COOP and Food HUB
What Is A Food Co-Op?
Essentially, a food co-op is a grocery store owned by the local community. It supplies food from farmers in the region, and ownership is managed by a membership system. This ensures that your community is supplied with the healthiest, freshest food available and supports local farmers.
Anyone can shop at a food co-op. But when you become a member-owner, you get added perks: discounts, special offers, and even a share of the profits. Additionally, members actually get a say in what services are provided, and how their products are distributed.
Powell’s Co-Op
Powell is taking steps to create its own local food cooperatives. By creating a co-op, this would allow farmers to be their own producers and distributors. The co-op would pick up the products, aggregate and process it in the facility, and have it ready for direct sale.
Additionally, creating a co-op can help farmers connect more directly with even more consumers. For the Powell and Park County area, this means connecting with wholesale consumers such as schools, restaurants, hotels, and more.
Farm to School Programs
Annually, there are around 6.1 million lunches served in Wyoming. Within Park County, there are around 1,900 – 1,100 in Powell and around 800 for Cody. This means schools are the most reliable market for farmers to sell their products. By supporting local farm to school programs, farmers would have direct access to the largest consumer base in the local area.
The food hub acts as the middleman between farmers and schools. All farmers would need to do is have enough food ready. The co-op would pick it up and process it. Then schools would pick the product up to serve to their students.
This is a win-win situation for everyone. Farmers would have access to reliable customers, and schools will be able to educate and provide their students with healthier food options.
Get involved
To hear more about what the hard workers in our community are doing to support you and local businesses, check out these blog posts below.
Consider supporting the co-op’s creation and help build a better local food system. Every
donation helps our vision of building a healthier community and creating a stable profit for our hardworking farmers.
80% of donations go directly to the campaign, and 20% to administrative costs.