Food Co-op Initiative

06/06/2026

Happy 3rd Anniversary of Opening to Assabet Co-op Market in Maynard, MA 🎉🎉

The winner of the FCI 2024 Startup of the Year Award celebrated their birthday with a Co-op Member Appreciation Weekend where co-op members saved 10% on (almost) everything.

And today, they are celebrating Pride by the River with free samples, live music and more!

The co-op started in 2012, opened in May 2023 and their mission is to strengthen the local economy and support the regional food system while being a center of community activity for their 2,800+ members and supporters.

Happy 3rd Anniversary of Opening, Assabet Co-op Market!

06/05/2026

*FREE resources and tools* for the rural food communities you serve!

FCI and Start.coop are hosting a Free Virtual Workshop on Tuesday June 16th, focused on community feasibility for rural food co-ops.

Register today: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/xHCfXSO_SoylVuLSR0Ey7Q

Join our free online 1 hour workshop on Tuesday June 16th at 1pm ET, for rural food co-op founders and organizers! We will explore the fundamental aspects of feasibility of food co-ops, including a deep dive into rural community feasibility.

You’ll come away with a clear understanding and practical skills to conduct community interviews.

This session is from Food Co-op Initiative and hosted by Start.coop, facilitated by FCI's Chris Dilley, Director of Startup Support.

This work is supported by the Rural Cooperative Development Grant program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy. This project is in partnership with the Cooperative Development Foundation.

06/04/2026

Guess who’s celebrating 20 years of supporting startup food co-ops?

Food Co-op Initiative!

We present to the food co-op movement our 2025 impact report, outlining how our tools, resources and programming have helped 100+ startups organizing across the U.S.

🌟https://fci.coop/our-impact

Cheers to another 20 years of helping neighbors open community-owned grocery stores!

06/03/2026

We are so proud to have presented *THREE* awards 🏆 to amazing startup food co-ops at this year’s CCMA for Consumer Co-ops over the weekend.

Congratulations to Charles River Food Co-op for winning the Bill Gessner Startup Food Co-op Award!

For the first time ever, two co-ops won Startup of the Year 🎉🎉

Congratulations to recently-opened SunCoast Market for winning Startup of the Year!

Congratulations to South Philly Food Co-op for winning Startup of the Year!

06/01/2026

We've got soooo many photos to upload and get ready to share with you from CCMA for Consumer Co-ops 2026 in Tacoma, WA - but here are a just a couple as an "appetizer" before the main photo upload!

Pic #1 - We could not do what we do without our Full Circle donor co-ops so we invited them to stop by our table to show us where their co-ops support FCI and the startup movement from. So many did, there will be more pics to come, but we don't think anyone had more fun with it than the Moscow Food Co-op team!

Pic #2 - the Wasatch Food Co-op team had their grand opening *just* eight days before the CCMA conference kicked off, but somehow they found the energy to join us all in Tacoma - color us impressed! Left: Garland McQueen of Columinate who has served as the interim opening GM for Wasatch, and board member Evan Sugden

05/29/2026

We’re at CCMA for Consumer Co-ops!

Stop by our table and get FREE notebooks and pens as well as a copy of the Food Co-op Development Framework Action Guide & Checklist.

The Action Guide and Checklist are for new co-ops AND expansion projects for established co-ops!

Can't wait to see you in Tacoma.

05/26/2026

Catch the Food Co-op Initiative team at CCMA this week!

CCMA is a national conference for cooperative leaders and staff from established co-ops.

FCI attends every year to amplify the role of startups in the food co-op movement and to celebrate their achievements from this national stage.

Connect with us by:

-Stopping at our table for free resources like the Food Co-op Development Framework Action Guide & Checklist

-Celebrating award-winning startup co-ops from the main stage on Saturday

-Attending the 'Product Mix' breakout session to learn tips on creating, converting, and managing hybrid stores

Hope to see you in Tacoma

05/23/2026

A growing trend in startup food co-op organizing in historically redlined, predominantly Black communities is the startup effort being initiated/seeded by locally trusted nonprofit organizations that invest significant capacity to help the community grow the co-op.

This model has been used at startup food co-ops like as well as others, and is now being utilized by Three Sisters Market, a startup food co-op effort in Charlotte, NC.

West Blvd Neighborhood Coaltion , the Three Sisters Market board, and their development support team at .roots put together an *incredible* session about the unique challenges and benefits of a nonprofit and a newly organized food co-op working together to grow the co-op and open a store - it's a *must watch* for any community considering such a parthership!

You can find the *free* video on Food Co-op Initiative's YouTube page in our "FCI Live 2026" playlist, or directly at this link:

https://youtu.be/sbh5mExkuI4?si=e5mif-PvYCGsIn6R

05/22/2026

Congratulations to Wasatch Food Co-op in Salt Lake City, UT on opening their store for business for the *1st time ever* this week on May 20th! If you're on our email list, look for an email from FCI next week with more photos and details about this startup food co-op's opening!

https://ksltv.com/local-news/wasatch-food-co-op-opens-in-salt-lake-city/910705/

05/21/2026

Thank you to Garlic and Roses News Media - "news for food co-ops by food co-ops" for featuring the recordings from our 2026 FCI Live virtual conference series in their weekly food co-op news round up!

You can find the entire 24-video series for *free* HERE:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZi0T19YiBFKUxdzKiBLM55H3EBrJjxjF&si=lPxzMxEuca0f7_EQ

You can find Garlic and Roses' Co-op News Round-Up for this week here:

https://garlicandroses.coop/co-op-news-round-up-5-18/?ref=garlic-and-roses-newsletter

Food Co-op Initiative's virtual conference series of expert presentations, case studies, and panel discussions focused on the needs of startup food co-ops.