Orcas Food Co-op, A Leader in Sustainability for the San Juan Islands

— from Susannah Weaver —

Orcas Food Co-op, which opened its doors in 2014, has placed being a model sustainable enterprise at the heart of its mission. For its efforts, the Co-op was the recipient of a National Co+op Grocers (NCG) Co-efficient Sustainability Stars award, which recognizes food co-ops that demonstrate outstanding leadership by making a positive impact on social, environmental, and local economic issues. Of the 151 NCG member food co-ops, eight were recognized as Sustainability Stars in 2018.

National Co+op Grocers (NCG) states: “Food co-ops have long been leaders in sustainability, an area that strongly reinforces co-op points of difference—great food, community, support for local, and health and nutrition. Sustainability is so deeply ingrained in the cooperative business model that co-ops often fail to take credit for their actions. It’s easy to assume that shoppers “just know” that co-ops value sustainability and equally easy to forget that many of the co-op’s actions in these areas aren’t readily apparent to them. At the same time, other retailers are increasingly trading on their own sustainability efforts.” Here are some of the ways that the Orcas Food Co-op is putting sustainability into practice:

Healthy Food Access: Orcas Food Co-op is committed to promoting access to healthy food for all! The Co+op Basics program makes affordable healthy food available — low prices every day for everyone on nearly 150 items. Each year ten thousand lbs. of imperfect organic fruits and vegetables are sold through the produce disco cart and 3,500 lbs. are donated to the Food Bank.

Supporting Local: The Co-op takes pride in a ‘local’ ethos. At the Co-op ‘local’ means made or produced in the San Juan Islands and many of the products travel only a short distance from farm or kitchen to your table. In 2017, Orcas Food Co-op did business with 60 local producers, accounting for over $350K in local sales. The co-op has worked with over 70 local producers and has sold over $1 million of local product since opening. “What we are doing here is special. It’s not just neighbor-farmer who-you-happen-to-know and so you want to support them — it’s that the farming that’s being done is at a level that could compete anywhere, goat cheese that could easily compete in Spain, greens better than anything I have ever tasted,” said Madden Surbaugh, Assistant General Manager.

Product Integrity: Orcas Food Co-op supports organic food and farming in a big way. Last year, organic food accounted for 67% of total store sales, including $570K in produce. The Co-op works hard to source from companies that follow the triple bottom line framework, seeking out and highlighting the highest integrity products such as those that are certified organic, fairtrade, or non-GMO.

Waste Diversion: The co-op is working toward becoming a zero-waste organization and they strive to minimize their negative impact, and maximize their positive impact, on the environment by composting and recycling. Virtually all of the co-op’s inedible food scraps are used for local composting, animal feed and food bank donations. Through the composting and recycling programs, 70 percent of the waste, food and other discards were diverted from the landfill last year amounting to more than 35 tons diverted in 2017 alone.

Reduce and Reuse: Shopping at the Co-op means you have options—you can buy in bulk and skip the extra packaging, you can reuse your bags, cups and takeout containers and they encourage you to bring back bags and other reusables. Shoppers are rewarded when they bring their own bags and the co-op gives them coins, to contribute to a local non-profit selected, for the ‘Coins for Community’ Program.

Energy Efficiency: Thanks to improvements in lighting with 60 light bulbs replaced by LED’s, the Co-op has reduced electrical usage 5 percent, even as they serve more customers. The co-op will continue to work on reducing energy use on their way to a 100% renewable energy future.

Local Economy: Orcas Food Co-op provides meaningful jobs that support a resilient year-round local economy. The co-op proudly employs 17 fulltime and 13 part time staff with total wages in over $600K in 2017. “Orcas Food Co-op is a full circular driver of our local economy. It allows the co-op to be a job creator in a way that didn’t exist before,” said Ken Katz, Board President. As profitability increases, the co-op plans to raise its starting wage to at least $15/hour by 2020.

Membership: The Co-op membership is 1349 and growing, Orcas Food Co-op members account for more than 40% of all households on Orcas Island. The Co-op is seeing a steady trend in growth with 1244 members as of 12/31/17, 97 new members in 2017, and 105 new members in 2018 (through 8/31/18).

Community Giving: The Co-op is committed to nurturing community partnerships through Community Giving and Community Sponsorships: Register Round-up, Coins for Community, 3% Thursday, and the FARM Fund! In 2017, Community Giving totaled more than $10,000 for local non-profits and community programs. In 2018, the co-op anticipates doubling this number to over $20,000. “We are owned and controlled by our members and what that allows us to do is reinvest more money back into our co-op and also into our community,” said, Regina Zwilling, Sustainability Coordinator and Office Manager. As a member-owned enterprise, the co-op is part of a growing network of cooperatives and non-profits building community resilience and increasing access to local, healthy food. This summer the Co-op turned four years old and as they enter the adolescent stage, they believe that charting a clear course for where they want to be in the future is an important next step. “We’ve been able to do a lot to move toward our big picture goals even as a young co-op. What really excites me about the future is imagining how much more positive impact we will be able to make as we continue to grow,” said Learner Limbach, General Manager.

A video was recently completed telling the Orcas Food Co-op’s story and a strategic planning process is underway. To see the video and learn more about Orcas Food Co-op’s growth and progress visit the website www.orcasfood.coop/strategic_planning.