At the Co-op Food Stores and Service Centers, we are committed to uplifting our community’s values including: Local, Employee, Community, and Environment. Our work on the recently released New Hampshire Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan—a roadmap aimed at co-creating and strengthening New Hampshire’s food system—marks the beginning of an exciting and ambitious collaborative process across the state. As the lead author of one of 27 briefs, spanning products, markets, and issues, I am excited to begin with work that highlights the many benefits and advantages to cooperative enterprises and cooperative food stores specifically.
This brief recognizes that co-ops are more than just places to shop—co-ops are neighborhood anchors and activity hubs that connect local growers and producers of all scales with their communities.
In rural towns and urban centers alike, co-ops offer outsized benefits to the local food system and in extension bridge their shoppers to fresh, local food, support small-scale producers, and hold lasting commitments within their community. In N.H., while just 6.3% of total gross food sales in grocery represent N.H. and local-grown food, (1) the same category is a ballooning 23.4% of N.H. co-ops’ total gross food sales, (2) underscoring the impact and effective practices across cooperatives.
At our cooperative, our food stores live many of the values this plan lifts up: community accountability, truly local sourcing and processes, and linking values-oriented products and producers with shoppers. The success and ability for our co-op to pursue impact in these areas is a direct result and testament to our membership and their collective hopes and values.
We share this brief to serve as a tool to inform action and illuminate opportunities to build stronger partnerships across the food system.
Interested in learning more about our sourcing practices? Please send queries to us here. We strive to balance our actions to both meet our communities current needs while also leading towards a better and brighter collaborative future. The full brief and strategic plan are available at nhfoodalliance.org/plan.
Rebecca White is the Co-op’s Associate Director of Cooperative Identity.
1. Richardson, Scott. Harlow, Annie. Cardwell, Nicole. Porter, Katelyn. New Hampshire Local Food Count 2022. New England Feeding New England. Nefoodsystemplanners.org. Published September 2024. https://nefoodsystemplanners.org/wp-content/uploads/New-Hampshire-Local-Food-Count_2022.pdf
2. Neighboring Food Co-op Association. New Hampshire. Nhfca.coop. Published in 2023. Accessed September 20, 2024. https://nfca.coop/nh/
