Before founding her non-profit Houston co-op, Rawfully Organic, 23-year-old Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram was spending $200 a week on groceries — just to feed herself.

No, she wasn't a ravenous emotional eater. She had made the decision in college to adopt a raw vegan lifestyle after years of being plagued by health problems — including hyperglycemia — that she now blames on a poor diet.

A chance encounter with a raw foodie named John Rose spurred her to embrace the raw lifestyle, and she's been on the 80/10/10 diet for more than four years. That means Carrillo-Burcaram's diet is 80 percent carbohydrates (I thought I was supposed to be avoiding those?), 10 percent protein and 10 percent fat. Basically, that's a lot of produce.

In order to help reduce her own grocery bills and provide organic local produce to others, Carrillo-Bucaram decided, along with 12 neighbors, to start a co-op. That co-op, called Rawfully Organic, has since grown to include more than 1,300 members and holds bi-weekly markets to share fresh local, organic produce from six local farms.

She didn't stop there. Carrillo-Bucaram's two-part non-profit (comprised of Rawfully Organic, a 501(c)3 non-profit providing financial support to local organic farmers, and the Rawfully Organic Co-op) does double duty to support local produce farmers.

One arm facilitates tax-deductible donations to help farmers buy the necessary equipment to grow their product, and the other arm buys the product back from them and makes it available to more than 1,300 produce-hungry Houstonians twice a week.

To find a local farmer, visit the Rawfully Organic Web site.