Three NCG member food co-ops won an “Outstanding Independent Grocery Store” accolade in the 10th iteration of Progressive Grocer magazine’s annual award. BriarPatch Food Co-op, Grass Valley, Calif.; Menomonie Market Food Co-op, Menomonie, Wis.; and Ozark Natural Foods, Fayetteville, Ark., were all recognized for being “the most creative and undaunted in overcoming the myriad difficulties presented by COVID-19.”

BriarPatch Food Co-op

During the course of the past year, BriarPatch’s community faced a number of challenges: They were concurrently battling the pandemic, wildfires and public safety power shutoffs. “You could feel how much people were worn down psychologically,” said Rebecca Torpie, BriarPatch’s marketing manager. “Our marketing team made the decision to put donations and marketing promotions money into small, but very visible, efforts to recognize the people in our town who were continuing to be out there helping us — the medical professionals, firefighters, the telephone information operators, social services and health department workers.” 

The co-op brought these frontline workers small tokens of gratitude and posted the interactions on social media. “People loved seeing these posts,” Torpie said. “That connection between shopping at BriarPatch, ownership and community support was a lightbulb that went off for a lot of people.”

The co-op showed support in other ways, as well, from the marketing team volunteering on a regular basis at an area food bank to donating funds and product to organizations that were doing critical work in the community: homeless shelters and nonprofits focused on fighting food insecurity and for social justice for BIPOC and the LGBTQ+ community.

“We know we have a voice and a lens, and we wanted to use our platform to put a spotlight on these issues as much as we possibly can right now,” Torpie said.

Menomonie Market Food Co-op

Menomonie Co-op maintained its commitment to sourcing from local producers and to supporting its community during the pandemic. 

Among the steps the co-op took to keep employees and customers safe were installing Plexiglas shields at the registers, implementing a store sanitizing program, promoting social distancing and mandating masks. Menomonie also launched e-commerce and started to offer curbside pickup, focusing on local products so the co-op could continue to support area farms during a time when local producers were facing challenges due to the closure of other businesses. 

Additionally, when Just Local Food Cooperative, located in nearby Eau Claire, Wis., faced an administrative staff shortage prior to the pandemic, Menomonie staff provided interim general management and administrative services in a show of support. 

Ozark Natural Foods

Last summer, Ozark Natural Foods moved to a newly renovated downtown location. Since then, they’ve seen a 20% increase in sales over the previous year. As a result, the co-op has been able to bring in more than 10 new local vendors, in addition to the approximately 50 area producers they already support. Since the move, Ozark’s Farmhand program has also raised more than $20,000 for projects supporting local producers, while their outreach program has generated another $20,000 for 74 organizations.

With the new location, Ozark introduced a number of services aimed at keeping staff and customers safe during the pandemic, including an indoor/outdoor patio that allows families and students to safely grab a bite to eat. Plus, the co-op is the only grocery store in town that sells pre-packaged salads. They also opened a popular new department, The Homestead, which sells plant-related offerings, such as native seedlings, in addition to animal feed and pet supplies.

“We cannot wait to see what a post-pandemic world has to offer our co-op and what we can, in return, offer to our community,” Ozark’s brand manager Emily Ann Timmons said.

Read the February issue of Progressive Grocer with all of the profiles.

Co-ops are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in new and creative ways. Each co-op is unique and there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Still, consider whether you may be able to adapt some of these ideas at your co-op. At the very least, we hope these short profiles will spark inspiration for new strategies to serve the changing needs of your owners, customers, vendors and community.