Our History
Locally grown & community owned since 2005
Like many consumer food coops in the United States today,
The Great Basin Community Food Co-op began when a few people got together to create a business that would meet a mutual need: to increase community access to affordable, sustainable, local, and wholesome food that enriches the health of the Northern Nevada’s environment and economy.
In 2005, the GBCFC began as a buyers’ club in the kitchen of the Sallaberry sisters.
We started by piggybacking onto the natural food orders of the Pneumatic Diner and using the garage of Black Hole Body Piercing as our weekly pick up location. The buyers’ club was founded in tandem with The Great Basin Basket, Reno’s first urban CSA that coordinated several regional farmers’ produce into one weekly basket subscription for Northern Nevada households.
Both the buyers’ club and the Great Basin Basket grew quickly.
With 100% volunteer efforts and the $814 we had saved from charging a 15% mark-up on the buyers club orders, we opened a small store-front at Sound & Fury Records, located at 271 Wonder Street. That store-front operated for over three years on solely member-owner worker labor (volunteer). It was there that we became formally incorporated in the state of Nevada and we bought all of our initial fridges and freezer. One of them is still in use to this day (9/25/2021) at our Court St. location, can you guess which one?
Only two years into our time on Wonder St., it became clear that we needed to move.
We did not have any dedicated parking spaces and we did not have the proper plumbing and electrical to put us up to code so that we could be open to the public. In the spring of 2009, we moved all of our goods over to 542 ½ Plumas St. It was there that we grew to $1 million dollars in annual gross sales and nearly 2,000 active members! With only 800 sq feet of retail, we were having a hard time stocking all of the products that our member-owners requested. Within a year and a half, we knew that it was time (again) to find a new home.
In 2011 we carried out a member driven fundraising campaign
We raised $719,902* in member loans, the capital necessary to move into a new space to better meet the needs of our member-owners. On February 11, 2012 we opened our doors at 240 Court St. in Downtown Reno. *this was the cumulative amount of member loans (2011-2017) provided to our co-op by our member-owners.
2011 was also the year that we began our launch of Northern Nevada’s first mini food hub, DROPP - Distributors of Regional and Organic Produce & Products
DROPP originally opened as a department of the co-op (in our basement) and quickly outgrew that space. In 2017 DROPP opened its doors at it Sparks, NV warehouse location. With a small yet passionate team and one large refrigerated truck, DROPP began receiving all of the local farmer and rancher products (that the co-op retail store used to) and they redistributed those products around town to restaurants, schools, festivals, events and our very own food co-op in downtown Reno.
Since GBCFC’s big move to the retail space at 240 Court St in 2011, we have focused on developing our store so that it is of best use for our member-owners.
For years we received a lot of member and customer feedback that we should open a cafe where folks could grab made to order goods prepared with local and organic ingredients. In 2018 we opened the Foodshed Cafe upstairs at the co-op - we offered a full menu of made to order goods, specialty coffee drinks and public seating.
In 2019, we hosted a membership equity drive to raise money for an organic salad bar for the Foodshed Cafe.
We were successful with raising the funds and the salad bar purchase was made. Our grand opening was set for the third week in March of 2020, the exact same week that the COVID-19 business shut-downs began. The Foodshed Cafe has been closed ever since. In the spring of 2020 we began a remodeling project for the upstairs space that will include a brand new Foodshed Cafe along with an artisanal coffee bar and a few other surprises coming in 2022!
Thanks to the support of our membership and the community of Reno, we currently have nearly 6,000 active member-owners!
Despite the 2020 pandemic shut-downs, which forced us to close both our Cafe (temporarily) and DROPP (permanently), GBCFC achieved $4.9 million in annual sales that year. As of 9/30/2021 we will write the last check towards repayment of the debt that we acquired moving into our Court St. location.
Great Basin Community Food Co-op’s 10 Year Birthday
