 The Hunger Mountain Co-op is where we do the bulk of our shopping. It's my first place to shop. I get whatever I can at the co-op. I'm really proud of the fact that the co-op is where people want to come to shop. Having a co-op, having a local natural food store and a cooperative was a big part of moving here and choosing to live in Montpelier. It's as simple and foundational as walking in the doors and knowing a lot of people. I was like coming in every day. The staff was like, she's back, buying a lot of groceries. You get the personalized touch. You know the staff by name and you see your friends all the time. And that's a very different experience than walking into a big box store. My favorite part of the co-op is all the people working together on a common mission. Thousands of people between our members, our local vendors, our employees, the broader community. We are a phenomenon. It's just a really powerful thing. The co-op has changed a lot over 50 years, obviously. The germ of the idea came from rejection of the corporate food system. So right off the bat, they wanted to buy better foods as local as possible. The co-op is where we could get the kind of food we were looking for, which was kind of hard to find when it all began in the 70s. The first couple of years, we were experimenting on every level. When I first started working there, they had the produce displayed on these two-by-four racks, unrefrigerated in a just painted wood. You know, it went from wild west and funky to, within three years, a radical grocery store. We were all involved in this kind of new thing, which was the natural food. Organic is kind of a household word, but back then... It was just the beginning of people getting interested in natural food and in the environment. Now people are actually asking for organic. The co-op itself prides itself on having a very wide range of organic produce. It went from being a fringe operation to mainstream. Lots of great brands and organic food, which is how I eat and how I live my life. The co-op definitely has a commitment to whole foods, natural foods, special dietary requirement. I have a restricted diet and it's really nice to be able to go in and find foods that I can eat. The co-op has a huge impact on local food sales. And creating access for local farms and farm producers to help business growth and farm viability, which is so important for Vermont. As the co-op grew and the marketplace grew, we all grew along with it. The co-op is a huge part of this farm's success. The co-op's always been really great that pretty much anything we pitch to them, they say, great, let's give it a try. And it helps a lot of people in the popular area really know us. So when they see more of our stuff on the shelves, they buy it and it does really well. We've grown, the operations get more sophisticated, more people involved, more perspectives. I think the key is that we've changed as the community changes. We've designed the whole business so that our values of cooperation are baked into our processes. It's just a very powerful way to run a business. There's about 55,000 people that live in Washington County and our membership is 10,000 plus. It's not just a store. It's not just a food co-op. It's a community hub. The fact that we're owned by the community and are here to meet its needs and fulfill this mission is really the most inspiring part of the work. I love the co-op as a place of connection and exchange. It's almost impossible to do your grocery shopping without bumping into somebody that you know and love and getting to reconnect. I go through town and people say hello because they recognize me from the co-op. That happens still all the time. During the pandemic, we realized how dependent we were on the co-op staying open. It was a trying time, but Derek Coop is a leader in that sense, you know, really setting the standard for other businesses and how to do it right. I'm seeing the co-op do even more with the community in terms of new programs to give back to the community. Each year, the community fund gets together and the grant recipients from this year's community fund are BIPOC-owned farms in the local community. Helcome Farm and the Flying Buffalo LLC will be getting money to help expand farm production. It's one of the many ways that the co-op works to kind of address gaps in the food system and then also, you know, lift up a really strong and healthy, vibrant local economy. I think this is a really good time at the age of 50 to be thinking about what's next. I think the co-op in the future will continue to serve niche markets and help people find the food that they want to eat that nourishes them. I would love it if the co-op in the future could just keep doing what it's doing and continue to grow and support even more of, you know, the local food economy. I sincerely hope that the co-op is around for at least another 50 years and that it continues to grow in its capacity to serve the community. It's mostly important that we listen and we hear, we understand what are the unmet needs in our community so that we can continue to be true to our core value that we're here to serve members and meet the needs of the broader community. Happy birthday to the Hunger Mountain co-op. 50 years is a huge accomplishment and I can't wait for the next 50. We've got this much money, this much muscle. We've got 10,000 members. Let's brainstorm something radical.