Why Choosing Local Food Strengthens Your Community and Contributes To Global Impact

Our Boise Co-op—YOUR Boise Co-op—is intentionally rooted in local. We believe sourcing the products that line our shelves from local suppliers and farmers strengthens our immediate community and has benefits far beyond Boise, Meridian, and the greater Treasure Valley. We’ve supported local way before it was cool—its been part of our ethos since our inception in 1973. And you, our co-owners, shoppers, and friends, play a critical role in this support.

The Boise Co-op’s purpose statement—Stand Up for Honest Food—is a rallying cry for the impact that you make in your own life and in our world when you choose local.

Defining “local”

We define local as the 150-mile radius around our stores. That’s it.

Within that small area, we foster relationships with farmers and producers who believe in building soil health through regenerative agriculture, which increases biodiversity, improves water quality, and mitigates climate change. We work with our local partners to choose all-natural and organic whenever possible, and purposefully use ingredients and packaging that are healthy, not harmful. This symbiotic relationship with our producers provides a decent livelihood for local farmers and their families, which in turn, helps preserve our region’s farmland.

Because our radius is so small, the local food sold in our stores is harvested when it’s ripe—not picked well before to allow for shipping across the country. That means it’s FRESHER and fresher means it’s better tasting. And as its commute to our stores is much shorter than its conventionally grown counterparts (in some cases, thousands of miles shorter), this significantly decreases the impact of emissions associated with transportation.

Local sourcing provides security

Our world worked so smoothly—until it didn’t. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. this spring, there were shortages in the food supply as consumers prepped for the upcoming stay-at-home order and processing plants shuttered when employees couldn’t come to work. Because the Co-op’s supply chain is more direct than most grocers, our established relationships with area suppliers enabled us to work cooperatively and nimbly, moving their product that was available to sell fluidly through our stores—which kept our inventory up and food in your pantries. Compare this with corporate grocers whose longer supply chains with bureaucratic decision-making hoops resulted in bare shelves. We have focused on building a resilient local “foodshed” for decades—and that work has never been more important than during this time of crisis.

Fertilizing our community

We believe a secure food system provides access to nourishing foods and fights hunger. We support the Idaho Foodbank every spring, but this year was especially important, and poignant, as unemployment rates soared due to the pandemic. Over the span of eleven weeks, our customers and co-owners helped provide more than 15,000 meals for hungry Idahoans through a cash register round-up campaign—and we couldn’t be more grateful for your help.

You’re an active participant in this local food system. When you choose to shop at the Boise Co-op, you are choosing to support a healthy and sustainable way of life. You’re minimizing environmental impacts that have consequences globally. Because of our strict purchasing guidelines, you are choosing to buy from farmers and ranchers that comply with beneficial land stewardship practices and operations where the welfare of livestock is valued.

And on a more personal level, you are choosing to have a connection with a hard-working neighbor who produced the food—ensuring they are fairly compensated for the care they take to provide the highest-quality produce, meat, and food products available, food that’s good for your health and the health of our planet. This local connection has significant and positive economic impacts as well; more of your dollars stay in the community, circulating in tighter concentric rings to support other local businesses, nonprofits, and our schools.

When you buy local, you’re improving your health and building a more resilient and prosperous community. You’re making your dollars work harder. You’re helping a neighbor. And you’re addressing global issues at a local level. We can't thank you enough for joining with us to “Stand Up for Honest Food.”