Cold-chain shipping cost is mostly the box: the insulated cooler, the gel packs, and the carrier's per-package fees. The meat inside is nearly free to add — so the fuller the box, the cheaper every pound ships. That's the whole idea: get your shipping cost per pound as low as it can possibly go. And we don't make money on shipping — you pay what the box costs to pack and send (sometimes a couple bucks extra so we never lose money on one), and anything left over goes right back into better boxes and better prices.

Yes — it's the same insulated box and weather-set transit window every FSD order uses. Nothing changes about how it ships; the only difference is more food in the box. The host's job is one sentence: everything in a freezer the day it arrives.

That's exactly how it works. Everyone joins through the box's private link, adds their own items, and pays Food Store Direct directly for their own share — food plus their weight's slice of the one shipping charge. Own receipt for everyone, and no money ever changes hands between neighbors.

Pooling works per farm — each producer packs and ships their own box. Mixing farms is fine; you'll just see one box (and one shipping charge) per farm. The deepest savings come from going deep on one farm.

You reserve your share when you join — nothing is charged that day. When the host closes the box, each person gets a secure payment link for exactly their final share, which only goes down as more people join. And a real person stands behind every box: email cameron@foodstoredirect.com and the founder answers same-day.