It has become increasingly rare to find local organizations that have stood the test of time. Still fewer manage to continuously grow and become anchors in the communities they reside in. On Saturday, September 19, the High Falls Food Co-op is celebrating a half century at the corner of Lucas Turnpike and Route 213, and are being recognized for their ongoing mission to democratic access to health foods and as a vortex for community engagement.

Though it’s admittedly challenging for many of us to imagine what High Falls looked like back in 1976, we can be sure that the stalwart founders of the co-op, whose focus on accessibility to organic foods and uplifting the regions many farms, chose a vision that was capable of sustaining itself through generations.

The way a co-op works is that it’s an independent, “community-owned business,” in which the members are collectively responsible for the business. Though anyone is welcome to shop at the co-op, there is the option to join it through a one-time investment. If the co-op makes a profit by the end of the year, you can receive a “patronage refund” based on your spending habits over the course of the year. This means that there is no one person who receives more benefits than another because all refunds are based on how much shopping an individual does.

“A co-op can work anywhere that there are committed people to take it off the ground. We have just the right mix of local business and farms and vendors that we want to support,” said High Falls Food Co-op General Manager Lucy Georgeff.

Georgeff mentioned that this milestone marks not only a celebration of the organization’s successes, but is a turning point in their approaches towards reenvisioning what affect and impact the co-op will continue to have in High Falls.

These ideas began to percolate during the pandemic, when the co-op noticed increasingly limited availability of products, plus customer concerns about inflated prices. What the team formulated was a concept with three pillars that they hope to accomplish by 2034.

The pillars include Sustainable Futures, which relates not only to environmental impacts but sustainable jobs, Strong Local Economies, and Vibrant Community.

Seeing the pandemic’s effect on the community propelled the co-op to amplify their customer service training, and have noticed this work towards attaining community needs. Yet they feel they are still capable of reaching higher, and in order to do this, they feel the logical next step is to grow not only their staff’s abilities, but their physical footprint as well.

“Our aisles are tight and we pack a lot on every shelf,” Georgeff said. “We are looking at the future, considering what the right size is for us. Is this the right location for us, is there another location that could support more growth?”

That line of thought came from customer requests for more prepared foods and a seating area to eat in-house. Any movement towards a new location may be far in the future, as Georgeff said “we don’t have plans to relocate or move but we’re seeing if it’s possible,” but it is still on the co-op’s radar. For now, listening to the community is still the organization’s top priority.

“We take all kinds of requests and try to honor them all,” Georgeff said. In the co-op’s monthly newsletter, they announced their monthly Brunch with the Board, where a member of the co-op’s board sits in at the store and people are welcome to offer feedback or ideas.

The celebration on September 19 will take place on 2nd Street in High Falls from 12 – 3 p.m. and will include live music, free food, beverages, activities for kids and a short-film screening about the co-op’s founding members, how they have navigated through the past 50 years, and where they are – and hope to go – today.

Georgeff said that other businesses in High Falls’ downtown will be participating in the celebration by offering one-day-only specials. More information about the celebration can be seen at highfallsfood.coop or @highfallsfoodcoop on Instagram.

“To get a co-op off the ground today takes a lot of hard work and dedication, and that’s exactly how we got here,” Georgeff said. “The people who are here now really believe in what we do and are very committed. That takes a lot of hard work too.”