Community Comes First at Upper Valley Food Co-op

Oct 08, 2025 03:44PM ● By Mary Gow

At Upper Valley Food Co-op (UVFC) in White River Junction, a member-owned natural market, shoppers find an impressive selection of locally and ethically sourced foods and other products. They also find much more: multilayered community, meaningful information about food, and dedication to furthering the circular economy.

Milk from three local dairies—two of the farms use glass bottles—are delivered on alternating weekdays. Strafford Creamery’s whole milk with the cream on the top is among them. Gilfeather turnips, Vermont’s official state vegetable, come from Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury. A blue tag on the turnips’ bin notes their mild flavor. Adjacent to ripe bananas, a small poster explains the journey of these “equal exchange” fruits—from small farms in agricultural cooperatives in South America to independent retailers including UVFC.

The co-op’s shelves, bins, and coolers offer an abundance of organic and ecologically grown produce, artisan breads, cheeses, bulk grains, spices, supplements, organic products, and free-range and hormone-free meat. From soup to nuts, local products abound.

UVFC has been bringing healthy food and community together for 49 years. A 50th celebration is in the works. Along with this landmark anniversary, UVFC members and staff are looking ahead to the co-op’s future.

Darrion Whalen, general manager, explains that UVFC prioritizes making the co-op “truly a place where all are welcome by finding ways to ensure we have healthful and affordable foods for the entire community. We work to be an efficient space that helps the local economy—helping local purveyors and supporting the employees that work here,” he says, noting that paying livable wages is important to UVFC.

How It Started

Founded in 1976, the co-op grew out of earlier buying groups. Before then, increasing numbers of people in the Upper Valley had wanted natural and organic foods. Whole grains, brown rice, and other natural products were not readily available through supermarkets, so friends and neighbors began coordinating bulk shopping. Someone would drive to a supplier, often in Boston, bring back a bulk order, and divide it up. Eventually more than 500 individuals and families were participating in local groups.

Members of those buying groups launched Upper Valley Food Co-op using the cooperative business model of an organization owned by its members. With a co-op’s democratic structure, member-owners control the business. Today, UVFC has around 2,500 active members and a nine-member board of directors. Membership is not required to shop there. A lifetime membership costs $100 and may be paid over four years.

After its initial retail space in Lebanon and subsequent one in downtown White River Junction, UVFC moved into its current home on North Main Street in 1992. The move into this historic building (it was originally constructed in 1895 as the Excelsior Carriage Company) gave the co-op five times the retail space of the earlier market and room for offices, a classroom, and more.

Building Connections

Community has been at UVFC’s core since the beginning, serving area residents with healthy food, with people working together, and building connections to farmers and purveyors. Kye Cochran of West Hartford has deep roots with the co-op and knows its importance in building community ties. “We joined the co-op as soon as we moved here (1987) because we are community oriented, like very good food, and like to be involved with people who want good food.” She soon signed up as a volunteer. Within a week she was asked to be on the staff, which numbered two at the time. Since then, Kye has served in just about every role at the co-op—volunteer, produce manager, general manager from 2004 to 2012, board member, and more. Today she continues as a part-time “floater” doing whatever is needed.

Among the needed things, Kye designs some of the co-op’s signage that gives shoppers essential information and is sometimes witty. At a time when food labelling often obfuscates rather than informs, UVFC’s is a refreshing change. In the produce department, green tags on bins designate organic products and blue tags are for local, with local/organic clearly labelled. Those blue tags also note the name of the source farm. Schedules posted in the dairy and bread departments keep shoppers abreast of deliveries. Some informal notes advise shoppers too: A yellow sticky note by the crunchy peanut butter explains that color differences in it are due to varying amounts of peanut skin.

Posters introduce buyers to some of the farmers and purveyors, like Dave Chapman, whose Long Wind Farm in East Thetford, 16 miles away, dates back to 1984. It’s nice to see the faces of people, including Dave, whose labor brings the tomatoes or potatoes or sunchokes to the market and, in turn, to homes.

Education and Outreach

Larissa Sharff and Ben Fletcher spearhead the co-op’s education and outreach initiatives. The co-op’s classroom is used for a range of offerings, weekly qigong practice among them. The Documentary Club has frequent screenings, and a Wellness Workshop series of hands-on classes will be rolled out in October.The UVFC newsletter informs readers of programs with local organizations like Willing Hands that leads Talk and Glean events. In the co-op’s Sew-Op, equipped with sewing machines and fabric, people can learn sewing skills or work on independent projects. Sew-Op classes include mending and clothing repair.

The co-op, Darrion explains, is committed to furthering the circular economy, striving to build long-term resilience. Principles of the circular economy include breaking away from the traditional consumer culture of “take, make, and waste” by eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials, and regenerating nature.

On multiple levels, UVFC is already contributing to the circular economy, even as it looks ahead to do more. Last year, the co-op invested in upgraded efficient refrigeration to shrink its energy footprint. Through its reuse program for containers and packaging, glass jars, plastic tubs, and paper bags get multiple uses instead of going straight to a landfill. Good quality food that has just passed its “best by” date is donated to the Haven and other community food shelves. Looking ahead, Darrion says, “We are going to do our best to be here and thrive, not just survive, for decades to come.”

Upper Valley Food Co-op

193 North Main Street

White River Junction, VT

(802) 295-5804

uppervalleyfood.coop

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