Submitted by the Orcas Food Co-op.

The Orcas Food Co-op is celebrating its five-year all day long on Saturday, June 1. Music will be from noon to 3 p.m.

We will have some fun surprises set up that are kid-friendly as well as live music, a bubble blowing station, in-store samples, local food vendors and artisan demoing and free coffee. The music line-up is: Gene Nery 11 a.m.-1 p.m., ReVivify 1-3 p.m. and Robb Eagle and Jimmy Hostler 3-5 p.m.

Planning for the Orcas Food Co-op began in 2013, and after a monumental community effort to raise funds, secure a lease and remodel the space, the Co-op’s doors were open on June 1, 2014. As we celebrate and reflect on the first five years of our co-op, we want to take a moment to honor and extend our gratitude to the more than 650 founding member-owners who put their money where their values were by investing the co-op before the doors were even open.

Deep appreciation goes out to our founding board members – Lisa Byers, Ken Katz, Marta Nielson, John Dey, Jonathan Wolfson, Libi Geddes and Learner Limbach, and to those members who provided all the loans we needed to get open without needing a bank loan. We will also never forget the more than 300 members who volunteered to help in the remodel and create the beautiful store we have today. There are so many more people we could thank. You know who you are. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In five years of operation, our membership has surged to more than 1370 households and our community impacts have grown as we have experienced rapid sales growth and reached profitability.

Learner Limbach, General Manager, articulates: “When our co-op thrives, our community thrives.”

Our 2018 accomplishments:

• Reached 100% of staff earning a livable wage

• 126 new members

• Co+op Basics expanded to include produce

• $31,000 raised from community giving programs

• Expanded the FARM Fund to $10,000

• $400,000 in local product sales

• 42 tons diverted from the landfill

• 62% of sales were Organic

• 9% annual sales growth

Happy Anniversary from all of us here at the Orcas Food Co-op!