In the past year, we’ve increased our purchases from co-ops, keeping prices down by buying directly. Purchasing from co-ops allows us to support organizations with values similar to our own, along with the small, family farms that are often associated into co-ops. Our Equal Exchange avocados, in season from fall to spring, are a big hit, and we’ve sourced organic maple syrup from a Maple Valley Co-op in the northern Midwest.
One of our bigger co-op product lines is the dairy items we source from Cabot Creamery in Vermont: cheddars and other hard cheeses, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, sour cream, butter, and canned whipping cream. Cabot Creamery is a co-op of 1200 family dairy farms in New York and New England. All profits are paid back to the farmer-owners, who elect the co-op Board of Directors. The co-op manages four plants where its farmers’ milk is turned into other products. It also powers all its butter making with renewable energy produced from grocery store food waste using an anaerobic digester! (Read more.)
Beneath the surface of the successful business is a deep commitment to co-op development and community building. Cabot partners with co-op groups to spread the word about co-ops, particularly among young people. Cabot co-sponsored the “Co-ops for Community” Girl Scout Patch booklet, which includes activities that teach about how co-ops contribute to communities and about how to be a leader and form your own co-op. Cabot also launched the Cooperative Fund of New England’s Cooperative Capital Fund, which funds co-op development. And, Cabot helped create www.go.coop, a repository of resources on co-ops.
We’ve begun using Cabot products “behind the scenes” in our stores and at our Food House. In addition to having a quality product, this helps us buy enough from Cabot to allow direct purchasing. You’ll find Cabot cottage cheese on our salad bars and Cabot butter in the kitchen. Our Food House kitchen is shredding Cabot cheese for Grab ‘N’ Go salads and wraps, and our pastry bakers are using Cabot butter in many of their pastries. We’ll be transitioning to Cabot sliced cheese on our sandwiches. So now you can enjoy the goodness of Cabot dairy at home and throughout our store.