Dear Bloomingfoods Owner-Members,
You may recall that last year's elections included a Bylaw change to section 2.7. Thank you for participating in Bloomingfoods’ democratic process!
As a reminder, the revision of section 2.7 changed the process of reactivating member status once a person has gone inactive. Members now can become active again by simply resuming their payment plan, rather than paying their full, outstanding balance all at once.
It might seem like a small change, but the Board felt it was an important update. We think the revision encourages ownership by being more accessible to all income levels and residency patterns. Plus, it is more manageable for staff at the register. Through our full-membership vote in October, the bylaw change was passed!
This is just one small example of our cooperative’s democratic member control. This model is the second of the seven principles that help guide our co-op. This means that you, as owner-members, have a say in how Bloomingfoods operates! It’s the interests of our own community that drives our work.
So thank you for your participation, no matter the form – whether it’s shopping at our stores, working with the co-op, rounding up at the register, voting in our annual elections, or stepping up to serve on the board or its committees. Your engagement matters, and it’s what makes us more than a grocery store.
You can find our bylaws, policies, minutes, and more on our website, under “Board of Directors.” If you want to get more involved in the governance of Bloomingfoods, or if you have any questions, you can always reach the board at directors@bloomingfoods.coop.
In cooperation,
Isabelle Daellenbach, on behalf of your Bloomingfoods Board of Directors
New Fair Trade Products at Our East Store!
What is fair trade? The Fair Trade Federation gives this brief definition: Fair trade is an approach to business and to development based on dialogue, transparency, and respect that seeks to create greater equity in the international trading system. Fair trade businesses partner with farmers and craftspeople in developing countries who are socially and economically marginalized to find markets and customers for their goods. To learn more, visit fairtradefederation.org.
Food Co-ops have supported fair trade since 1984 when Equal Exchange first introduced fair trade coffee to the US market. There is a lot of inequity and exploitation in international trade. When we look at food, some of those items are coffee, cocoa (chocolate), sugar, vanilla, and nuts.
Some of the new fair trade items you can find at our East store:
Just Haiti is a 501c3 non-profit organization that started working with coffee farmers in Haiti in 2008. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and because of recurring natural disasters many companies no longer work with Haitian producers. Just Haiti works with the most vulnerable and economically at-risk communities who otherwise wouldn’t have access to the marketplace. They use a model they call Fair Trade Plus, where they pay farmers a fair trade premium price (about 30% of retail price versus the typical 2-5% mass market price), and in addition, they also give them all the profits from US sales. This means the 100+ farmers in Haiti get 64% of the retail price on average, about double what most fair trade producers get.
Just Haiti collects coffee orders through the week and every Friday they roast coffee to fill those orders, another factor that makes this high-quality coffee stand out. This means the coffee received at the store is fresh roasted like a locally roasted coffee and not a product that was packaged weeks or months ago like most packaged coffees (that aren’t local).
Canaan Palestine supports over a 1000 marginalized artisan family farms across 43 villages living under occupation in the West Bank. These family farms have been nurturing their olive orchards for many generations. The Land of Canaan is the home to ancient olive orchards that are over 3000 years old and is often referred to as the birthplace of agriculture. Our East stores now carries their fair trade, organic, extra virgin olive oils, including olive oils infused with garlic, lemon, chili, and basil.
“Zotter Chocolates is and will remain at the top of the world-best chocolate manufacturers and by far the most innovative chocolatier of all.” ~Chocolate – the reference standard
Josef Zotter has re-invented chocolate: Hand-scooped Chocolates are basically giant bonbons. Featuring wonderful flavor combinations, hand-scooped chocolates are filled chocolate miracles consisting of several layers, brushed onto long lanes – one on top of the other – by hand.
“Not unlike wine, each cacao variety has its own very distinct flavor, shaped by the terroir of its growing region. Sometimes that flavor is nutty, sometimes it has more of a flowery bouquet like the Ecuadorian beans or more citrus notes like the beans from Madagascar.” ~Zotter
Zotter mainly buys cacao in Latin America, the cradle of cacao. They get their fine cacao from countries like Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Guatemala, Brazil, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Togo, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda.
Huuuge shout out to our East Store Assistant Manager, Dave Debikey, for being a champion of bringing in more fair trade products! Dave was the Store Manager at the Bloomington Global Gifts for 13 years and their Purchasing Manager for a number of years, and we are grateful to have Dave on our team! Thank you, Dave, for continuing to be an advocate for Fair Trade products and growing our selection of fairly traded and healthful products, produced with care for the land, animals, and future generations!
Be sure to join us for EarthFest and celebrate Earth Day & Fair Trade Day!!!
A Thank You From Sycamore Land Trust
Dear Bloomingfoods Shoppers,
Yaayyyy! Thank you from all of us at Sycamore Land Trust for Bloomingfoods' generous Positive Change gift of $6,299.50 in February to protect nature for the future of southern Indiana and connect more people to our environment.
The Positive Change program has such a meaningful impact on our community. Your contribution will help Sycamore preserve more than 11,400 acres of beautiful and healthy natural areas for generations to come. Our volunteers and staff have planted over 36,000 native trees over the past two years to create new forests, restored more than 60 acres of diminishing wetland habitat, grown over 17,000 native plants from seed for habitat restoration, and so much more - because of you.
Your donation will help Sycamore continue to accomplish landscape-scale conservation, acquire more land for permanent protection, restore more habitat on our nature preserves, maintain over 30 miles of public hiking trails, and provide free educational programs that inspire life-long commitments to appreciating and caring for our natural world. Please let me know if you or your employees would like additional information about the preserves, hikes, or volunteer opportunities.
This work we do is for Forever, and we couldn't do it without our community of caring supporters. You play a vital role in preserving these beautiful, wild lands for future generations.
Thanks so much to the community for their support, and for Bloomingfoods running this program!
Sincerely,
Amy Osajima
Development Director
A Thank You From Community Kitchen
Dear Bloomingfoods,
Thank you so much for supporting Community Kitchen with a gift of $7611.36, made on 4/3/2024 through the Positive Change program. We could not do what we do without the generous community support that you and so many others provide.
One program that benefits from your generosity is our Backpack Buddies program. During the school year, Community Kitchen works with school social workers to identify children and their families experiencing food insecurity, delivering a bag of food items to help children and their families with their food needs over the weekend. For the 2023-24 school year, our Backpack Buddies program is now serving over 500 children and families, the highest number of participants in the program’s history. That means that Community Kitchen is using more than 2 tons of food for this program alone, each week! Financial support like yours, along with food donations, truly make this program possible. Thank you!
Currently, across all programs, the Kitchen is providing an average of over 1,039 meals and snacks per day so ongoing community support is vital; please consider becoming a regular monthly donor through our ACH program. We are enclosing a form that you can use to sign up. Know that when you sign up, you help to ensure that we have what we need to provide nutritious food to our neighbors in need.
When you donate to Community Kitchen, you make our community stronger by contributing to the development of young minds and bodies, by making sure seniors are cared for in their own homes, by helping hard-working people make ends meet and by providing the nutrition necessary to help folks manage their health. Thank you for your kind and loyal support of Community Kitchen. Consider becoming a regular monthly donor through our ACH program. We are enclosing a form that you can use to sign up.
Because of your generosity we are able to meet the needs of our community, working together to feed those who need a little extra help! In 2023, we served a record 325,446 meals and snacks to our community’s most vulnerable. Your support makes it possible for them to have dignified access to nutrition on a regular basis. YOU really do make a difference! Thank you!
Sincerely,
Vicki Pierce
Executive Director
Proud to Support Local, Women-Owned Businesses
Bloomingfoods is a proud supporter of many local and women-owned businesses. We are pleased to stock a wide range of products at our stores!
Know them & support them:
Aahaa Chai – Loose teas, chai concentrates, & ready-to-drink vegan chai lattes
Apricot Sun – Mediterranean seasonings (Zaatar seasonings & spreads, Sumac, & My Baba’s Pepper)
Bivi’s Tamales & Salsa – Tamales & salsas
Bloomington Bagel Co. – Bagels
Bread & Roses Gardens & Blossom & The Bee Tea Co. – Herbal tea line, mushroom tinctures, & hot sauces
Celtic Glen Heritage Livestock – Meats
Drift – Cleaning products (The Multitasker, The Grimebusta, Sparkle Sparkle dish powder, & rearview mirror essential oil car diffusers)
Fauna LLC – Daily restorative cream
Fischer Farms Natural Foods – Meats
Frangipani Body Products – Face cleansers, face serums, face moisturizers, & body oils
Limberlost Skincare – Renewal cream
Linnea’s Greenhouse – Wheatgrass
Mayasari Effendi – Tempeh and dried black beans & barley
Morning Meditation – Loose leaf teas
Needmore Coffee Roasters – Fair & Direct Trade & organic coffee
Piccoli Dolci – Cookies & pastries
Popkorn Kernels with a Twist – Popcorn
Spice Kick – Seasonings (chili, tikka masala, ramen, & tuna salad)
Sushi King – Sushi
Happy Women’s History Month!!
New Local Vendor Alert!
Crossroads Kombucha is an artisanal fermented tea-based drink, hand-crafted in Franklin, Indiana made with only 100% real ingredients. Crossroads Kombucha is owned and operated by the Bolin family, long-time residents of Johnson County in Indiana. Samuel and Barry Bolin personally brew every ounce of the Crossroads Kombucha they sell! Learn more at crossroadskombucha.com.
Nativo Cafe is a US/Mexican company based in Bloomington, IN and Tlaxcala, MX. Nativo Café sources the highest quality, small batch coffee in the world through direct farm partnerships - finding expert coffee producers who grow, process, and pack their own coffee with mastery, and deliver it right to you. This also means you’re enjoying a specific strain of coffee, instead of a combination of beans from the same (or even different) regions. Check them out at nativocafe.com.
Irascoffeecards is designed and illustrated by Bloomingfoods West staff member Ira Drummy. Ira says “My rural upbringing can be seen in a lot of my artwork. In many others, such as the snowmen cards, it is more difficult to notice. A lot of thought, time and passion go into each card I create. When I create a card, I’m thinking about what the customer would feel or what kind of things are important to them. Do the same seasonal things that appeal to me appeal to them? Do the same color combinations, or lack thereof, appeal to them as me?” Stop by and see Ira’s cards at Bloomingfoods Near West or check out his Etsy shop at etsy.com/shop/IrasCoffeeCards!
New Local Vendor Alert!
We have a new local milk on the shelves! Twin Springs Creamery is a local dairy collective right here in Bloomington. Consisting of four family farms, Twin Springs practices regenerative farming techniques, with intentional rotation of pastures as they seek to build soil carbon, fertility, and health through grazing practices. Care for the animals is critical to their health and the healthfulness of the milk they give. Twin Springs provide quality forage, water, and non-gmo supplements, along with clean living conditions and plenty of space. The cows are grass fed and the breeds they have chosen are based upon the specific qualities they bring to the glass, like high butterfat and protein, A2 beta casein, and a great taste.
We also have a new local mead! Located not far from here in Gosport, Lost in the Woods Winery & Meadery has been making honey wine (mead) for decades, and have decided to bring it to the public. Along with wine making they also enjoy a wide range of projects including raising honey bees, goats, ducks, and chickens, and cultivating gardens, fruit trees, and mushrooms. But their focus is on mead, and we are very happy to offer several varieties.
So treat yourself and continue to support your community with Twin Springs Creamery milk and Lost in the Woods mead!
Bloomingfoods is a New Member of the City of Bloomington Chamber of Commerce!
We are very excited to become a Member of the Chamber of Commerce for the first time and are looking forward to the new opportunities for collaboration with other local businesses that are working to improve the quality of life for everyone in our community!
If you are a local business and would like to work more closely with us, please contact us at info@bloomingfoods.coop.
✨Happy Holidays from all of us at Bloomingfoods!
Dear Owner-Members & Bloomingfoods Community,
As this year comes to a close, I’d like to take a moment to express the Board’s gratitude for another great year of Bloomingfoods. We want to give a special shout out to our staff, members, shoppers, vendors and our community partners. Plus, a warm welcome to the more than 300 new owner-members who joined us in 2023!
We on the Bloomingfoods Board feel strongly about the important role that this co-op plays in supporting the community, not only by providing local and healthful foods, but also serving as a place for learning and connection — while doing so democratically! So thank you for supporting our work.
It’s been a year of growth and persistence through some not-so-insignificant challenges, and the Board had a great time sharing these highlights over pasta and music at our October Annual Meeting. If you weren’t able to make it, be sure to read all about Bloomingfoods’ work in the 2023 Annual Report!
We’re also grateful that our efforts to strengthen our local food system were recognized by Bloom Magazine, who recently awarded Bloomingfoods a 2023 Community Award for Support of Local Vendors. This award truly does belong to every founder, staff member, owner-member, shopper, local farmer, local business owner, and community partner. Because of your support over the past year, we paid $1,510,000 to local farmers, vendors, and producers!
Thank you again for your continued love and support of local vendors here at Bloomingfoods, this year and each year since 1976. We look forward to more cooperation and good food in 2024!
Best wishes,
Isabelle Daellenbach, Board President, on behalf of the Bloomingfoods Board of Directors
Bloom Magazine Honors Bloomingfoods with a 2023 Community Award!
Thank you Bloom Magazine for honoring us with a 2023 Community Award for Support of Local Businesses! This award belongs to every founder, staff member, owner-member, shopper, local farm, local business, and community partner!!!
Thanks to your support over the past year, we paid $1,510,000 to local farmers, vendors and producers! Thank you again for your continued love and support of local vendors here at Bfoods since 1976! 💙