CHEYENNE - Every eight weeks, a semi-trailer loaded with organic goods rolls into a church parking lot in Cheyenne at the cheery hour of 7 a.m.

As it rolls to a halt, members of the Whole Food Buying Club move into action, sorting the food into piles. Then other waiting members load up their stash and soon are gone.

Founded around 1981, the club enables members to get good prices on organic, vegetarian, kosher and hard-to-find foods, many of which aren't otherwise available without a drive to Fort Collins, Colo.

The club is not affiliated with Whole Foods Market, a grocery store chain.

Six times a year, the club of about 20 members gathers to place orders from a thick, newsprint catalog produced by United Natural Foods filled with everything from organic navy beans to vegan dental floss.

Club members also can buy locally grown hormone-free grain-fed beef and locally-grown seasonal produce through separate suppliers.

For the privilege of ordering in bulk and at discount from a huge selection, getting a copy of the catalog and having the food delivered to Cheyenne, members pay a $25 annual fee.

"This kind of group is not for everyone," said Barb Gorges, the group's coordinator. "You have to plan ahead for a lot of this stuff, and a lot of people don't do their shopping that way."

But the group offers its own unique advantages, she said.

"Not only do we save money, we have a group of people who are familiar with these kinds of food. If someone says, 'Gosh what is spelt anyway?,' odds are some people are there who have tried this ... We even share recipes now and then. It's not just a way to buy your groceries by bulk - it's also a way to learn more about food."

Kathy MacDonald is a Seventh-day Adventist who began ordering 25 years ago to get the vegetarian and vegan foods she wanted to feed her family that were completely unavailable in Cheyenne.

Now she buys lots of tofu, organic flour, fruit, nuts, vegetables, seeds, spices and vegetarian meat substitutes through the club.

She said she likes that she's never had any trouble finding the food she wants, she said.

"It may not be the exact brand that I wanted," she said, "but the food buying club has always had a wide variety, so it's made cooking and shopping healthfully for my family easy."

Diane Egge joined 14 years ago to get access to organic food, which she said she thinks is healthier and better for the environment.

She usually orders grains, flours, nutritional supplements, teas and canned goods.

To help her keep track of what she needs, she keeps a list she adds to between orders; on the list right now are brown rice, oatmeal and raisins.

She's also the group's "spice girl." She buys organic spices in bulk, she said, and sells them by the ounce to other members.

Member Melanie Bosselman, the group's order specialist, was part of another Cheyenne buying club that had dwindled to two members two years ago when she heard of the Whole Food Buying Club. She soon switched.

Bosselman's daughter is allergic to milk, eggs, nuts and fish, she said. Avoiding nuts and fish generally isn't a big problem, but many popular products contain milk and eggs. Finding pancake mix made without eggs, she said, or rice milk can be a real challenge without a trip to Colorado.

"I have to buy products that are not real available at the grocery store," she said, "and ... we try and buy organic products as often as possible, and those are not plentiful here yet."

When she orders, she said, she chooses lots of whole grains, rice and soy milk, and frozen organic fruits and vegetables. She usually spends between $300 and $500. But many members may only order about $50 worth of food per meeting, she said.

Bosselman estimates she saves about 20 percent on organic groceries by ordering through the club. But she still visits the local grocery stores for produce and other perishable goods in between visits by the truck.

Because members typically order by the case, at ordering meetings they often discuss what they'll be buying and see if anyone else would be willing to split a case, she said. Ordering as a group also offers the chance to try new foods, she said.

"Other people in the co-op will try new things I've never tried, so I get to try one or two items out of their case, and we've found some neat foods we'd never have tried otherwise," she said.

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