Our five point plan:

Mission: The Great River Co-op serves as a leading resource for community, environmental, economic, physical and social well-being within the Great Falls region.

Vision: It is the vision of the Great River Co-op that all people in the Great Falls region live healthy lives within an environment that provides access to locally-grown and locally–produced foods and strong community-based connections.

Values: Great River Co-op is a member-owned organization that will:

• Strive to uphold the Seven Cooperative Principles;

• Provide access to local goods and services;

• Engage with its member-owners, customers, vendors, and the larger community in ways that are mutually beneficial;

• Facilitate an environment that promotes social interactions among members and connections to our farmers and producers;

• Serve as a sustainable business model;

• Ensure that all of our neighbors have equal access to Great River Co-op benefits.

In Hanover and other areas where co-ops operate, the number of growers, farmers markets, and farmstands has actually increased. The presence of a co-op tends to encourage not only new growers and the expansion of existing farms, but also educates and inspires consumers to increase their purchases of a variety of local foods. The Great River Co-op can become an engine that supports and encourages business development for local farmers.

Co-ops are owned by people who live in the community in which they’re located. The co-op’s management is governed by a board of directors that the local owner-members elect, not a faraway group of executives who never visit our area. This gives co-op members and customers much more direct control of the co-op. Also, the co-op’s money is kept in local banks and the co-op’s profits stay in our area instead of being sent off to pay for regional and national levels of management.

Co-ops also tend to have an approach of “working with” consumers instead of “selling to” consumers. For example, co-ops typically conduct ongoing food and nutrition education programs for their customers and in local schools. The Great River Co-op hopes to include a greenhouse area where school classes can start seeds in the late winter, watch them sprout, and then transplant them in the spring. In addition, many co-ops work directly with local farmers and food producers to encourage – and, in some cases, financially support – tests of new crops, new food products, and expanded production. Supermarket chains rarely become so deeply involved in consumer education or in the agricultural economy of a local area.

To finance the store, we need to show lenders that there is a base of customers who will shop at the co-op after it opens. One of the best ways to do that is to register 1,000 paying co-op member/owners. The sooner you join and help us reach that number, the sooner the store can be built and will open.

Yes!

As of 2024, the coop is pursuing the site on the Bellows Falls island at the old Robertson Paper Mill. We will build a new structure that will include a retail space, commercial kitchen and food processing and storage facilities.

We are excited to drive more business and traffic to the economically diverse island.