The Co-op has come a long way from its humble beginnings on South Wallace Avenue. What was started by a few people on the fringe looking for a way to buy cheap rice has grown to a $10 million business employing over 140 workers with an annual growth rate of 20%.
In 1979, a store named the Crossroads Food Center opened in a small house, structured as a nonprofit corporation. In the spring of 1984, the name was legally changed to the Community Food Co-op and the store moved to a larger space near Montana State University.
In 1992, the Co-op bought a building in downtown Bozeman to better serve the needs of our growing membership. A deli was added and a departmental structure was created. In January of 2002, the Co-op reorganized as a cooperative corporation. Later in 2002, a major expansion project was completed, doubling the retail space and adding a coffee, juice and dessert bar with an eating area upstairs.
The Co-op is now a huge success, nationally recognized and awarded. The journey has been long but throughout it all, the Co-op has remained committed to the elements in the original mission statement: Emphasizing open, involved membership, environmental awareness, nutritional advocacy, support of local agriculture.
Our Mission Statement
Provide food and goods, promote sustainable practices and follow co-op principles.
Our Statement of Purpose
As a community of cooperative consumers we promote an understanding of nutrition and ecological principles. The Community Food Co-op, based on mutual aid rather than profit, strives to provide viable options, offering consumer control over resources, supplying basic needs and supplying those needs at the lowest commercially reasonable prices. We seek to create and nurture relationships with other cooperatives, farmers, small businesses and local producers, thereby strengthening the alternative food network, the community at large and the Community Food Co-op membership.