Natural Harvest Gives Back

Contributing to strong and sustainable economic solutions for community needs, as well as providing charitable contributions to local groups, is the co-op thing to do: it is one of our co-op principles.

Annually, we give gift cards, cash, and food donations to a variety of organizations throughout the community. School fundraisers, community health & wellness events, youth programs, animal rescue organizations, art & culture enrichment efforts, environmental solution workshops, food shelves, crisis foundations, literacy programs – working with these groups and more is how we connect and strengthen our community.

According to a National Co+op Grocers’ study, food co-ops, in general, have a more local impact than conventional grocery stores. For every dollar spent at a food co-op, $0.38 is reinvested back into the local economy compared to $0.24 at privately or investor-owned grocery stores.

Change Within Reach

The Change Within Reach round-up program gives consumers the chance to contribute to community organizations in a way that does not break the bank but cumulatively makes a huge impact to the recipient. Every month, a local non-profit organization is selected to be the recipient of all funds donated through the round-up program. Customers donate to the program by allowing their purchase amount to be rounded up to the next highest dollar. Since the program started in April of 2014, Natural Harvest customers have raised over $60,500; in 2017 alone over $18,000 was raised. We would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to all who participate in this program.

Are you affiliated with a non-profit organization that would benefit from our Change Within Reach program? If your organization is registered with a 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 status it is eligible to apply.

Recipients have been selected for 2019. We are not accepting applications for 2020 at this time, please check back at a later date.

The December recipient is AEOA Meals on Wheels:

• Your donations will help with the ongoing expenses of the program in which volunteers deliver nutritious meals to older adults in need of home meal services. Some of the funds will be used to purchase more reusable meal trays in order to reduce waste.

Upcoming Recipients:

December 2018:        AEOA Meals on Wheels

January 2019:            Project Warmth (RMHC)

February 2019:          Camp Chicagami

March 2019:              Quad City & Chisholm Food Shelves

April 2019:                Northstar Foundation (Mesaba Park)

May 2019:                 Bess Metsa Garden

June 2019:                 Range Transitional Housing

July 2019:                  Friends of the Virginia Public Library

August 2019:             Team Different Not Less (Autism Association of Northern MN)

September 2019:       Buddy Backpacks (United Way)

October 2019:           TBA

November 2019:       East Range DAC

December 2019:       Mesabi Humane Society