Giving Thanks
Dear Co-op Friends,
I want to take a moment to wish you and your loved ones a happy Thanksgiving.
I’m feeling deeply grateful to work and live in such a wonderfully caring community. Our Co-op is a pretty remarkable place. Fifty-five years is a long time for a grocery store to be around, and it speaks to the heart and dedication of our members, our staff, and our community as a whole.
When the Co-op started back in 1970, there was no Whole Foods, no Trader Joe’s, no Grocery Outlet in Bellingham. The cooperative movement helped pave the way for the entire natural foods industry. Many of the Co-op’s founding families still shop here, and now their kids, grandkids, and great grandkids shop here too. That is so cool, and it says so much about who we are and what we’ve built together (past and present).
I also want to acknowledge that Thanksgiving is a complicated holiday. It’s a disservice to ignore the colonialism experienced by and harm done to Indigenous peoples in this country. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to honor our local Indigenous communities, especially our neighbors: the Lummi, Nooksack, Samish, Sauk-Suiattle, Stillaguamish, Swinomish, Tulalip, and Upper Skagit nations and tribes. Their relationship to the land, waters, and harvest has shaped what it means to gather, share food, and take care of one another. And they have been doing this waaay before any of us were here (“for time immemorial” as some tribal land acknowledgements say).
I grew up in Detroit, where the Ojibwe Nation has a strong presence. Some years back, one of my friends who is part of that tribe shared this poem by Joy Harjo of the Mvskoke (Creek) Nation. They read it to bring intention to the holiday meal, and I carry it with me each year. Do you have a special tradition to honor our local Indigenous peoples? If so, I’d love for you to share it with us — you can reply directly to this email.
Thanksgiving is also a time to celebrate the harvest. It’s an opportunity to slow down and more deeply connect with where and how our food is grown, and it’s a time to honor the work of our local farmers, fishers, ranchers, makers, and food workers who nourish our community Every. Single. Day.
We are fortunate to live in a place where our rich soil produces some of the best-tasting fruits and vegetables, and where small family farms grow food using regenerative farming practices. This time-honored way of farming is important because it restores and protects the soil microbiome, increases biodiversity, improves water retention, and strengthens long-term resilience for both farmers and our regional food/water shed as a whole.
We have around 15 local farms growing food for the Co-op right now (even more in the summer months). This makes it easy for us to source nearly all of our Thanksgiving ingredients from within Washington (most farms are in Whatcom/Skagit). The cranberries come from Oregon, but that’s still part of our broader bioregion. I hope you’ll take the time to further explore the various local farms where we get our food.
Because that’s what it comes down to: Every time you shop at the Co-op, you help keep small farms farming. You help strengthen relationships with our regional food producers. You help sustain a community-owned business that exists not to maximize Wall Street profits, but to maximize belonging, care, and shared prosperity.
Thank you for being part of this community. Thank you for choosing to show up for local farmers, local workers, and local businesses. And thank you for supporting a Co-op that reflects what we love most about Bellingham.
Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving.
With gratitude,
Lisa Sedlar
CEO/GM