Community Food Co-op

Voted Bellingham's best grocery store. Full-service deli, hot bar, salad bar featuring organic, local, and natural foods. Everyone can shop, anyone can join. Co+op, stronger together.

Welcome! Everyone can shop the Community Food Co-op!
360-734-8158|
  • menu bar three linesMENU
    • Shop Online
    • Hours & Locations
      • Community Food Co-op, Downtown Store, 1220 North Forest Street at Holly StreetDowntown Store
        1220 North Forest Street at Holly Street
        Bellingham, Washington
        7 am - 9 pm
        360-734-8158
      • Cordata Co-Op exteriorCordata Store
        315 Westerly Road at Cordata Parkway
        Bellingham, Washington
        7 am - 9 pm
        360-734-8158
    • In Our Stores
      • Celebrating Our Co-op’s 50th Anniversary
      • Community Rooms
      • Customer Input
      • How to Shop
      • Dirty Dozen / Clean 15
      • Service Desk
      • What’s on Sale?
      • Contact Us
    • Departments
      • Bakery
      • Bulk
      • The Co-op Bakery Cafe
      • Dairy & Refrigerated
      • Deli & Deli To Go
      • Floral & Garden
      • Grocery
      • Meat & Seafood
      • Mercantile
      • Produce
      • Specialty Cheese
      • Wellness
      • Wine, Beer, & Spirits
    • About Us
      • Awards
      • Co-op Blog
      • Magazine & E-news
      • Our History
      • Strategic Plan
      • Sustainability at the Co-op
      • Vision, Mission, and Values
      • Contact Us
    • Community Giving
      • Community Shopping Days
      • Donations & Sponsorships
      • Donate at our Registers
      • Farm Fund
      • The Real Food Show
    • Join Us
      • Become a Co-op Member • Join Today!
      • Board of Directors
      • Employment
      • Local Business Partners
      • Sell to the Co-op
    • Recipes
      • Recipes
      • Cooking Videos
  • What’s on Sale?
  • Bakery Online Orders
  • Shop Online
  • Careers
  • Join Today!
  • Cooking Classes
  • Hours and Locations
You are here: Home / Archives for community rooms

In Support of Our Local Community

by Adrienne Renz, Outreach Department

the real food show set with frank and beans

Frank and Beans—the colorful characters of The Real Food Show—are played by Jason Quick and Della Plaster (also a co-writer) of the Bellingham Circus Guild. The show utilizes comedy, juggling, and other circus skills to inspire positive change in the attitudes and behavior of elementary school kids.

In alignment with the seventh co-operative principle—Concern for the Community—the Co-op makes community giving part of its annual budget. But when preparing to write about the Co-op’s community giving it was not as easy as pulling up a spreadsheet and writing down a line total, because the intention of Concern for the Community is woven into many of our projects.

Thank you for joining us in supporting local farms, nonprofits, arts, music, and community organizations.

In our recent strategic planning process we clearly heard from you, our community, that local food system development, healthy food access, and community engagement are core issues you would like your Co-op to take action on. With this in mind, I carefully consider each request and opportunity to support our community to ensure we are responsibly stewarding funds to meet these goals.

A few projects that exemplify this are the Farm Fund, The Real Food Show, and Community Shopping Days.

The Farm Fund recently distributed $25,000 in Next Step grants to six farms. The Next Step Project is an innovative new venture of the Community Food Co-op Farm Fund, pairing grants with low-interest loans to support local farmers in expanding their farms to serve the wholesale market. The Next Step Project is designed to help farms reach a financially sustainable scale, and to increase the quantity of organic and sustainably grown food in Whatcom County.

The Real Food Show is entering its third year and offering 10 free shows a year to Whatcom County elementary schools. The shows are a hit and “Frank & Beans” have begun visiting elementary schools in other co-op towns to share the fun of eating real food to fuel a healthy body.

The Member Affairs Committee (MAC), which any Co-op member can join, awards 12 Community Shopping Days annually. July 1 marks the release of our Community Shopping Day applications for 2017 awards. If you know of a worthy organization, encourage them to visit the Co-op website and consider applying to be a CSD recipient.

MAC takes this grant funding selection seriously and reviews, discusses, and votes on each applicant to ensure that we have new organizations represented across diverse areas of our community every year. Applications are due by September 1.

In addition to giving back $103,000 in donations, grants, and sponsorships, the Co-op also offers member-owner use of the community rooms at both of our stores, by donation, for a wide variety of purposes too numerous to detail. The rooms totaled approximately 1,837 hours of community use in 2015.

And what about all of you? In 2015, Co-op member-owners and shoppers not only chose to shop at the Co-op knowing that your purchases benefit the community, but you also generously donated more than $20,261 at the register in support of your community.

Thank you for joining us in supporting local farms, nonprofits, arts, music, and community organizations.

Choosing to spend your valuable food dollars at the Co-op is what makes all of this possible.

Thank you for fostering the Concern for Community principle that is a foundation of our Co-op business and a vibrant and strong piece of the Community Food Co-op.

Sean Humphrey House adult family care home

“I want to thank you for the donation from the CSD partnership! We are thrilled to have been selected to participate this year. It provides such great exposure for Sean Humphrey House. Your kindness means so much to all of us. Every bit of support we receive has a positive impact on the daily lives of our residents. Many thanks again from the residents, volunteer, Board of Directors and staff at SHH. Your thoughtfulness greatly adds to our residents’ lives.”

–Jeanette Campagna, Sean Humphrey House Program Coordinator.

Tweet

SUSTAINABILITY| THE CO-OP DIFFERENCE arts| community| community rooms| community shopping days| donations| Farm Fund| farms| local| mac| music| next step grant| next step project| nonprofits| stewardship| support| the real food show

Categories

  • BAKERY
  • BULK
  • DELI & CATERING
  • EQUITY, DIVERSITY, & INCLUSION
  • FARM FUND
  • FLORAL & GARDEN
  • GROCERY
  • HOLIDAY
  • HOT OFF THE PRESS
  • LOCAL
  • MEAT & SEAFOOD
  • NUTRITION
  • PRODUCE
  • RECIPES
  • SALES
  • SPECIALITY DIET
  • SPECIALTY CHEESE
  • SUSTAINABILITY
  • THE CO-OP DIFFERENCE
  • UNCATEGORIZED
  • WELLNESS
  • WINE, BEER, & SPIRITS

Shop in Bulk and Save

Shopping in bulk is a great way to reduce the carbon-footprint (and the cost) of your grocery haul, but your first foray into the bulk section can be intimidating. We want everyone to feel comfortable and capable in all parts of our store, so we've developed a handy guide to [...]

Women of the Cooperative Movement

Many medicinal herbs are easy to grow and do not require a lot of space to produce a decent harvest. Additionally, many common “weeds” have medicinal properties.

July crops are shown blooming at Uprising Organics.

Is Your Garden Ready for Spring?

It may seem chilly in the Pacific Northwest but spring starts next month. Time to prepare your garden! Luckily, the Community Food Co-op has your essential gardening tips and tricks to get you ready. Getting Ready for Spring Step 1: Clean your annual flower beds and vegetable beds. This means [...]

enews-sign-up-image

get connected and save - click here to sign up for our e-news

DOWNTOWN STORE & DELI • map • 360-734-8158 • 7 am – 9 pm
meat and deli counter: 7 am – 7 pm
made-to-order counter: 7 am – 6 pm
salad/hot bar: 7 am – 6 pm

CORDATA STORE & DELI • map • 360-734-8158 • 7 am – 9 pm
meat and deli counter: 7 am – 7 pm
made-to-order counter: 7 am – 6 pm
salad/hot bar: 7 am – 7 pm

Facebook Instagram Twitter TikTok

Machine Readable Files

Copyright © 2023 Community Food Co-op