City Market

Local Apples From Vermont

There is no guessing as to where your produce comes from.

Organic and Fair Trade

It is also easy to find bulk foods from local sources

Even beans

And Spices (Organic Ground Nutmeg)

Signage around the market lets customers know when their local food was made.

Map of City Market 

Done by: Emily Lopuski

 Where can you find local and organic foods? Everywhere. 
 City market takes great pride in "providing conventional, organic and local products at a fair price to all. The Co-op is dedicated to supporting the local economy and strengthening the local food system. We work with thousands of Vermont vendors to feature a wide selection of local and Vermont-made products."

Interested in only buying local? You're in luck!

 City Market provides you with a brochure which has every local product laid out for you.

Interested in learning more?
City Market's website does a great job at telling you about well, everything they're about! 
Let me read on!  
  

Interview with Meg Klepack, local foods coordinator at City Market

Peter Boyer
 April 18

    Last week I interviewed Meg Klepack, the local foods coordinator at City Market/Onion River Co-op, to have a closer look at the market's role in the local food system. Behind my questioning, I am wondering, "how does the market contribute to the social, economic, and environmental wellbeing of the local and regional community, and what indicators are used to describe this wellbeing?"

    The interview was casual and informal; it was rather more like an open-ended discussion. I have organized the jumble of content into nests of interesting information, to be brooded over with insulating hopes of hatching new insights and understandings of the meanings of sustainable food systems.

    First, a simple overview of the cooperative model of City Market: 7,000 members comprise the cooperative, and 175 employees are staffed there. Being a cooperative, the market is not driven by the single goal of profit- it is motivated by certain values, shared with and largely dictated by its members, consumers, and the community, to work towards the goals of its mission statement (can be found on the market's website):

            "The Onion River Co-op will be central to a thriving and healthy community, where:

            Consumers have local access to progressive social, environmental and healthful choices; Residents enjoy an enhanced quality of life; The local food system is     strengthened; The cooperative model is supported; and our owners have a sense of pride in their cooperative."

    The market has been tracking the number of local products offered, and the amount of sales. There are over 2,000 local products available at City Market. Thirty percent of sales at the market are of products which are local or Made in Vermont. In comparison, the state average for these sales is 5%, across the board.

            -What is "local" anyway? -------->Local is defined as produced within the state of Vermont.

            -What is "Made in Vermont"? ------> This refers to a product whose constituent ingredients may not originate locally but are "substantially transformed" in the                   state of Vermont.

    Meg made the point that the push for local food came from individuals and grassroots organizations- "locavores". In this sense, the movement has been consumer-driven. Consumers want more transparency of where their food comes from, and markets are responding to this demand. I'll get back to transparency, momentarily.

            [I had wondered, how much of what the market offers (concerning their "progressive social, environmental and healthful choices") is driven by consumer demand, and how much of consumer demand for these products is driven/reinforced by the market itself?

                        -Meg articulated that the market mostly follows and responds to consumer demand. As, for example, demand for gluten free products has surfaced (especially in the last year or so) the market has responded by offering more of these products. In selecting products to meet consumer demand, as Meg addressed it, the market makes an effort to offer a diversity of products so that consumers have the freedom to choose for themselves. That sounds like a sound marketing strategy to me, but I am still wondering about the initial question... There must be, to some degree, a reciprocal interaction of demand between market outlet and consumer base. Anyway.]

    Both demand and supply have increased dramatically in quite a short time frame (the position of local foods coordinator that Meg holds didn't even exist 3 years ago). As the local food system stands today, from the eyes of City Market, there is more demand for local foods than there is supply, in many areas. City Market would certainly purchase more local food if it was more available or accessible. City Market is constantly looking for more local products to sell in the market.

    Because of the abundance of demand from City Market consumers, another store is planned to open sometime in the future...

    The market is also aware of gaps in the distribution of local food from producer to consumer, and searches for possible outlets to fill these gaps. Example: frozen, local produce. To fill this gap, City Market worked in partnership with other cooperatives to initiate production of frozen veggies. [Cooperation among cooperatives... sounds like a community interaction that reinforces social wellbeing!] Other gaps exist in the availability of certain crops, their quantities, seasonality, and price conversations.

    In some cases, local farms are on a scale that is too small to reach a larger market outlet such as grocery stores, schools, and hospitals. Efforts are being made to figure out how to connect small farms (of which the local food system is largely composed of) to these larger market outlets. One method is to aggregate the products of small farm operations into food hubs which can then distribute to larger markets. However, this creates more distance between the producer and consumer, thus decreasing transparency...

    Transparency is an important quality in the local food system, and is a primary value of local food consumers. It becomes considerably more difficult, nearing the point of impossibility, to trace the origin of food products as they are further aggregated, processed, transported, and sold through the many levels of the greater, conventional food system. Localism has largely been driven by this disconnect of producer to consumer in the food system. As a general quality, the less distance there is between the origin of your food and your dinner plate, the higher the transparency. Increasingly, consumers want to know where their food comes from, how it was produced, and how it got to the store shelf. It is part of Meg's job to gather all sorts of information on the producers of the local food sold at the market, to be made available to consumers.

    Alongside a healthy food system is a healthy social system. City Market has its ways of strengthening the social system it is a part of, which may be quite different than other, more traditional market outlets. Being a cooperative, it is member owned and governed. Members elect the folks upstairs who ultimately call the shots. Members also decide what to do with and share yearly profits. As a member, you can also work in the various departments of the store or in certain community projects for monthly discounts on food. Members, as well as the general community, are also offered various classes (6 - 8 per month) related to food and holistic health organized by the market. This all represents a significant level of interaction between the market and its consumers. I'll attest, as a City Market member and consumer, to the positive sense of belonging that comes with this interaction.

    City Market is known to have high prices. I've wondered to what degree this deters low-income community members. Its hard to say, but City Market does support Food Stamps (Three Squares VT), WIC, and disability assistance. Also, their Food for All Program gives a 10% discount on all food products if you are a participant of any of these government assistance programs. Food is donated to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf as well. That's an encouragement.

    Besides healthy interaction at the individual level, City Market also makes connections with other community organizations. They organize "crop mobs" where cooperative member-workers visit a local farm and give a hand in whatever work needs done. Meg likened this to community barn-raisings of the past (excluding Holmes county OH and Lancaster county PA!). Meg mentioned that loans are also given to other cooperative organizations in need. I see this, too, as a significant quality of social wellbeing and a step in the direction of sustainability!

   Overall, this is surely just a glimpse at the complexity of the local food system and how it relates to social, economic, and environmental wellbeing for now and for future generations- i.e. sustainability!