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Do you know what a produce co-op is? Here's an opportunity to find out

Athlete's Arena Irmo is hosting an event to help community members shop locally and save some money.

IRMO, S.C. — Two Saturdays a month, Heather Hardy's family and 11 other families pool together money and buy fresh produce. They split it among themselves and have fresh local groceries for two weeks.

This Saturday, Hardy will be participating in an event to teach the community how to do this themselves.

“So I got involved with this Saturday’s event by participating in a blog that Athlete’s Arena Irmo did in May," Hardy explains, "The blog kind of just went bonkers with people wanting to know how to start a co-op. So, this Saturday from 9:30-10:30 at the Athlete’s Arena Irmo in Ballentine, we’re going to have a free event that you can come to and learn how to start a co-op, where to buy local beef, honey and why you should eat and source local produce.”

Health event in Irmo, SC by Athlete's Arena and 3 others on Saturday, June 22 2019

“It’s a win-win for the family who wants to eat healthier, win-win for the community and the farmers because we’re purchasing from them and always a win for our bank accounts because its so inexpensive to purchase produce at wholesale costs like this,” Hardy says. 

Heather Kobus is a trainer at Athlete's Arena and wants Saturday's event to really bring the community together, “We want to be a voice in our community and we want to be the resource for people to come to not only for health and fitness, but we want to connect with all the other people that are like minded like us and that can help our members live a healthy life. But not just our members, our community. They may not be able to join our gym, that’s totally fine. We’re still going to be there and we’re still going to help our community live healthy and prosper and be the best that they can be.”

The event is Saturday morning from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public. 

If you have any story ideas or information on things happening around town, contact us at StreetSquad@wltx.com or tweet us using the hashtag #StreetSquad19.

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