The CoCo Market was conceptualised with two things in mind, impact and availability. When we first began this journey in 2017, the concept of creating a sustainable and organic community market arose from purely selfish needs. We had chosen to live our lives more responsibly but found that the decision was not an easy one. Logically, if we were finding it hard to source day-to-day needs there must be more like us. Hence, the market was born.
Looking back over the past two years, we have learnt so much and still have much to learn. The market taught us the pulse of the consumer, connected us with wonderful people, helped us network with so many different and responsible entrepreneurs, taught us to respect our farmers even more and most importantly it helped us set up The COnscious COmmunity. The first of its kind in Pune.
For us, it has been of utmost importance to ensure that the market represents products that are organic, sustainable and trust worthy. We realised that for many small and local businesses, official organic certification was difficult and expensive, and yet these were the businesses that we were keen to encourage and support. We proceeded to verify the products that we represent by thorough enquiries, samples and field visits. Over the years, we have developed a robust method of individually verifying the products and producers that we support, and feel confident when we represent these products to the COnscious COmmunity.
We are happy to say that we have received feedback from patrons and vendors alike, about the changes they see in their businesses and lifestyles thanks to The CoCo Market. It is this impact that has kept us going, and continues to do so with our ongoing and upcoming activities as well.
The success of our crowdfunding campaign validates our approach, as we believe it is through cooperation and building of community that we can make change.
