Bags of Goodness: Introducing the 2025 Beans for Bags Recipients

News
Written By Loren Alexanian

Every 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 local food bank by the Board’s Community Engagement Committee. This year we had more than 45 organizations nominated! All our nonprofits do great work, which always makes for 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

  • 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. 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.

2025 Recipients

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

JAN/FEB

  1. Olympic Community Action Programs: OlyCAP

  2. Foster Support

 

MAR/APR

  1. VegRX – Jefferson County Farmers Market

  2. Roots of Resilience Project

 

MAY/JUN

  1. NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health – Jefferson County WA)

  2. Jefferson County Immigrant Rights Advocates (JCIRA)

 

JUL/AUG

  1. Owl360

  2. Jefferson Healthcare Hospice Foundation

 

SEP/OCT

  1. Center Valley Animal Rescue

  2. Community Wellness Project

 

NOV/DEC

  1. The Food Bank Growers

  2. Camp Beausite Northwest

 

You can learn more about our Beans 4 Bags program and the 2025 recipients at Foodcoop.coop/beans-for-bags

Loren Alexanian
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