Iowa City, IA - National Co+op Grocers (NCG) — the business services cooperative for retail food co-ops across the United States — today welcomes two emerging co-ops in Northern Virginia and Rhode Island as new members.
Joining are Urban Greens Food Co-op in Providence, RI, and Fredericksburg Food Co-op in Fredericksburg, VA.
“Communities are stronger when they have access to fresh, healthy food delivered by independent, community-owned food co-ops. NCG is excited to welcome these new start-up co-ops to our membership and to support their growth as well as the growth of the food co-op business model,” said C.E. Pugh, Chief Executive Officer, NCG.
Urban Greens Food Co-op opened in June 2019 with a mission to “be open to all and support the health and well-being of our customers by offering nutritious, affordable food that is sustainably sourced, culturally inclusive, and supportive of local food.” The co-op’s roots are as a buying club with 22 members founded in 2000, and it officially incorporated in 2007 with a long-term vision to open a full-scale grocery store.
Fredericksburg Food Co-op plans to open in spring 2020 with the assistance of the NCG Development Co+operative and will focus on locally grown and sourced products as well as a great selection of organic and natural foods and household products. The co-op was named the “Best of the Best” start-up at the 2019 Up and Coming conference and has rapidly growing its membership to over 1,100 owners.
About NCG
National Co+op Grocers (NCG), founded in 1999, is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. NCG helps unify food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere. Our 148 member and associate co-ops operate more than 200 storefronts in 38 states with combined annual sales of nearly $2.1 billion. NCG is a winner of the dotCoop Global Awards for Cooperative Excellence and a certified B Corp. Find a map of NCG member and associate co-ops. To learn more about co-ops, visit www.strongertogether.coop.
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Media inquiries may be directed to Eric Davis (eric@harvest-pr.com; 612-424-7545).