2018 Annual Report & Your Round Up Funds Hard At Work!
THE 2018 ANNUAL REPORT IS HERE!
Two years ago, the board set out to update the Purpose and the Ends for the co-op. We also used this time to outline the 4-year Strategic Plan. These exercises took us all on a journey of what we felt the membership would want the co-op to look like in 2021 and well beyond. How does your board go about this? The honest answer is that we took our time, and had guidance from our amazing board consultant. Each and every board member shared their input as well as your GM Amber, and her management team. I urge you all to read the purpose and ends statements on this site – you can feel the passion and energy that the co-op as a whole has been building since the start, some 14 years ago. The team feels and the board agrees that making a mark by moving the dial in giving local producers more money and getting more of their products to all of you is paramount for our region. The Food Shed Café, now a year old, serves as much Local food as it can possibly source. DROPP has a new CSA farmer basket coming out this year. It is examples like this and the continued promotion and story sharing of all the amazing people and products we have here that makes us look forward to the next 14 years.
-Mark Estee, GBCFC Board of Directors
Check our website for the full Annual Report with write-ups from our staff!
During the coldest months of the year, it can be difficult for our local egg producers to keep up with demand. So we took some time to find the next best thing. Introducing Alexandre Family Farm Pasture Raised Eggs. These eggs are not only certified organic but in transition to becoming a biodynamic producer! Located in Crescent City, Ca Alexandre Family Farm animals have access to fresh pastures year round. That means these birds get to scratch, peck, roost, run, and eat all they please. Along with being Certified Organic, they are also Non-GMO Project Verified, Pasture Promise Certified, American Humane Certified, and Top Rated by Cornucopia Institute. This farm goes above and beyond these certifications to include soil health of all their pastures by never plowing, tilling, or otherwise disturbing the land. Healthy soils mean healthy animals. We are proud to carry these eggs while our local chickens take some much-needed rest before the summer comes on.
Regional Meyer lemon gluten-free poppyseed muffins NEW from the bakery. Made with Local Organic Eggs from Palomino Valley Chicken & Egg and Meyer lemons from Citrus Norte. Find them now in the bake cases on the main floor and upstairs in the Food Shed Cafe.
Just in! Vegan, Gluten Free, Paleo & soy free queso dips from Siete! These dips are on par with the rest of Siete's "as good as if not better than what its replacing" GF & Vegan offerings. We promise, its not real cheese. Check the ingredients - cashews, coconut milk, and packed with vegetables! You don't have to be vegan to be vegan friendly. Find it in mild nacho and spicy queso blanco with the rest of our dips and salsas.
YOUR ROUND UP FUNDS HARD AT WORK!!
Your board of directors has voted to apportion all 2019 Round Up donations as well as $5,000 of 2018’s donations to Soulful Seeds, a gardening nonprofit growing in the heart of downtown Reno. These funds will help build the infrastructure for the organization as they work together with Washoe County’s NNAHMS Campus project for the homeless and the Northern Nevada HOPES tiny home project. The main intention of Soulful Seeds is to bring the community together to teach those who live with limited resources how to raise gardens and utilize what they grow for themselves and others in need. Their vision is simple: it takes a village. What Soulful Seeds is doing is a wonderful “from the ground up” extension of Round Up’s past cooking and nutrition classes. They recognize that many of our area’s low income, homeless, veteran, and senior individuals do not have access to healthy food and the knowledge of how to make use of the produce. They believe these barriers can be overcome simply by providing what most of us take for granted through hands-on farming and educational experience. Teach a man to fish, right? To learn more, check out www.soulful-seeds.com. Want to help? Send an Email to soulfulseedsnnevada@gmail.com for info on volunteering. Short on time but still want to help? Its easy to Round Up For Food Justice at the register!
Images: Dee and Earstin, Soulful Seeds founders. Some young farmers and a sample of the harvest. The downtown plot awaits spring.
Meet Our New Biodynamic Certification Icon!
Biodynamic is an inherently organic farming model focused on treating soil health, plant growth, and livestock care as equal parts of an ecologically interrelated system. This regenerative, self-regulating method was developed by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 and is considered to be the first of the organic agriculture movements. Today it remains a truly ‘beyond organic’ model dedicated to biodiversity and stewardship of the land through ancient and alternative practices. Most notable among them are the preparation of precise nutrient-rich mixtures, the use of buried cow horns, and planting/harvesting in accordance with lunar phases. Demeter USA is currently the only Biodynamic certifying agent in America. For some eye-opening reads, check out biodynamics.com or demeter-usa.org. Look for this icon in our store to help you identify products grown using this regenerative method. You'll find most in our produce department, but we also offer a selection of biodynamic wines and hopefully soon some biodynamic pastured eggs as well!
Food Shed Cafe on Grubhub
Food Shed Cafe on Ubereats
The Roots of "Love Your Farmer"
With all of the love in the air this month, we wanted to bring it back to one of the main reasons that your Food Co-op came into existence - local food system development. Best way to do that? “Love your Farmer”.....three words......three meals a day. Back in the early 2000's we learned about a little food co-op in Portland, Oregon called People's Food Co-op. We visited. We loved it. Partial Cob structure, permeable pavement with a water catchment and cycling system, edible pollinator friendly landscape, local food, organic food, creative store fixtures, collective management... we were swooning. Then we saw the three little words and found out that People's Food Co-op does a farmers market once a week. One of these fell on Valentines Day so they termed it "Love Your Farmer Day". They gave the farmers massages, took care of their booths, gave them treats, and words of appreciation. In the spirit of cooperation among co-ops Great Basin Food Co-op borrowed the phrase and thanks to the design savvy of printed it on hundreds of t-shirts, sweatshirts and stickers. Thank you People's Food Co-op, thank you Clint, and thank you to our local & regional farmers. Thank you to all the local businesses and all the co-op shoppers who support their local farms by voting with their dollars. The work that organic and regenerative sustainable farmers are doing in this world could never be summed up in a brief post, but we know that it is more valuable than most of the work on this planet. Another great way to love your farmer is to SHOP DROPP and encourage your favorite restaurants to do the same, BUY LOCAL! Pictured is Bill Mewaldt of Mewaldt Organics in Fallon, one of our longest-running local producers, out-standing in his field with the mug in question [Available at the co-op now in red and black].
Check Out Local Farm Tour Photos From Ital Farms and Others Here
EVERYONE IS WELCOME! Open every day from 730am-9pm
Our mailing address is:
240 Court St Reno, NV 89501
775.324.6133
info@greatbasinfood.coop
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