name is not on the list but you believe you have paid for a box that week, please contact us as soon as possible so that we can look into it and make any necessary corrections. The pick-up list is our way of indicating your receipt of your box. Please do not write notes on the list itself. If you need to contact us for any reason, email us at: sales@vivafarms.org or call: (360) 969-7191 x4. Please only contact us during pick-up times with urgent issues. We are not available during pick-up times to discuss general issues you may be experiencing with your membership.
• We pack our CSAs in plastic harvest totes. Please bring your own bag to transfer the produce into, and leave the boxes at the pick-up site. Please DO NOT take the harvest totes home with you. Small boxes are green and large boxes are beige.

Viva Farms produces a weekly CSA newsletter that includes recipes, farm & event information and important updates for our members. This is our primary form of communication with you. The newsletters are e-mailed to you on pick-up days. Occasionally, the box contents may vary slightly from what is listed in the newsletter if we have to make a last minute substitution due to unexpected availability issues (such as pouring rain before a strawberry harvest!).

If you need to change your pick-up location, please email sales@vivafarms.org for assistance.

E-mail may be sent to inform you of news of our services or offers. Your e-mail address will not be sold, rented, or leased to third parties.

Memberships do not renew automatically. To renew your membership for the 2023 season, please visit https://vivafarms.localfoodmarketplace.com/ 

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the entire season.* We depend on our members to purchase our produce weekly. We plan, plant, and harvest for a specific number of members each week. As a small farm, we cannot accommodate fluctuations in the weekly numbers of boxes that we deliver. Plus, experiencing what the farm has to offer for the entire 24-week season is part of the fun! That said, we do offer a subscription plan that allows you to pay for 6 boxes at a time with automatic renewals. While we are confident that most folks will want to continue through the full season, you may cancel before your next payment renews if you decide that the CSA isn’t working for you. We will not refund any payments that have already been made.

If you are unsure this subscription is right for you, please read more about the Viva Farms CSA program on our website before you join. We encourage members to share the box with friends if they are concerned about receiving too much produce each week. See our Policies for details on sharing boxes.

*If you are paying with SNAP benefits, you do not need to pay for the full 24-week season. See above instructions.

Yes! As a non-profit organization, we rely on volunteers to help our small staff get the job done. Find volunteer opportunities here.

Members are free to cancel or transfer their membership for any reason at any time. However, we are unable to offer refunds for any portion of your payment. As a small farm, we rely on our CSA members’ financial commitment. Please read our policies carefully before you join and ask any questions not addressed there or in the FAQs. If you are fully informed about what being a CSA member is all about, we believe that you will be extremely happy with your decision to join us. If you become unhappy for any reason, please give us the opportunity to correct the issue. Please contact us via email or telephone to discuss any issue as soon as it arises.

Yes! The deadline for any sort of box order, hold, or add-on is midnight one week prior to pick-up (Wednesdays or Thursdays, depending on your pick-up location). This is set in place to give us time to plan for the orders, harvest, etc. If you have any trouble making changes yourself through the website, you must contact us at least seven days in advance of your next delivery and we will help you make the necessary changes.

Updated information for 2022 coming soon!

Now what? It is the responsibility of the CSA members to pick up their box during the designated time. If a member is unable to do so, it is the member’s responsibility to designate a friend to do so. There is no need to contact us, but please give your friend instructions on pick-up procedures. If a box is not picked up on the designated day, during the designated time frame, the box will be donated to the pick-up location. Please call your pick up location first to find out if your box is still onsite and available for you. 

If you know you will not be able to pick up your box, please contact us as soon as possible and we will do our best to accommodate your situation. Depending on the pick up location, it may be possible to save your box until a later time. That said, we do not guarantee that we will hold your box beyond the designated pick-up time. Please consider the pick-up times firm.

The CSA boxes change each week and all boxes are packed with ~8 items (but anywhere from 7-10 in a given week) based on seasonal availability and quality. While customers do not pick the individual items, we plan the boxes to include a variety of different types of produce, with the goal of including items that complement each other well and work with a wide variety of recipes. Examples of what customers can expect include: fresh berries, lettuce or salad mix, sugar snap peas, zucchini, onions, garlic, green beans, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, kale, chard, collards, radicchio, winter squash, fennel, broccoli, and fresh herbs (cilantro, parsley, dill, basil, etc.) The concept behind Community Support Agriculture is to both provide customers with high quality, local produce and also to provide local farmers with a reliable market to plan their season around. We harvest produce when it is at its best! You can expect to receive a weekly e-newsletter with the contents of each box listed. If you’d like to see examples of previous box contents, check out our Instagram account, @vivafarms.