by Ben Becker, Newsletter Writer
If you were to ask the staff members and Owners what makes Willy Street Co-op the best grocery store in town, many of them (including yours truly) would say it is because nobody sells local products like we do. Frankly, that is an understatement. Your Co-op doesn’t just offer the best selection of locally grown and produced foods and products available outside of your neighborhood farmer’s market. Our Purchasing team also uses their creativity and passion for local food to introduce, innovate, and promote local growers and manufacturers in our kitchens and on our shelves.
Why Local Matters
Locally grown products have a number of benefits, both for the consumer and for the economy overall. When you consider the shortened supply chain involved it is easy to observe how much further your dollar goes in creating a more fair and just economic model and society.
Many of us love to purchase produce from the farmer’s market because you can interface directly with the growers, ask questions about their products and how they were grown, and get clear, straightforward answers. This experience also allows us to put a face to those who work hard to grow our food.
Food produced closer to us allows an enjoyment of the enhanced quality and freshness of local goods much greater than those grown in California or abroad.
When you compare these supply chains you can also see a clear distinction in where your money goes. When buying directly from the farmer, 100% of the purchase price goes directly to them (although they may have the unseen costs for bringing their goods to market). When you expand the supply chain across multiple states, countries, or oceans, the transaction through which you actually buy the product hides the many hands that have handled your food and taken a bite out of the purchase price. The number of middlepeople involved in buying from big chains absorbs most of the sticker price you pay, with money going to transporters, distributors, and marketing costs and only a small percent of the money making its way back to the farmer.
While these intermediary industries can benefit from the oversized economies of scale they work to create, those growing the food often see either a smaller portion of proceeds in this system, or consumers enjoy a loss of flavor in the quest for shelf stability. The centralization of both distribution and processing facilities across large supply chains also create risks to the security of our food systems. When supply chains become increasingly centralized, they become more vulnerable to interruptions. This was something many shoppers observed following the initial outbreak of the coronavirus as it became harder to find sufficient retail stock while manufacturers and distributors struggled to respond to demand. For food supply chains in particular, this sensitivity is amplified by the risk of contamination. When large meat processing facilities or salad packaging plants fall victim to foodborne illness outbreaks such as salmonella, they become ground zero for the catastrophic spread and infection impacting consumers on a massive, widespread scale. Building local food infrastructure as an alternative to the conventional big box model helps to build resiliency that is far less vulnerable to cataclysmic system changes.
Cooperative Supply Chains
By engaging in the food supply chain, cooperative grocers bring the cooperative principles to bear on the exchange between farmers and consumers. Patronizing a cooperative grocery retailer also keeps your money in the community by providing jobs for your neighbors and supporting suppliers and services from down the street to keep it running. It also means that profits are redistributed among Owners like yourself, rather than hoarded by distant corporations. While shopping in a retail setting does distribute some of the purchase price of local produce to the overhead and labor required to keep your Cooperative open, it also creates increased market access to farmers that a direct-to-market model does not. Willy Street Co-op provides opportunities for small farmers and manufacturers in the community to get their products on retail shelves, making them more accessible to shoppers who might not include a trip to the farmer’s market or CSA as part of their daily commute. It also means that local food sales drive community building through programs like Double Dollars or our Access Discount, that make fresh local food more affordable.
Eat Local Month
September in Wisconsin is the prime time to celebrate local foods and those who work hard to bring them to our table. For our state, its climate, and its food system, the month represents a unique moment for the harvest of a diverse cornucopia. This is why September has been elected as Eat Local Month at Willy Street Co-op. “We picked September because it has a broad swath of products available,” explains our Purchasing Director, Megan Minnick, “There is so much in September to look forward to and every year is always different.”
Megan sees the September bounty as inclusive of some very special and singular types of produce for local eaters to enjoy: “I like the unique products where producers have found a niche that nobody else is filling. For example the local canola oil which is unique and versatile, and I use it everyday. I love it when people find those niches and fill them and are successful.”
Seasons change during September, which can be observed not only in the cosmos above, but also from the rich earth below. Just ask Megan, “September sees a shift between summer produce to fall produce. The crops change but also you start the month thinking about watermelon and tomatoes and end the month thinking about squash.” September can also be marked on your calendar as the beginning of apple season, probably the most iconic of autumn fruits. However, if you’re not quite ready for the changing leaves and flavors, you can still enjoy some summer produce including watermelons, tomatoes, and Italian frying peppers. This is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the featured produce items you can find during Eat Local Month. During September, we carry close to two hundred local items on our shelves.
Prepared Foods
Local produce is also celebrated in our kitchens during Eat Local Month, as our prepared foods departments work to incorporate and highlight the fruits and vegetables that come into season at this time of year. August and September are prime harvest times for a number of local ingredients that create offerings sold by our deli and bakery. One such offering this time of year are Wisconsin beets. Says Prepared Foods Category Manager, Dustin Skelley of this root vegetable, “I don’t know what is is about beets grown in Wisconsin, but they are better than any grown in California.” Dustin is working with our production staff to promote a local mix of beets including chioggia beets, red beets, and golden beets mixed together, which he sees as a unique offering: “I don’t know of anyone else doing that and I think it’s cool to work with vendors to do that.”
Some of this season’s produce will serve as the centerpiece for the prepared foods of tomorrow. Our prepared foods department collaborates with our vendors to purchase Wisconsin’s own Door County cherries to be frozen and made into Door County Cherry pies. It is these kind of product ideas that our prepared foods departments take special care to make happen so that our Owners can enjoy local and seasonal foods throughout the year. “We have been working really hard to get as much local and seasonal stuff as we can into prepared foods, and I am pleased that we have been able to come up with at least a handful of products,” notes Dustin. “If I want something fun for a holiday the Willy Street Co-op has that.”
Of course, buying locally also means buying seasonally, and Owners should be ready to try something new from month-to-month. When shopping, Dustin advises that Owners “Keep an eye out for seasonality in our prepared foods, as that is something we plan to incorporate more into our program. Many products will only be available for a short time as those produce items may have a short season.” Our staff’s passion for local drives them to work hard to include the best seasonal offerings local farmers have on hand. For example, in the spring you may have noticed much of our menu included ramps, or local tomatoes grown starting in the summer and all the way through September.
Partnerships
As important as it is to provide customers with the best varieties of locally grown that we can, we also enjoy building long-term partnerships with our farmers and suppliers. Partnerships with farms such as New Traditions Farmstead are essential to keeping our kitchens running and our shelves stocked. It might go unnoticed, but all of the tempeh and tofu served in our Deli is provided by local producer Simple Soyman. Our Juice and Coffee Bars rely on local growers at Vitruvian Farms for wheatgrass, and this same supplier will provide the greens for our salad bar when they come into season. Even our wild rice is grown locally, just over the border in Minnesota.
Eat Local Month is not limited to just a few departments at the Co-op but extends throughout our store. Our Purchasing team seeks out all kinds of items that are made right here in Wisconsin or when they can, close by in Dane County. September is a great time to check out all of our local cheeses, including Cesar’s string cheese. You can also keep your grill fires burning by picking up Wisconsin Meadows beef for high quality burgers, or try the bratwurst made in-house. Even our seafood departments get in on the fun, offering Superior Fresh Salmon raised right here in Wisconsin, a local offering every bit as good as any farm-raised salmon you will find anywhere. Our General Merchandise also has plenty to offer from vendors a short drive away. Rishi tea, Bermeister ginseng, and West Organics CBD are all brands we carry to enhance your holistic well-being.
Eat Local Month is not just a great time to try something new, but to show support for the small local vendors crafting some of the best items we have to offer. Co-op staff can’t say enough about Madame Chu’s sauces and marinades. If spice and flavor are up your alley, you should also check out Ernie’s Kick Sauce and sauces from Mango Man. In addition to being very popular local brands, all three of these sauce brands were introduced to the Willy Street Co-op shelves through our Retail Ready Program.
Owners and Customers
As much as Eat Local Month allows us to focus and promote local farmers, vendors, producers, and products, it is also about our shoppers as well. Without Owners and customers investing in their local food economy, we would not be able to do the work we do here at the Willy Street Co-op. Owners may not realize just how much power and influence they have on the Co-op’s offerings, not to mention the vendors that supply them. Speaking on the reality of what it takes to maintain local options, Megan Minnick explains, “People often want to shop somewhere that supports local, but if you want us to keep carrying it and for those vendors to be successful you have to actively buy it. Sometimes that could mean paying a little more instead of opting for the non-local option, but when you buy that local product it has a big impact and even though you can't see it. You create a real connection by helping those vendors keep their products on our shelf and keeping them in business.” This connection is not just a privilege, but a responsibility as well, and without the commitment of shoppers, our farmers might miss out. Our Eat Local Month works to highlight this dependence. “In September we have about 20 different local farms we work with. They are family farms run by real people who depend on our business,” says Megan.
It’s All About You
Thinking about our local food economy in terms of Owner and shopper choices helps frame our food system in its most meaningful perspective—it's all about you! Our local economy should and must include all of us, not just growers, producers, and makers, but venues for those product vendors to put their works of love on display, and for eaters to access them. So remember this Eat Local Month that you can help make our local food system happen, not just in September, but all year round!