The pickup window closed twenty minutes ago. Most boxes went home with their members. But three are still sitting on the table — packed that morning with greens that were in the ground yesterday — and the people they belong to never came.
Now what?
Every CSA farmer runs into this, usually in week two or three of the first season, and almost always with something perishable. The honest answer is that there is no clean fix once the box is packed and the window is shut. But there is a right way to handle it, and — more importantly — a way to make sure it almost never gets this far. This guide is about both.
First, what most CSA agreements already say
Read through a stack of real CSA membership agreements and the same three rules show up again and again:
- A missed box is forfeited or donated. If you don't show and didn't arrange anything, the share is gone. Many farms send unclaimed boxes to a local food pantry rather than let them rot.
- Refunds are rare. The near-universal line is some version of "no refunds for missed pickups." You committed to a season; the farm already grew the food and packed the box.
- Advance notice unlocks options. Tell the farm before pickup and suddenly there's flexibility — hold it for a later pickup, send someone in your place, skip the week, double up next time, or donate it on purpose.
That last point is the whole game. The difference between a cheerful "no problem, we'll hold it" and a sad box of wilting chard is almost always when the farmer found out. Your job isn't to invent a policy for every sad box after the fact. It's to move as many of these as possible into the "advance notice" column — and to have one written rule for the rest.
The three doors: hold, donate, forfeit
When a box goes unclaimed, you're choosing between exactly three outcomes. Deciding which before the season starts — and writing it into your member agreement — means you never have to improvise with a tired brain at 6 p.m. on pack day.
| Outcome | What the member gets | What it costs you | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold | A short grace window to collect late, usually same-day at the farm or next pickup | Fridge space and a little coordination; only works for shelf-stable or well-chilled shares | A reliable member, a first offense, or a share that keeps |
| Donate | Nothing this week — but they know the food fed someone | The box (already a sunk cost once packed) | Perishable boxes, no-notice no-shows, and it doubles as community goodwill |
| Forfeit | Nothing, and no credit | Nothing extra | Repeat no-shows, or when your agreement is strict and you're holding the line |
Notice what's not in that table: a refund, or re-packing the box next week as a "make-up." Both quietly bleed you. A refund gives back money for food you already grew and labor you already spent. A make-up box doubles your pack cost for one member and throws your harvest planning off. Credit toward an add-on or a future share is the most you should ever offer, and only for members who gave notice.
Here's the path a box actually travels, from the cutoff to the money:
Decide before pack day, not during it
A good missed-pickup policy answers four questions, and you answer them once:
- What's the notice deadline? Pick a cutoff a member must act by to hold or skip — the day before pickup, or pickup morning. Before the deadline, they have options. After it, the box is packed and the rules below apply.
- Can someone else pick up for them? Almost always yes, and it's the easiest fix of all. A neighbor, a coworker, a kid — they just need to know the member's name or pickup code. Say so loudly; it prevents a lot of empty-handed members.
- What happens to a no-notice box? This is your default. For perishables, "donated to [pantry]" is the kindest and cleanest answer. Write the pantry's name in. It turns an awkward loss into a line you're proud of.
- Is there ever a credit? Decide, write it down, and apply it the same way to everyone. "Notice before the cutoff = skip or hold, no charge. No notice = box is donated, no credit." One sentence. No case-by-case.
Put all four in your member agreement and on your pickup-site signage. The farms that handle no-shows gracefully aren't more patient — they just already decided.
Let the software do the chasing
The reason missed pickups turn into a chore is that, on paper, you don't actually know a box was missed until you're staring at it, and by then it's too late to do anything but donate or toss. A self-serve till built for CSAs closes that gap in three places.
Members handle their own absences — ahead of time. On their member page they sign in without a password, see the box that's coming, and hold or skip a week themselves before your cutoff. Every absence a member files in advance is a box you never pack, a perishable you never lose, and a text message you never send. This is where most of the problem should disappear: the goal is an empty "unclaimed" table, not a graceful way to mourn it.
Pack day tells you exactly which boxes went unclaimed. When you lock the run and pack to the check-in sheet, every box that's handed over gets checked off. So when the window closes, the unclaimed boxes aren't a mystery you reconstruct from memory — they're the names still unchecked on the sheet. You know precisely who missed, which matters when a repeat no-show needs a conversation and a one-timer deserves a pass.
The money lives on the account, not in your head. Whether you're issuing a credit for a member who gave notice or holding the line on a no-show, it's recorded against that member's account — so the ledger matches the policy, and next season's renewal conversation isn't clouded by "wait, did I credit you back in June?"
For the mechanics of each money choice, see the companion guide on what hold, cancel, and credit each do to a member's balance, over on the TallyTill guides hub.
A policy you can copy
Short, plain, and the same for everyone — paste this into your agreement and adjust the names and times:
Missed pickups. If you can't make your pickup, hold or skip the week from your member page by [the evening before pickup], or send someone in your place with your name or pickup code. Boxes not collected during the pickup window, with no prior notice, are donated to [your local pantry]. We can't offer refunds or make-up boxes for missed pickups. Holds and skips arranged before the cutoff are always free.
Bottom line
A missed pickup is a policy problem wearing a perishable disguise. You can't un-pack a box, but you can decide — once, in writing — that unclaimed perishables get donated, that notice before a cutoff always earns a free hold or skip, and that a substitute is welcome anytime. Then you let the member page catch the planned absences and the pack-day check-in surface the rest, so the three boxes on the table become a rare event with an obvious next step instead of a weekly guilt trip.
If you're running your CSA on a shared spreadsheet and a group text, that's exactly the setup where missed boxes slip through. TallyTill runs the box builder, pickup sites, pack-day check-in, and member self-service on a phone or tablet you already own. The entry plan is free — create your free account and set your pickup policy before your next pack day, or see the plans first.