What do a weekly farmers market, Sunday morning yoga and CPR certification classes have in common? They can all be found at the Newark Natural Foods grocery store.
Currently located in the Newark Shopping Center on East Main Street, the co-op originally started out of a church basement in 1967 as a community food buying club. According to its website, community members wanted to get together and “purchase healthy and natural food directly from local farmers who grew it,” and be able to buy it in bulk.
The store was officially incorporated in 1975 when it got its first storefront at the building which has since become home to Little Goat Coffee Roasting Co. The co-op has moved a couple times since, settling at the shopping center in 2015 where it was able to triple the volume of the store and open Cafe 67, a coffee shop, deli and bakery.
General Manager Catherine Hallman, a university graduate, started out as a barista her senior year, going full-time post-graduation and eventually working her way up to the general manager position, which she has held for the past two years. As a public policy major, she had no idea what she was going to do with her degree, but this has been her “dream job.”
“I learned, obviously, finance, I learned communication,” Hallman said. “And it’s been a cool way to apply it because it’s so community focused.”
Community is at the basis of a co-op, in which “the members benefit from the operation.” Newark Natural Foods is a consumer cooperative, so it is owned by the very people who buy from them. To become a member, people “invest a little bit of equity into the co-op,” enabling them to vote on its bylaws and board of stewards members as well as earn points and discounts on products.
“It gives community members a say in and a voice in, to a certain extent, the products that we sell, our ingredients standards, our ends’ priorities and how we kind of function as an overall system,” Hallman said.
The co-op works hard to stick with its original mission, not selling anything with artificial flavor, color or sweetener and focusing on organic foods, but it is difficult to do it all.
“The word natural doesn’t have a literal definition in the food industry,” Hallman said. “But we have an interpretation of ‘natural,’ and it’s kind of ‘simple.’”
The business also wants to make its products accessible to everyone, which Hallman said has made a difference for customers with families who have various dietary restrictions. The goal is to make it possible for anybody to shop there, whether they have allergies or are gluten-free, soy-free, vegan or vegetarian.
To reduce cost to customers, the store offers options to buy in bulk and try to source locally as much as possible, since the further something is shipped, the higher the cost. It supplies as much as possible from the tri-state area, but, seasonally, it is easiest to source locally in the summer.
This can be seen in particular with Newark Natural Foods’ weekly farmer’s market, which is held every Sunday morning from May to November. The vendors include local farmers, prepared food vendors and craft vendors.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the best things that we do,” Hallman said. “It’s really cool to see how much the vendors can grow from just a season.”
One vendor was able to build a greenhouse between his first and second farmer’s market season because he did so well with the market and is now one of their biggest vendors. The co-op will also be bringing its farmer’s market to campus in the fall for Community Day, but beyond the market, there is a lot happening at the grocery store.
It has community rooms for rent in its downstairs area where yoga, mediation and CPR classes and a speaker series are held.
The store also tries to be student-friendly. It is part of the off-campus meal plan, has 10% student discounts every Sunday and offers discounted memberships and flexible schedules for its student-employees.
“We know that people have lives, we know the student life in particular is busy and hectic, and we accommodate that,” Hallman said.
The co-op is usually hiring, and positions include barista, cashier, grocery stocking, wellness associate and produce associate, all of which students can apply for through their website.
From long-term employees, like Hallman, to long-term customers, Newark Natural Foods has worked to develop loyalty through their model.
Hallman’s college roommate’s father has been shopping at the co-op for a “very, very long time” because each person in their family has a different dietary restriction.
“That’s why he’s here,” Hallman said. “Because he knows that he will be able to claim something for everybody.”