Main Market Co-Op designed to expand, improve community

Dream. Build. Learn. These three small words have the potential to mean big things—especially when next to each other. As such, they have become the mantra for Main Market—a consumer food co-op providing daily, central access to healthy, sustainable food that supports our region’s farmers and fishermen. Set to open in downtown Spokane in fall 2009, Main Market will be the only retail grocery of its kind in our area, where members are owners with a voice in decision-making. Thanks to the visionary and “angel investor” of this venture, Jim Sheehan, philanthropist and founder of the Community Building, Main Market will serve as a model for Spokane of how a business can survive by placing equal value on social, environmental and financial returns, and help people realize that what they eat ties them back to the land as well as to each other. “Main Market is about real examples, real people, real food,” said Jennifer Hall, community food builder for the food co-op and the Spokane Community Building. “Our hope is to be able to shrink our footprint of purchasing by proving to local consumers, farmers and growers that they can sustain this type of lifestyle…that they can use, cook and eat local.” Heading the effort to design and open Main Market since late 2007, Hall has worked with food producers and the culinary community to forge a closer connection between the source of food and the consumer. With monthly programs such as “In the Field,” which lets people get to know area farmers, ranchers and processors, and “At the Table,” which provides the chance to meet the providers of “the goods” on the shelves at Main Market, these educational offerings will often entail field trips so shoppers get a first-hand experience of where and how their food is grown. Since community backing is the strength behind the co-op, education on the principles behind it are key. “Our community is our strength,” said Hall. “We embrace its diversity and look to everyone to bring their ideas, their perspectives, their beliefs to the table.” Main Market’s goal is to have at least 500 members and to raise $300,000 by the end of 2008 through membership and additional support from area business and individual sponsors. A priority for Main Market Co-op is to open with as much community financial backing as possible, reducing the need for loans and spending money on interest. Extremely excited about their new “very viable” location at 44 W. Main Ave., on the corner of Browne and Main, the old GoodYear Tire building will provide the co-op with over 9,500-square-foot space to house, in addition to the retail grocery, a “take away” deli, a dining area consisting of a large “community table,” an open kitchen to showcase ways to cook and prepare local products, an area where people can order custom meats from local ranches, and rentable freezer lockers for people who don’t have the storage space for meat in bulk or to freeze seasonal produce. Designed to work along side the Spokane Farmers’ Market, rather than in competition, the co-op will offer local food year-round and provide area producers a place to sell goods during fall and winter as well as when the outdoor market is closed. The food co-op will feature the freshest, locally grown and organic food in the area from local farmers and producers when possible and eventually sell produce grown from a garden on the building’s rooftop. The product standards that will be upheld are listed below. • Meat: will be sourced directly from ranchers who are committed to humane standards • Seafood: will be approved choices for wild, aquaculture harvest, with priority given to selections certified by the Marine Stewardship Council • General Grocery; will be packaged in an environmentally responsible way and labeled as not being genetically modified or irradiated • Eggs and Dairy: will be fresh, local, and safe, coming from hens that are raised cagefree on family-owned farms that prioritize healthy feed and humane treatment • The “Take-Away” Deli: will feature the freshest and the finest ingredients, including daily salads, soups and baked goods • Wine and Beer Selection: will be hand-picked, with superb body, and made only in Washington and North Idaho. • Personal and Home Care Products: will be naturally safe and soothing, realizing that what we put on our bodies and in our environment is as important as what we eat. • Pet Products: will be safe and earth-friendly to keep four-legged friends happy and healthy