Adamantly in Favor of Food Co-Op Shopping

By Amy Lilly

November can be hard on folks just coming off the local-food high of weekly farmers' markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm shares. Fortunately, there are 14 co-operative grocery stores around the state to pick up that post-harvest slack, offering winter local and organic fixes to the "ethicureans" among us - so-named by one blog, whose motto is "Chew the right thing."

But what about those of us who are in the habit of swinging by a Price Chopper's or a Hannaford's. Sometimes the argument that shopping at co-ops keeps Vermont's farms in business is not enough when a party-platter at Costco's costs less than either the individual ingredients or the labor power it took to put it together. As the women - and the majority are women - who run Vermont's co-ops are happy to explain, there are myriad reasons why so many customers prefer to do their weekly grocery run at a co-op. Though ethical eating choices remain co-operatives' main focus, here are seven more reasons to patronize the Keepers of the Local (Cooking) Flame.

Community togetherness. Grocery co-ops, like all co-ops, are owned and operated by members of the community, rather than being "corporations owned by a CEO who lives somewhere else," as Melissa Bridges at the St. Johnsbury Community Food Co-op, a.k.a. Kingdom County Market, puts it. Co-ops uphold seven principles enumerated by the century-old International Cooperative Alliance in Manchester, England; the seventh, "Concern for Community," refers to sustainable development practices which Vermont's food co-ops take far beyond support of local farmers.

Bridges, the produce manager who also does education and community outreach at the Kingdom County Market, brings in local practitioners of alternative medicine to talk to the community each month; October's program featured a midwife talking about doulas. Bridges also brings her love of gardening to her job: she and co-op members began a community garden at the St. Johnsbury Elementary School and worked with teachers to incorporate lessons about healthy food. "Children and obesity is a big issue these days," says the impassioned Bridges. "Now, for the first time in over 50 years, children are not expected to live as long as their parents - because of the food they're eating." Next on her project list: a community garden at a downtown location.

The Brattleboro Co-op, says marketing manager B.J. Davis, employs two elementary school teachers who spend 45 hours a week teaching nutrition at dozens of area schools and day care centers. The co-op also sponsors a "Cooking for Life" program (a joint project of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger and the University of Vermont) for, Davis estimates, 40 low-income families a year; each receives a $10 gift certificate to spend on healthy food at the co-op after completing the healthy-cooking lessons.

These are only a few examples; as Davis puts it, "We spend so much time doing things that aren't directly related to our bottom line."

Human spaces. Shopping in airplane hangar-sized grocery stores can be time-consuming, and treading those long aisles makes for a mind-numbing experience. "We're in a lovely old building with the classic squeaky floors," offers Wendy Judge, general manager of the six-year-old South Royalton Market. "We're a thriving community meeting place. We kind of replace the general store with the chessboard by the stove," she adds - characterizing the space of most of Vermont's smaller co-ops. Sharon Mueller, the produce manager at the Upper Valley Food Co-op in White River Junction, says customers tell her they find the space "cozy, user-friendly, and not overwhelming with just straight aisles up and down," adding that the old building was once a carriage shed.

Got health? While corporate-owned grocery stores often provide a staggering number of options, not all of which are healthy, co-ops provide a tailored shopping experience. The products have already been winnowed down to the local, the organic, and the products of companies that honor sustainable practices such as fair trade. "I feel confident buying anything that we sell here," says produce manager Karin Mott at the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op. "We try hard to make that decision for our customers." As Springfield Food Co-op's general manager, Cindy Phillips, contends, "You're going to pay for your health one way or another, and you can either pay for good food now or pay the doctor later."

Eating healthily there, however, is no chore: shoppers can snag local beekeeper Wendell Barrows' popular honey, Black Watch Farm's local beef, and Vicky Day's preserves, raspberries, and maple black-currant syrup from "the Hingstons' farm - I mean, Cherry Hill Farm," Phillips corrects herself, thinking first of the family who produces the food. Many co-ops also offer a full spectrum of natural health products, with knowledgeable staff on hand.

Money, reconsidered. Several co-ops are keeping monthly tabs on how their price points for basic products compare to competitors', including Burlington's City Market/Onion River Co-op and Middlebury's Natural Foods Co-op. And they're finding that many items cost the same or less. "Surprisingly enough, we have really good prices," asserts Mott in Middlebury. "Sometimes we're lower on produce than the supermarkets." At City Market, marketing manager Jodi Harrington points out, milk is consistently cheaper at the co-op (it is one of three co-ops to offer the Monument Farms-made Co-op Milk), and tofu, eggs, and organic pastas and canned black beans are also regularly less than at three area supermarkets.

Some co-ops, like Burlington's and South Royalton's, carry a mix of conventional and local or organic foods, making it possible to shop at costs comparable to supermarkets'. Burlington agreed to carry 30 percent conventional foods in return for leasing their downtown location from the City. In South Royalton's case, says general manager Judge, the mix is specified in their mission statement because "we're the only shopping gig in town [the nearest non-co-op grocery is the Shaw's in Randolph], so we're trying not to alienate anyone." Natural foods-only co-ops like the Kingdom County Market in St. Johnsbury generally have higher price points but, as Bridges points out, "what you're paying here is what food really costs [to produce]. We've really forgotten that."

Davis at the Brattleboro Co-op suggests that families whose main concern is money buy in bulk-brown rice, beans, pastas, and spices are cheaper this way than at supermarkets-and buy in-season vegetables, like carrots, potatoes, and onions. "Focus on the basics; I did it for many years when my children were growing up," she avers. Most co-ops have a bulk buying program, and nearly all offer a significant food discount to members willing to work a few hours a week.

Some art with that bagel? Several co-ops host art showings to feed the eye while shoppers buy for the stomach. The second floor of the Adamant Co-op, Vermont's oldest and smallest, serves as the studio of artist Janet MacLeod, co-president of the co-op board, and as a space for community art workshops. The South Royalton Market reserves a space on their deli walls for art by community and school groups, like the Brownies, rather than individual artists, says Judge. Davis describes a May-to-October gallery walk set up along the parking lot of the Brattleboro Co-op, featuring art by members, shoppers, and staff. Burlington City Market's colorful signs, originally hand-lettered by former Burlington artist Hannah Morris, proved so popular that graphic artist Martha Hull helped translate them into a computer font that the co-op now owns the rights to. The City Market also has monthly artist shows for co-op members in their deli gallery, and most of the artists shown have made sales from their shows, says Harrington.

Eat 'n' shop. The thought of grocery shopping after a long day at work and cooking dinner by a reasonable hour the same night is often too much to handle. Luckily, most of Vermont's co-ops have a healthy, tasty food bar with both hot and cold selections right in the store, and a scattering of tables to eat at, often in a community-bulletin-adorned corner. South Royalton Market, on one end of the scale, has a small deli-café for lunch; Brattleboro Food Co-op has a 40-seat, three-meal café lined with windows with a view of Wantastiquet Mountain. White River Junction-area localvores can eat on the run at the Upper Valley Food Co-op's Sweet Lilac Deli, which offers one of every item (soup, salad, baked goods, etc.) made from only local ingredients. Shoppers who have faced those grocery aisles with a grumbling stomach will find it much saner to eat a nourishing, instantly available meal first, especially one that is reasonably priced and without service charges.

Who knew? Some aspects of Vermont's co-ops make shopping at a supermarket nothing less than boring by comparison. Adamant's co-op, for example, hosts the Black Fly Festival every spring. Pies and children's faces alike are decorated with the likeness of that otherwise under-celebrated pest. The five workers at St. Johnsbury, a small co-op that serves a "huge rural area," says Bridges, know most of their customers by name. "We'll send a card to people who have had a baby or lost a family member. We're small enough to really know who people are," Bridges says. Shoppers at Upper Valley can sign out books on everything from healthy cooking to sustainable building at the co-op's lending library. "No, no late fees," promises produce manager Sharon Mueller. The White River Junction co-op also hosts a customer-appreciation party for their shoppers every First Friday from 4 to 6 p.m., with live music, snacks, and a five percent store-wide discount. And-who knew?-the National Co-op Directory, the most comprehensive publication of its kind, comes out of South Royalton, Vermont. If anyone should know their co-ops, Vermonters should.

Associate Editor Amy Lilly lives in Burlington.