October is National Co-op Month — a great time to stop in at your local food co-op to learn more about how co-operatives are built for this moment!
Every October, Littleton Food Co-op joins with the more than 65,000 co-operatives and credit unions across the United States in celebrating Co-op Month, a celebration of this unique business model and its contribution to communities across our country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture first proclaimed National Co-op Month in October of 1964, reflecting the importance of co-operatives to America’s rural communities.
Since 1971, U.S. Co-ops (formerly the National Co-operative Business Association) has continued this tradition, promoting co-operative enterprise as a trusted, proven way to do business and build resilient, inclusive communities. Under the theme, “Built for This Moment,” this year’s Co-op Month is a reminder that the first co-ops were organized to address the social and economic challenges of the Industrial Revolutions of the 1800s. Successive waves of co-operative development have often responded to the market failures of their times, enabling people from all walks of life to work together to meet their needs and achieve their aspirations. From electric co-operatives powering rural America when investor-owned corporations saw it as unprofitable to farmer co-ops supporting small family farmers locked out by corporate monopolies, worker co-ops securing livelihoods in unstable job markets to credit unions enabling working people and immigrants to meet their financial needs, housing co-ops retaining affordable shelter amid rampant speculation to food co-ops building community food security, co-ops are a proven response to uncertain times.
Stop in at your local Littleton Food Co-op during Co-op Month to learn more about what makes co-operatives different.
Not only are we ourselves a cooperative, but we sell cooperative brands, too! Many of the brands you know and love are actually worker/farmer owned co-ops! When producers form as a co-op, it establishes their commitment to democratic power, member-owners’ economic participation, and independence from the pressures of a corporately-dominated marketplace. The brands below are just some (because we likely forgot a few) of the cooperatively-owned brands sold at the Littleton Co-op that have demonstrated that working together can create great-tasting food:
- Cabot Creamery Cooperative
- Real Pickles
- Alvarado Street Bakery
- Sunsweet
- Sunmaid
- Blue Diamond Almonds
- Equal Exchange
- Florida’s Natural
- Ocean Spray
- Dean’s Beans
- Land O Lakes
- Organic Valley
- Tillamook
- Alaffia
- Aura Cacia
- La Riojana
- Frontier Co-op
Thanks to Neighboring Food Co-op Association (NFCA) for the article information.
