Montana Co-op eyes Whitefish for expansion

The Montana Co-op has set its sights set on Whitefish.

In a meeting June 26, the co-op team presented an idea for the Montana Co-op to expand to Whitefish. The goal over the next three to five months is to create a hub in town where locally produced products can be delivered.

“It’s a distribution system,” said co-op president, Jason Moore. “We just facilitate the transaction between producer and consumer.”

Currently, the headquarters for the co-op is located in Ronan.

After joining the co-op, consumers order whatever they would like from producers in eight different categories, including animals, art, body, food, health, gardening, home and outdoors.

Each Thursday, consumers receive their locally produced food or goods. Moore said the idea is that consumers will use the website to order what they would like from local producers, and then those producers can gather the order to send to the nearest hub. The consumer can then pick up their goods at their community’s hub on a regular basis.

In Ronan and Polson, there is a delivery service to bring the products directly to the consumer’s home or business.

Products available for purchase range from eggs and vegetables to jewelry and cleaning solutions. There is also livestock, seeds and furniture for sale.

The process is year-round, and the aim is to get communities to buy from Montana producers.

“Our goal is to service every community in Montana,” said Moore. “We’re working on connecting everyone.”

Other programs similar to the co-op do not currently supply consumers with Montana products. Usually, the products come from other states, and are trucked to communities in Montana, Moore said.

Moore and other co-op founders want a system that supports local producers. This is the only consumer-owner co-op in the area, More said.

Four years ago, the co-op was founded with just $2,500. In 2013, the co-op began its trial run in Ronan and Polson. Today, it has more than 250 members, mostly located in Western Montana. Since the first stage of the co-op was successful, the board decided to begin expanding the co-op hubs to other areas.

Cost is $20 for a lifetime membership, after which the member can sell or buy goods from anywhere in the state.

Montana’s co-op is modeled after Oklahoma’s version, which was started 14 years ago. The Oklahoma Co-op covers the entire state, and offers about 5,000 locally made products. Half of those products are food.

“We follow the same distribution style,” Moore said. “It has worked really well for them, and we’re putting the same process in place.”

Moore says one of the main benefits to the co-op will be the ability to always have fresh foods.

“Produce has the most nutrition the day it is harvested,” said Moore. “After that, it can lose up to 10 percent of its nutrition per day.”

The co-op also offers an avenue for young adults, Moore said. The Montana Co-op has started a pilot program called Kids Co-op that allows youth to run and participate in their own version of the program.

“They have their own bank account, and board of directors,” Moore said. “It helps to empower the kids, and teach them how to run their own business.”

The Kids Co-op is run just like the adult version. Instead, all goods are made by Montana youths.

Right now, the Kids Co-op sells handmade gift baskets made from recycled lumber, as well as firewood kits, and they have begun to provide food for events such as the Polson High School Winter Carnival.