Food Co-op Initiative

Can you believe that ANOTHER food co-op opened this summer?

Congratulations Caledonia Food Co-op in St. Johnsbury, VT 🎉

The store is open every day from 8 am to 8 pm.

📌Address: 502 Railroad St, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819.

Caledonia Food Co-op is open to the public and membership is not required to shop.

If you are on the Food Co-op Initiative email list, this fantastic news would already be in your inbox 👀 We’ll leave a link in the comments to join.

Congratulations, Caledonia Food Co-op!

Don’t miss Digital Readiness for Cooperatives on Wednesday, July 15 at 1 pm Eastern.

💻🌐🌍

Register now: https://crm.fci.coop/civicrm/event/info?id=329&reset=1

The next webinar in our *free* Summer Tech Series will:

- give leaders of the co-op movement an overview of the current digital landscape
- and they’ll leave with an understanding of where their co-op stands today and what steps they can take to prepare for tomorrow.

With Digico Global and Nova Works Corp, we’ll discuss technical infrastructure, cybersecurity awareness, and AI readiness.

Register for free TODAY: https://crm.fci.coop/civicrm/event/info?id=329&reset=1

Happy 1 Year Anniversary of Opening to TipTop Co-Op Community Market in Brookfield, MA 🎉🎉

Tip Top is a conversion of what used to be a family-owned store in a city that’s about a 2 hour drive from Boston.

Their mission is to nurture and nourish the community of Central Massachusetts by:

- Prioritizing goods that meet the B Corps and Organic Consumers Association principles
- Selecting fair-trade products such as coffee, sugar, chocolate, etc
- Avoiding products with harmful chemicals and artificial ingredients

Tip Top also has a member loyalty program where members get 2% back on most purchases.

And now they have merch 👕

Congratulations, TipTop Co-Op Community Market!

Our *Full Circle Co-ops* make what we do possible.

In 2025, a record-breaking 60 established food co-ops across the US committed to being Full Circle food co-ops by donating to our work. Together, they funded 17% of our annual budget in addition to sharing their advice, expertise in our trainings for startups, and more.

We need to build on that in 2026 - let's get to *75* individual, established food co-ops from across the US! With federal funding for co-op development precarious, we've never need your help more than we do now to keep this movement thriving.

There are three ways to donate, choose yours at this link today or reach out to [email protected] to have a call to talk startups and answer any questions you have about becoming a Full Circle co-op:

https://fci.coop/full-circle/ #:~:text=HOW%20TO%20GET,ON%20THE%20MAP%E2%80%9D

FCI attended the National Retail Grocery for All Summit organized by the Food Systems for the Future Institute in Chicago last week to learn from others and share the role of food cooperatives in creating successful grocery solutions.

We knew a few ither food cooperators would be there, but we had no idea how many of us and how *center stage* grocery food co-ops would be in the presentations on what is working to meet community access needs!

* John Roesser, GM of Weavers Way Co-op in Philly served on a panel called, "What It Takes to Win: the Community Grocer Operating Playbook" and offered powerful insights on how access to capital limits their co-ops ability to bring more successful stores to more communities

* the story of Green Top Grocery, a 3rd wave startup food co-op that opened in 2017 in Bloomington, IL, was heavily featured in one of the opening keynote speeches about grocery access success in their state

* and representatives from recently-opened 3rd wave startup Uproot Market & Eatery from Battle Creek, MI, from 4th wave startup Detroit People's Food Co-op in Detroit, MI; and from organizing startup Aliquippa Food Co-op in Aliquippa, PA were all present as well along with the Development Co+op team of Allanah Hines and Dr. Anthony Goodwin!

Our team walked away with a lot of new insights *and* a deeper awareness of how food co-op organizing is truly on the cutting edge of not only solving grocery access but *leading* in building grocery access solutions.