Willy Street Co-op staff members pursue a number of methods to minimize the amount of food that goes into the landfill. Here are a few of the major ways:
- Donating to food pantries and food banks.
We partner with five local food pantries to provide them with customer donations collected at our in-store food donation shelves, along with at least $20,000 in food and cash contributions each year. - Offering 500+ products in bulk.
From spices to flour to kombucha to apples to water, customers can buy as much or as little of our bulk products as they need. If you only need a teaspoon of cumin or a cup of walnuts, you can buy just that much. Although we offer free paper and plastic containers, customers can also use their own clean, sanitized containers. - Collecting scraps for composting.
Our stores collect food scraps from both food prep areas and customer seating areas, and they’re converted to compost. Our Production Kitchen and business office collect scraps as well. - Offering smaller amounts of most produce sold by the pound.
Customers can even buy one stalk of celery, ask for a cabbage to be cut in half, or buy just one bunch of grapes. - Using produce seconds for prepared foods.
When possible, we’ll buy produce seconds (fruit and vegetables that are odd shapes or have blemishes) to use in our prepared foods. - Selling very ripe or slightly bruised produce at a steep discount.
Fruit and vegetables that have gotten lightly damaged or very ripe and that we don’t feel we can sell at full price are offered at a steep discount. - Giving it to staff members.
We put at-date prepared foods and day-old bakery products in the employee “free box” to be taken by employees if they wish. - Cheese niblet bins.
Our cheese niblet bin collects the small chunks of cheese that might otherwise be discarded and offers them to customers. It’s a great way to try a few bites of a fancy cheese without buying a full-size package!
For more information about the many other sustainable things we do, see our sustainability practices webpage.
