Rooted in Community, Chosen by Members - Announcing the 2026 Beans for Bags recipients.

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 40 organizations apply for these funds! All the groups do great work, which made it a super tough decision. The groups selected represent the values that are important to our coop 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. 2025 donations will total over $18,000. 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.

2026 Recipients

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

January/February:

  • Winter Welcoming Center

  • REPAH – Real Estate Professionals for Affordable Housing (A nonprofit organization of Jefferson County Association of Realtors)

March/April:

  • Dove House Advocacy Services

  • Grey Muzzle Project

May/June:

  • North Olympic Salmon Coalition

  • Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County

July/August:

  • Reach Out

  • Community Tool Library

September/October:

  • Just Soup - housed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

  • Bayside Housing & Services

November/December:

  • Olympic Peninsula Farm to Food Bank Fund

  • The Benji Project

You can learn more about our Beans 4 Bags program and the 2026 recipients at Foodcoop.coop/beans-for-bags

Loren Alexanian
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