Sisters' Camelot

Much of the produce given away is moldy and unusable. They need refrigeration or at least air conditioning in their transportation. I no longer stand in line for moldy produce packed in paper bags in such a way that it spills over into bread, etc. (very stale) and gets mold and liquid into other items. They don’t start when they say and older people like my mom get exhausted standing in the sun waiting. They ask if you want more avocados (the ones we got twice were 90 percent so bad they were disgusting, black and moldy), more melons(so soft they were slimy and tasteless) and urge people to give this inedible stuff to their friends.
Some if the volunteers are very nice and helpful. Some are abrupt and actually pushy and mean. They try not to let you know in advance where they will be so you cant get dependent on them, but why make life harder for people who are struggling anyway so they can’t coordinate in advance someone to meet the kids at their bus stop while they are picking up some food. The volunteers say put the food in a dehydrator or freezer so it will keep, but we can’t afford that. If we could we’d buy really fresh food, not food that was fresh last week.
It’s just not worth it.

Wonderful organization. 100% volunteer-run serving vulnerable populations with fresh organic food.

They just pick up and give out organic food before it just gets tossed. Grass-roots organization that simply wants to share healthy produce!

Unfortunately, the first I have heard of this non-profit organization was when a volunteer came to my house soliciting for donations and the transaction was less than pleasant to say the least. As it started off positive and the lady was pleasant as she showed me pictures and told me the good they were doing in the community. As I was in my yard and did not have cash on me, I was honestly interested in finding out more as I had never heard of Sisters' Camelot and wanted to learn how I could possibly support them with funds. Well I asked her if she had a brochure and she explained the cost/value of handing out flyers. Made sense, I thought, I totally understood the logic. However, I live in a home in uptown that gets a lot of pedestrian traffic and come Spring, I literally have people come to my door at least twice a week fundraising. I did make the mistake in mentioning that I wanted to just know that this is reputable by looking at a website... perhaps? She then walked away upset and said that she was going to ask some of my neighbors who cared??? And, I probably needed the money more to fix my ass-broken yard?"" What!!! Let's just say it went downhill from there. I'm sure your organization does wonderful work. However, I think that this woman who is currently representing your company by fundraising is a poor representation and I would seriously rethink having her fundraising by herself.... or better yet.. fund her some anger management courses. On the bright side, I sure do know about your organization now...

This organization has given free organic food to the Minneapolis area for over 19 years. Working primarily with a volunteer staff, all of the cultures of Minneapolis come through the
bus on a regular basis. This organization no longer focuses on canvasing. Unlike other non profits in the area whose main focus is on profit and status. This organization has given millions of pounds of free organic food to the poorest in the Twin Cities.

Please, avoid giving to this organization at all costs. When their fundraising staff formed a union in the Spring of 2013 Sisters Camelot's managing collective responded by refusing to negotiate, and then firing a worker in retaliation. They later engaged the services of a right-wing union busting lawyer.

the anti-union review here perpetuating baseless lies about one of the union members can be cleared up pretty well by watching this video from the union's public forum on march 26

video from sunday's open house. right at about 30 minutes into it all the allegations against me are clearly explained and cleared up:
http://bambuser.com/v/3467819

Hey - I saw the review below and felt a need to post. The review below is uninformed, at best, and misleading at worst. The "union" formed by the canvassers - who are independent contractors, by the way, and can't be "hired", "fired", or unionize under current federal and state law - is headed by a deadbeat dad in the community with a chip on his shoulder against the organization from past interpersonal conflicts. I know his 5 year old son's mom personally and well, and I am well aware that a main reason he was interested in rejoining Sisters Camelot's canvas crew was to be able to *continue* to evade paying a dime of child support for his son due to their independent contractor status, versus facing inevitable wage garnishment as an employee elsewhere. As well, the "union" chose to strike within an hour of serving their largely unreasonable and untutored "demands" - which they served first, never with an intent to negotiate in good faith. Bad faith has been exercised on their part throughout, examples abound if requested.

Sisters' Camelot is a group of well-meaning, hard-working, doing-their-damndest folks who are presently being hit with either a massively immature and remarkably untutored wave of infighting and smear campaigning in the form of an a-legal "strike", or a well-executed effort by a resentful and egotistical man to try to cause this effective, important, community-strengthening organization to seemingly self-destruct. Neither of these is a reason I would stop donating - in fact, I am more interested in contributing to their cause than I ever have been before.

Don't get me wrong. Sisters' Camelot does wonderful work - distributing free organic food in impoverished neighborhoods in Minneapolis. You should consider them supporting, just not right now (now being March of 2013).

Why not now, you ask? Sisters' Camelot hires door to door canvassers to raise money for their organization. For reasons to detailed to go into here, those canvassers have formed a union. Sisters' Camelot's response was, initially, to refused to negotiate and then to fire one of their canvassers for organizing a union.

Any donations to Sisters' Camelot right now is a conscious decision to be involved in union busting. Please, if you want to support their work contact them and let them know that you'll support their organization once they rehire the fired canvassers and negotiate with the union.

Note that below I state that I will definitely donate to this organization again. That is true - AFTER the strike is over.