LUCSA Membership Agreement

This agreement outlines our shared commitments to that relationship. Read on and feel free to contact us with any questions that may remain.

Our CSA

Local Unified Community Supported Agriculture (LUCSA, luck-sah) is a relationship between our farm, network of local farms, and other producers within Chicago — and you, of course, as our customer! Rather than simply purchasing food, our customers are members of this CSA and receive a portion of the farm’s harvest. As members, you are claiming stake in the local food system, as a guaranteed eater of local food, committing to local food producers who are in turn committed to you.

Share Customization

Members may choose to opt out of receiving bread, eggs, beverage, and mushrooms. If you choose to opt out of any of these items, you will be supplemented with additional produce. Please keep in mind that your decision will remain in place throughout the season unless we hear from you. Opt in or out as you’d like by emailing this preference to lucsa@theurbancanopy.org.

Members with food allergies or dietary restrictions can notify us and we will do our best to remove those items from your shares and substitute with another comparable item (vegetable for vegetable, beverage for beverage). Please keep in mind that human error can occur, and we cannot provide a 100% allergy-free environment.

Specific share content preferences, not associated with allergies or the above customizations, are not always able to be accommodated for. Please understand that contents will constantly be changing, so you will receive a wide variety of items throughout the season, some you love and some you love a little less. However, we will always do our best to substitute any requests to the best of our ability.

Delivery Details

Deliveries take place on Wednesday and Thursday from 10:30 AM to 6:30 PM and Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Dates of deliveries will be confirmed in your welcome email. Delivery days are dependent on the geography of our members. Because of this, you cannot select a delivery day or schedule, but will be assigned based on membership. Routes change from week to week and cannot be expected to have the same delivery time for each service.

How will I know what time to expect my delivery?: Members will be texted the day of their delivery with an estimated delivery window and the contact information for the crew member that will be delivering the share. This text will send when the driver is approximately 2 hours away from your location. This does not take into account any further delays that may impact delivery time like traffic, construction or weather. The most accurate tool available to our members is our real time tracking ETA which is displayed at the top of the member portal page on the day of your scheduled delivery. Members will also receive a confirmation once the delivery has been completed. SMS and email notification settings can be customized for each member during sign up or in their member portal. *You will not receive notifications you have not opted in to receive.

Where can I get my share delivered?: We ask that you provide a consistent drop off spot for our drivers that will work throughout the season. Most commonly, we leave shares on front porches and in foyers. We are able to accept keys so that we can leave your share behind a locked door in the lobby of your building. We are also able to leave a share at your back gate or backyard. Unless we have made an exception for you, we are not able to take elevators or go up multiple floors to deliver your share.

What if I consistently won’t be home?: We include a question in the sign up form for a consistent drop off spot. Please consider a safe and accessible spot for your share if you know you will not be home for delivery. We are flexible to accommodate your needs. We can handle anything from cooler drop-offs to lock box codes to alley/porch access to keeping a copy of a front door key. We encourage members to have a plan in place for deliveries taking place during extreme cold or extreme heat when they will not be home to accept the delivery. Providing coolers for our drivers to place produce in during the summer heat, or having space inside a doorway instead of on a porch in freezing temperatures are some examples.

Delivery day changes: Full share members are not able to reschedule deliveries if they are out of town, but we can deliver your share to a friend/neighbors house within our delivery zone. We can accommodate these requests with enough notice, even if a member is in a zone that has deliveries on a different day of the week. Half share members are able to reschedule to a week they would normally not receive a share if they are out of town during a share delivery. You can also send your share to a family or a friend. For all members, if you request to skip a delivery ahead of the cutoff time and do not wish to reschedule or reroute the delivery we will provide your account with a credit for the services .For all of these options we ask your request to be submitted no later than Monday at 12pm the week of your scheduled delivery.

What if I need to cancel my delivery after the cutoff?: We will do everything we can to make adjustments to routes and shares. However, please note that produce is purchased based on expected number of shares each week and mainly consists of perishable items. For this reason, we reserve the right to donate any last minute share cancellations at the members cost.

Day of last minute changes: You are responsible for supplying a location at your residence where you’d like us to place your share in the event nobody is able to accept the delivery. If you do not provide us with this information, and you are not responsive during delivery, it is up to the driver’s discretion to determine a safe delivery location for your box, whether that be at your doorstep, with your doorperson, or returning it to our warehouse to be picked up.

Pick-up option due to unsuccessful delivery: In the highly unlikely event that we are not able to deliver a share to you, we will have to bring that share back to our headquarters and you will have the option of picking it up from there during business hours.

Donations: If you know you will not be able to pick up the delivery or coordinate an alternative delivery, then you can let us know you’d like to donate your share to a pantry or family in need. Our donated shares currently are brought to the local Pilsen Food Pantry. We reserve the right to donate any last minute share cancellations at the members cost.

Inclement weather: In most cases, a winter storm may only affect delivery windows in a certain day, meaning an 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. window may be pushed to 2:30 p.m.-4 p.m. However, some weather may force Urban Canopy to close for an entire day. This can include snowy/unsafe driving conditions or extreme cold. You can expect communication from us through email if we anticipate rescheduling any of our routes into a later day of the week. Decisions will be made by 7 a.m. regarding a shift in the day of delivery. Additionally, it is your responsibility to keep your drop off spot snow and ice-free. If your delivery driver does not feel safe getting to your delivery spot because it has not been plowed and salted, it is up to their discretion to determine a safe delivery spot.

Payment Details

LUCSA members are billed on a 4-week cycle. This may be for either 2 or 4 shares. New members account will be put in “Trialing” status until the first delivery and payment date. PLEASE NOTE: This is not a free trial period as you will not receive any deliveries during this time, but the account status that will then update to “Active” once the first delivery is completed. First payment outside of any sponsorships purchased at signup will be scheduled the same day as your first delivery. Please see the current LUCSA page for a more detailed breakdown on payment.

In the past, LUCSA has offered pay up front or pay as you go options due to regimented seasons throughout the year. As of Summer 2024, this is no longer the case.

Subscription updates: Email us at lucsa@theurbancanopy.org if you would like to change your LUCSA delivery frequency or update your current meat share subscription, add a new plan or remove an existing one.

Cancelation: When you sign up for our service, you are committing to a 4-week cycle. To remove yourself from the following billing cycle, submit a help ticket using your member portal or email us at lucsa@theurbancanopy.org. Otherwise, your membership will automatically renew indefinitely.

Refunds: We do not guarantee refunds, but will always review the situation and offer an accommodation that we consider fair for the situations. We are always happy to work to find solutions that feel fair for all parties involved, and have been happy to issue refunds in the past when necessary.

Contact Information

Contact Us
lucsa@theurbancanopy.org

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