Our community extends well beyond the walls of the Co-op. Each month we shine the spotlight on a new group of local partners to help share their stories and celebrate their role in our community.

Featured Co-op Vendor

Our Co-op works with over 500 local vendors and has more than 3,000 local products on our shelves. Last year, nearly 40% of our sales were from local products. 

Located on a former sheep farm, Upper Pass Beer Company is a farmhouse brewery in Tunbridge, Vermont, founded by Chris Perry and Andrew Puchalik. According to Perry, “The biggest challenge we face is having enough beer to keep all of our customers supplied. We are slowly growing our capacity at our Tunbridge location and also our production at the von Trapp Brewery where we contract brew.” That type of collaboration, Perry says, is popular among breweries of all sizes and is a lot of fun. “It’s great to bring new ideas to the brewery with friends and come up with a new beer.” While he considers Moove On Up coffee milk stout to be his personal favorite, Perry notes that Cloud Drop is by far their most popular beer. “It’s an 8% abv Double IPA that has a lot of tropical fruit flavors. Double IPAs are a very popular style in general but this one is quite unique for its hop flavor and malt backbone.” The underlying philosophy behind everything Upper Pass does is, Perry says, to make the best beer they can and give their customers a consistent product they will always enjoy. Find out more about Upper Pass Beer Company at their website and on Facebook.

Give Change By Rounding Up

The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina is a nonprofit organization that serves 34 counties in central and eastern North Carolina. The organization distributed 70 million pounds of food in fiscal year 2016–2017. This included 25,720,411 pounds of fresh produce and 3,822,500 distributed as disaster relief. The Food Bank partners with a network of 845 partner agencies (food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, group homes) and has distribution centers in Durham, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh (main branch), Sandhills (Southern Pines), and Wilmington.

From the organization’s website, “After Hurricane Florence has made landfall, we anticipate thousands of children, families, and seniors in our community will be without power, food, and water. And we know this could just be the beginning. In response, we will be providing emergency food, water, and supplies—for as long as it is needed. Your generosity helps the Food Bank provide emergency and increased assistance to our partner agencies, and to those who have lost so much.”

Along with rounding up at the register next time you shop at the Co-op, funds may also be donated on the Food Bank website. Checks can be mailed to 1924 Capital Blvd., Raleigh, NC 27604.  To discuss your Florence-relief gift, you can email the Vice President of Development.

Bag That Bag to Help a Neighbor in Need

Help support the Montpelier Food Pantry every time you shop at Hunger Mountain Co-op just by remembering your reusable bags! For each bag, basket or box that you use at the register, we will donate five cents. In August, those nickels added up to $1,081.35 for the Montpelier Food Pantry and 21,627 bags saved!

Since joining Montpelier Alive’s Bag that Bag program two years ago, Co-op shoppers have now collectively raised $22,669.90 for our neighbors in need while reducing their environmental impact by replacing 453,398 potential paper bags.

Through a recent grant from the Hunger Mountain Cooperative Community Fund, the Montpelier Food Pantry has launched a recipe kit program. Click here to learn more about this program and the great work the food pantry is doing.

Featured Artist

The Art in the Café program supports and cultivates the local arts by displaying the work of the members and staff artists in the Co-op’s café. Our family-friendly, month-long exhibits create a pleasant dining experience for customers. 

This month we are featuring Elizabeth Courtney. Courtney finely crafts images of clothes hanging on a clothesline, there’s a more specific message that Courtney hopes people will get. “We’re getting away from using nature, from using physical strength and our ingenuity to do basic, simple functions, and this is one of them. Drying the laundry doesn’t require the use of fossil fuels. You can use the atmosphere, the environment. You can feel good about it. You can feel that you have some control over your contribution to making this a better world.” Learn more about our featured artist here.

Community Events

We offer a variety of workshops, events, and vendor demos to delight and inform our shoppers. View our calendar for upcoming events here.