This year, we have BIG growth goals, and most of those have to do with being able to reach local stores so our customers can pick up products at their convenience. With that, we are part of a group that started a coop last year. Rolling Plains Coop is focused on being a Montana Food Distribution Company. So what does that mean? Our main goal is to help get local food to local people.
We want to do that in a variety of ways, starting with distribution. To get started, we will be partnering with food hubs around the state, taking Eastern Montana-made food to their coops and bringing back local food from central and western Montana to our locals here in Eastern Montana; some of the ways we are going to increase our footprint with this are to connect with people in as many towns as we can to find coordinators to have drop-off and pick-up points for distribution. So your small town of, say, 400 people could have 1 day each week where local food you order online is dropped off. Or, if you are a farmer, rancher, or value-added producer, we could pick up your products to drop at other locations for you. Now, some ways we would like to do this to help make it convenient are subscription boxes, such as a family pack that would automatically come with equal parts of fruits, vegetables, meat, and pantry items. We want every person and town to have some type of access to more variety of local foods.
We are looking at setting up our Hub location in Glasgow. This would be the center for our distribution as well as a place to help promote the coop. We want to expand the farmers' market in Glasgow. Helping to create a fun event out of it with themes, entertainment, increased vendors, food trucks, farm-to-table meals, family-friendly games, or promotions.
Another option we want to look into is building a community greenhouse to grow vegetables even in wintertime. Pairing that with building a commercial kitchen that would allow the products to be cleaned on-site or made into value-added products. The commercial kitchen could be rented out for farmers and ranchers to get started on value-added products, making farm-to-table meals, or ensuring no vegetables or fruits go bad by being able to either can, freeze dry, or dehydrate excess produce, creating a stable market for our value added producers not losing money on non-shelf stable products.
Being part of the coop for producers would give increased marketing, access, distribution options, and increased available consumers without having to do all the groundwork; the coop would be doing all the facilitating for you, letting producers keep doing what they do best to make amazing fresh food! Currently, our coop has 4 producers, 41 Grains, Montana Branded, Belle's Beef and Lamb, and North of Nowhere Farm. We are looking for more members as we are setting up distribution routes with other coops right now, and the more producers and variety of products we can offer, the more we can expand into market areas. Please contact me here at 41 Grains or check out our website at www.rollingplainscoop.com or email us at rollingplainscoop@gmail.com