Congratulations to our 2022 Beans for Bags recipients!

Bayside Housing Garden 2021 Bean for Bag recipient

By Andrea Stafford, Marketing Manager

A huge thank you to all of our members who took the time to nominate their favorite non-profits to receive these funds next year.  And an exciting year it will be for sure.  In 2021, the state increased the single use bag fee to .08 (previously .05), and in true cooperative spirit, we voted to increase our donation to match that fee.  So, each time you bring your own reusable bags and choose to donate that refund to a local non-profit (in the form of a bean), we will now be giving them .08 per bean in the jar.  Looking forward, we estimate this to have a huge impact on the monthly donation given to these organizations.

As usual, the decision was tough! The Community Engagement Committee met in early December with the goal of narrowing down the nominations to only 12 for next year.  When selecting the recipients, we look at how that organization is currently impacting the local community in the areas where we focus our giving: Food Access, Sustainable land and sea stewardship, Healthy Families, and Supporting the Cooperative Model and we give priority/extra consideration to organizations not represented the previous year.

Congratulations to the Jefferson County Non-Profits selected. A full list is provided below so look for your favorites to support at the jar.

**NOTE: Every month we host a jar for the Jefferson County Food Banks, this jar has historically raised ~$5,000/year but is expected to increase significantly in 2022 due to increased bag costs.