Sustainability in Action
The Doylestown Food Co-Op
Sustainability could be The Doylestown Food Co-op’s middle name. The co-op is on a mission to provide food that is locally made, organic, fresh, fair trade and produced with no genetic engineering. They also seek to offer foods that are minimally packaged and produced on a small scale.Hyper-local food means less fuel use. Instead of traveling the average of 1,500 miles, the vast majority of the food stocked at Doylestown Co-op travels less than 100 miles—and sometimes as little as two. Local farmers deliver food to the co-op on their way to their restaurant clients or through local distributors—also sourcing from nearby Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware farms. If a type of food is not produced locally, such as bananas, they make certain that it meets the highest possible quality standards in other areas—i.e. the bananas are fair trade and organic.
Animal products in the store are raised in ways that are kinder to the animals and the planet than when raised in confined animal farm operations. Organic practices mean fewer added chemicals to our soil and water. Many of our local farms use no—or a greatly reduced amount of—chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides on their
products, helping to keep our soil and water supplies healthy.
While they are clearly focused on providing great food, The Doylestown Food Co-op also contributes to sustainability in other ways. By providing convenient access to this wide variety of locally produced food in a single location, the co-op helps sustain the health of our farmers, our families and our local economy. Access to year-round, stable outlets for their products helps our farmers. Healthy food sustains our families. Jobs and dollars going back into our local economy helps to sustain our community.
The Doylestown Food Co-op is a member-owned grocery store open to all, seven days a week, located at 29 W. State St., Doylestown. For more information, call 215-348-4548 or visit Doylestown.coop. October 2014.
