The Food Co-op Seeds Generosity: Unveiling the 2024 Beans 4 Bags Recipients

News
Written By Loren Alexanian

Each year, members of the Food Co-op get to nominate their favorite local non-profits to receive funds via the Beans 4 Bags program.  The nominations are then narrowed down to 12 + the food bank by the Board’s Community Engagement Committee. This year we had more organizations apply for these funds than ever before! All the groups do great work, which made it a super tough decision. The groups selected represent the values that are important to our co-op and community: food access, land & sea stewardship, people/housing and cooperative principles.

The Beans 4 Bags program is a huge driver of our yearly donations to local nonprofits. Not only does it benefit some really amazing organizations in our community, but it enables our members to give where their heart leads them. 2023 donations will total over $20,000. That is money going directly to nourish our community. So reuse your bags, and vote with your bean!

How the Program Works:
The Food Co-op rewards people for their sustainability efforts by giving 8 cents back for each reusable bag used. You can then either keep the bag credit, OR get a bean. Get a bean, you ask?  If you choose a bean (= $.08), you can choose where that money goes by dropping that bean into a jar, which represents 1 of 3 non-profits in the Jefferson County Community.   Non-profits are nominated by member/owners and chosen by a committee. Two jars are rotated out bi-monthly, the third jar represents the Jefferson County Food Bank, which is supported year round.

2024 Recipients

**Jefferson County Food Bank is supported year-round.

JAN/FEB

  1. Jumping Mouse Children’s Center

  2. St. Paul's Episcopal Church “Just Soup”

 

MAR/APR

  1. Olympic Housing Trust

  2. The Humane Society of Jefferson County

 

MAY/JUN

  1. The Benji Project

  2. Olympic Pride

 

JUL/AUG

  1. Jefferson County Anti-Racist Fund (JCARF)

  2. The ReCyclery

 

SEP/OCT

  1. Jefferson Land Trust

  2. Olympic Angels

 

NOV/DEC

  1. The Food Bank Growers

  2. Winter Welcoming Center

 

You can learn more about our Beans 4 Bags program and the 2024 recipients at Foodcoop.coop/beans-for-bags

Members can learn how to be a part of the Community Engagement Committee by emailing CoopBoard@foodcoop.coop

Loren Alexanian
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