The Marquette Food Co-op prides itself on offering a one-stop shopping experience for quality, healthy foods with nutritional integrity and an extensive range of vitamins, minerals and natural remedies and supplements. We support U.P. farmers and producers by offering their products throughout all departments. Browse our department pages to find out more.
Click here to view this week’s rush hour recipe.
Click here for the Board of Directors’ June agenda and prior months minutes. Everyone is welcome to attend board meetings, held the third Tuesday of each month at 6pm in the Co-op Conference Room.
Click here for the latest rush hour recipe, a Southwestern Chicken Salad.
Saturday, June 8th
10am – 3pm
We need your help to build our dream teaching facility at the new store. Stop by the Co-op this Saturday to learn how you can support our classroom. Taste delicious food from our cooking classes and hear what the future could look like with your help!
What will the classroom bring to the community?
• More classes – more often, more topics – all about good food
• A lending library of books and films on all things food
• Food demos and tastings
• A place for local presenters to showcase skills and talents
• Classes for all income and skill levels
Click here donate to our indiegogo fundraising campaign!
Click here to get a recipe for Pasta with Gouda Sauce and Asparagus
The Wellness Department has some new additions to the bulk herb and spice section.
Stop in and check out these new items:
- Ceylon Cinnamon, OG/FT – “True” Cinnamon
- Salad Sprinkle, OG – great on salads or use in dips
- Snappy Sugar, OG/FT – add to coffee, yogurt or put some on your toast
- Pepperman, OG – great addition to any dish that needs a little “kick”
- Tomato Flakes, OG – sun-dried tomatoes all ready cut to the perfect size
- Maca Root Powder, OG -add to your morning smoothie for a boost in energy
These items are now organic:
- Red Chili Pepper Flakes, OG – sprinkle on your pizza for some heat.
- Apple Pie Spice, OG – great in cookies too
- Orange Peel Granules, OG – use in baking recipes
Click the image to view our summer newsletter!
This issue: expansion news, UPFE, hoop house classes, farm tours, farmers markets, updated store promotions – not to mention our updated calendar, detailing classes and more!
Summertime is almost upon us, and as the weather warms, we all emerge from our shells, ready to soak up the sun and make the most of our warm season. One of my favorite pastimes is camping and backpacking, and with the bulk food section at the Marquette Food Co-op, meal planning for my time in the woods is easy and economical.
My favorite trail breakfast is oatmeal. It’s as simple as boiling water on my camp stove and adding quick oats to my mug of hot water. Sometimes I like to dress it up a little bit with brown sugar or local honey from Grand Bee’s, both items also available in our bulk food section. We also have a large variety of dried fruits to add to your breakfast. If you want to make it even easier, we have a huge selection of granola to choose from and dried milk powder; just add water!
Mid-day camp snacks for me has always meant GORP, good ol’ raisins and peanuts. Of course you can make your own, with the raisins and peanuts we have available, but try our Criss Cross mix which adds cashews and chocolate sun drops. We also have raw and gourmet trail mixes, like the staff favorite, Go Take a Hike! raw trail mix, or our decadent house made Laughing River mix with Heritage O’s, salted almonds, and chocolate covered ginger.
For camp dinners we have a variety of options for the discriminating diner. My personal favorite is the Mary Jane’s Farm organic wild forest mushroom couscous. For quick jaunts into the woods I like to pack veggies and our dried hummus or falafel mixes, hoping to supplement my dinner with some fresh picked wild morel mushrooms, leeks, or ramps. Later in the season, I’ll forage for berries and try to save some to make cobblers or pies from our bulk flours when I get home.
The bulk section at the co-op can be a backpacker and camper’s best friend. With a little planning, you can make your summer jaunts a healthy and happy adventure, whether you’re deep in the field or just in your own backyard, remember the bulk section for your lightweight healthy snacks and meals!
By Kevin Clegg, Bulk Food Buyer
A message in response to recent Facebook activity about the March Against Monsanto in Marquette this Memorial Day weekend:
The Marquette Food Co-op is eponymously about food, while from its inception our purpose has gone beyond food. MFC Ends Statements direct the values of our purchasing: “our owners, customers and community will benefit from access to local, organic, wholesome and fairly-traded food and products and the benefits of a healthy, diverse, educated, and sustainable community.”
Our work every day as your Food Co-op staff is to define and ensure that access. That our product mix supports owner needs with a spectrum of value reflecting the diversity of our membership is one measure of our success. Sharing the stories behind the products is another way we entrust that success to you. As much as we are trusted to offer the best choices, we hope you are empowered to make choices which reflect your own values.
As an organization, we care about the food we eat as well as the systems-local and global-that make good eating possible. Since 1971 our operations have included an understanding that every product has a past and a future and we have continuously sought to balance financial stability with social values, ecological health and security, and maximum nutrition for our dollars. We will always be fortified by the depth of those roots as our post-millennial world brings increasingly complex influences to this business of good food.
Yet, this insight comes at a time when the very assumptions that have shaped our global economy are in question.
Your Co-op staff navigates these complexities every day with the needs of our Co-op community in mind. We never take lightly the fact that we make decisions based upon the use of community-owned resources.
As we think about what would have been unimaginable 10 years ago, the Co-op of the future may seem unimaginable, but with our passion as eaters of good food directed in constructive ways we can positively support good agriculture and the industry behind it.
Please consider these additional resources to guide your thoughtful reflection on these complex questions:
https://www.msu.edu/~howardp//organicindustry.html
And the app from the post: http://www.buycott.com/
When the MFC announced the purchase of 502 West Washington Street last spring, a common sentiment in our Co-op community was, “How can we contribute?”
With the legislative chapter of this expansion having opened the opportunity for community investment, the time has arrived! You know, all that stuff we worked on behind the scenes for the past year – it has ensured our ongoing ability to invest in our own organization. Crazy, but cool in its own right.
Even with demolition completed, your investment is still relevant to pending construction phases. We are pleased to announce these options for you to choose a strategy for helping us grow:
Preferred Shares
For those who intend to invest by purchasing preferred shares, please contact General Manager Matt Gougeon by the end of May. Dozens of disclosure documents are still on the loose with 160 shares sold.
Email gm@marquettefood.coop or call 906-226-0671 x10.
Crowdfund us @ indiegogo.com
Join the online campaign to fund the Co-op classroom and teaching kitchen to create the ideal venue for our hands-on workshops and classes. Click here to find out how.
Expansion Gift Certificates
Purchase them now and redeem during the Co-op’s Grand Opening for 10% more than their purchase value!
Expansion Fund
Or simply add your loose change to the jar at the front of the store.
In any amount, your contribution will help open the doors of your new Co-op!
U.P image / MFC logo mashup courtesy of Bohemia Printing.
