Minnesota grocery co-op celebrates 50 years of supporting local foods on many levels.
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Lakewinds Food Co-op is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and that’s a big deal! Their three stores in Minnesota’s Twin Cities metro area are dedicated to changing the food system on many levels, and their approach goes way beyond putting local foods on shelves.
The co-op began as the Minnetonka Buying Club in 1972, becoming a cooperatively owned store in 1975. While grocery cooperatives all have different membership plans, Lakewinds has an incredibly accessible one: if you spend $90, you're an owner for life.
“Sometimes we see a younger person with a really low owner number because it's been handed down by a family member,” Renee Whisnant told us. As the Marketing Manager at Lakewinds for six years, she has observed memberships transferring to family or friends when the original owner needed help cooking, was no longer able to shop for groceries themselves, or moved to assisted living. This shows how important this grocery is to the generations of people they serve.
The original store is still in Minnetonka—a second location opened in Chanhassen in 2006 and a third in Richfield in 2014. Across the three stores, all within ~30 minutes drive of each other, there are over 26,000 owners— and as is true with all co-ops in the area, anyone can shop.
Lakewinds sources close to home to serve farmers and protect the land. The store defines “local” as Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Iowa, and the eastern Dakotas. Most of the meat, eggs and dairy they sell are from this region, and nearby produce abounds when the season allows. The co-op helps shoppers identify local items in the bulk aisle and throughout the store, using shelf tags and other signage to name farmers. As you’d expect, AGC members’ grains, flours, and other packaged goods are available!
“If folks can see that one batch of oats in the bulk aisle is from Doubting Thomas Farm up in Moorhead, then maybe they will vote with their dollars to reflect their support of the local food system,” Renee said.
Lakewinds is eager to tell the stories behind the food on their social channels and newsletters. That includes illustrating the exponential impact of supporting local farmers, which is very different from the purchases from huge farming conglomerates; voting for local with your dollar protects environmentally sensitive farm practices and ensures economically viable rural communities.
Beyond the basic service of running a business with community ties, Lakewinds has invented channels to directly contribute to food pantries and community groups. Like many other co-ops, they have a program where customers round up at the register. Each month, customers give an average of $16,000 to a specific nonprofit. During the month of March, donations go to food shelves, and Lakewinds matches the amount, up to $15,000.
The Lakewinds Organic Field Fund (LOFF) is another way Lakewinds strives to support local sustainable farmers. This grant program offers up to $8,000 for projects like irrigation systems, pack sheds, cleaning stations, greenhouse repairs, and transitioning to organic. Since LOFF launched in 2011, Lakewinds has awarded more than $1 million to over 100 local farmers, and is giving $123,000 this year.
AGC member Jóia Food & Fiber Farm is a two-time recipient and a vibrant interruption to the corn, corn, corn and wind turbines of the Iowa landscape—using the funds to build mobile shade and water stations for livestock (shown below). On her farm, Wendy Johnson has planted 6,000 trees, raises sheep, and also grows Kernza®, a perennial grain.
Lakewinds is committed to being a changemaker toward a broader picture of systems change. They source with care, and know that most consumers don’t have the time to figure out what goes on behind their food. That work falls to co-op staff, and so education, of staff and of the public, are important practices. Managers are connected to farmers, so they can know what’s happening on the farm. This helps them answer questions about agricultural practices and, for livestock and poultry, animal welfare and conditions. When people who sell food know how the food was grown and raised and understand the impact of a wet season on a crop, shoppers can be tied into the process, too.
“We have these really cool opportunities to be connected to farmers and the food in a personal and engaged way,” said Renee. “To visit with Noreen at Doubting Thomas and see her working on her farm, and then see her oats in the bulk aisle or chips made with her corn on shelves, brings it full circle.”
For grains, the connections are expanding. In the early days of Lakewinds, people picked up 50-pound bags of grain in a pickup truck to fill up containers in the bulk aisle. While the dynamics have changed, Lakewinds is eager to keep pushing the needle and helping nudge along the regional grain system. Being a part of AGC helps them tune into the conversation about what’s necessary to get more grains into the local landscape, in mills and homes, and on the shelves at their stores.
Renee served on the Retail Advisory Panel that created AGC’s Grains Grown Here pilot project. She enjoyed being a part of the planning process and looks forward to seeing that campaign expand in the future. AGC is glad for the partnership of this dedicated enterprise!
