As member-owned businesses, co-ops are uniquely tied to their communities. An essential part of their identities comes from their involvement with and support of local nonprofits and charitable causes, many of which assist the most vulnerable individuals in society. And while this work goes on year-round, several co-ops make an extra effort around Thanksgiving to give back to their communities. Here are a few examples of what co-ops did for the holiday.

Littleton Food Co-op

Littleton Food Co-op in Littleton, N.H., collected “Feed the Family” donations and gave away 541 Thanksgiving sides to local food pantries, including two 24-hour pantries, five regular pantries and three local nonprofits, all putting together Thanksgiving baskets for their clients. Co-op owners and customers bought $10 donation slips to fund the initiative. “In total, we raised $5,410 for the community, so everyone can sit at the table on Thanksgiving,” said Littleton’s Community Outreach Coordinator Becky Colpitts.

The co-op received multiple pallets of non-perishable canned goods, plus pallets of onions and potatoes, all of which were sorted and packed into carts by Littleton Co-op staff and then picked up by local food pantries.

“It was incredible to see all the food coming through the co-op, and at one point our whole cafe was crammed full of food,” Colpitts said. “Everything will now be distributed to local folks looking for a little help this holiday season, and we’re so glad we could be a part of that effort.”

Berkshire Food Co-op

Like many other co-ops, Berkshire Food Co-op in Great Barrington, Mass., collected food donations to support their local food pantry throughout the month of November. However, their method of delivering items was just a little different. Items were transported via a human chain from the co-op down the sidewalk to the People’s Pantry.

“The idea behind the event was to make the donations a bigger deal visually to our community, so people would stop to think about the need for access to good food in our town,” said Devorah Sawyer, Berkshire’s marketing manager. “The Pantry’s demographic and need has increased by about four times since the pandemic started, and with the growing wage gap in our area it’s getting harder for people in need to find food, or even housing. We wanted to draw attention to this need and highlight our spot on the very long list of supporters of this organization.”

The co-op ended up having more volunteers than they expected.

“The sense of collaboration and the buzz of conversation was so warming after the event (we ended the day with hot vegan chili made by our kitchen and rolls donated by a local bakery), and it really solidified the fact that our co-op attracts values-aligned participants,” Sawyer said.

Read more about the event here.

North Coast Co-op

This year, North Coast Co-op in Eureka, Calif., did a special Seeds For Change round up the weekend leading into the holiday, from Friday to Monday, asking customers to round up at the registers for a newly formed Pacific Redwoods Missing & Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) Crisis Action Fund, matching the funds raised for a combined total of $2,878.60 from those four days.

North Coast Co-op Store Manager Emiliano Lee said the decision to donate to the Pacific Redwoods MMIP Crisis Action Fund was an obvious one.

“Homicide is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous women and girls. In some communities, Indigenous women face murder rates more than ten times the national average,” Lee said.

The fund supports regional research, public advocacy, crisis response and recovery, and lends support to overcome systemic racist legal and jurisdictional barriers rooted in the 1953 Public Law 280 enacted by Congress, affecting California, Alaska, Minnesota, Oregon and Wisconsin specifically. Over the years, this has resulted in justification of the denial of funds to tribal law enforcement and justice systems, helping to create the MMIP crises in California and elsewhere.

“I raised the proposal of allocating Seeds For Change donations to the Pacific Redwoods MMIP Crisis Action Fund for Indigenous Peoples Day, and found resounding and unanimous support from our management and director teams,” Lee said. “Since we had precedent with our Juneteenth round-ups, there weren’t any barriers to clear in order to enact this addition, and we ended up donating just under $3,000 after matching funds for the four days rounding up for the MMIP fund.”