A grieving grocery: Whole Earth keeps evolving
Bruce Smith of River Falls checks out the fresh fruit while staff member (they got it wrong in the paper) Beck Forsland restocks greens at the Whole Earth Grocery late Friday afternoon. Volunteers and staff intend to maintain the momentum built up largely by the extremely dedicated, former general manager Tom Parent, who died unexpectedly last month. Bob Burrows photo.
About a month after the untimely death of Whole Earth Grocery General Manager Tom Parent, the growing grocery co-op continues to advance the plan and vision he supported and helped formulate.
The sting of its loss still fresh, Whole Earth continues its mission.
Former Produce Manager Erynn Delahousaye and Managerial Assistant Lisa Starrett agreed to temporarily co-manage the store. If it works the two may take on the duties permanently.
“We want to do this for an interim period of about six months,” Delahousaye said last week.
She said after that time, they’ll evaluate things and decide whether to continue or recruit and hire someone. Volunteers operate Whole Earth, but the general manager and a few others get a modest salary, according to Delahousaye.
“We have wonderful volunteers,” she said. “We have really dedicated employees who’ve taken on more duties.”
The co-manager said the community gave an amazing outpouring of support and help after Parent’s death last month.
People offered to run the store, to donate woodworking skills for new shelves and to contribute to a newly established memorial fund.
Delahousaye said other co-ops in the region have offered help and advice, and the coffee distributor said it would come and train people if needed. She said the outreach renewed her new faith in people’s will to have a co-op grocery.
“It made me realize how important this co-op is,” said Delahousaye. “It’s proof that people value the co-op…”
Coffee buzz
Whole Earth’s co-manager assures: The coffee that everyone knows and loves will continue.
“His big vision was the coffee,” say Delahousaye about Parent. “He’s really the one who got it off the ground.”
The grocery roasts beans in house, right in the store’s front window. It gets huge bags of green coffee beans then pours them into one of four roasters. Whole Earth offers a wide selection of fresh-roasted coffees, including flavored ones.
“That was Tom’s baby,” she said about the coffee. “He was an aficionado.”
She said he loved to roast it, drink it and talk about it, “His timer and apron are still hanging up there. That’s a fixture now.”
Delahousaye said the freshly roasted coffee really took off and become a niche item for the store. Customers can grind beans in the store if they want.
She said people come to get their favorite flavor plus often buy the beans as a gift.
The new co-manager said one of Whole Earth’s goals is to bring into River Falls items that people normally only see in the Twin Cities — like freshly roasted coffee.
Co-op continues
Delahousaye said she and Starrett don’t plan any major changes in operations. She mentioned a few things happening now that Parent supported and helped plan.
# Liquor license: The store got its liquor license and now sells wine, much of which is organic.
# Expansion: Whole Earth moved its office into an adjacent space that used to be the “democratic office” in order to make room for the wine.
# Cheese: Customers can now choose from an expanded selection of “artisan cheeses.”
# Meats: Shoppers will find fresh meats available at the store — all sustainably grown, which means that while the meat producers aren’t certified organic, they use similar practices to raise and process the meat.
Delahousaye said all of Whole Earth’s produce is organic and that nearly all of it comes from local growers. Locals provide many products: Milk, honey, maple syrup, salmon.
She said the store gets produce from local growers for as long a season as they possibly can — from about April until November. Otherwise, the store gets its produce from an organic warehouse named Roots and Fruits.
Delahousaye said, “It’s our practice to buy from small suppliers.”
Membership privileges
Shoppers don’t need to be a member to buy from Whole Earth, but the store offers daily and weekly specials for members.
How does one become a member?
Delahousaye said they only need to fill out a form and pay a one-time fee of $65 to become a lifetime member (includes a $5 processing fee). Members get a Whole Earth stock certificate, as well as a 10% discount on their first day of shopping.
Students can get a discounted membership for $10 a year. After all, Delahousaye adds, students need healthy food choices, too. She said members can pay the $65 in installments if they want.
Many may not realize that Whole Earth and the River Market coop near downtown Stillwater, Minn., extend reciprocal memberships. Shoppers there can come here and get membership privileges, and vice versa.
She estimates that Whole Earth’s coop has about 1,000 members now.
Members and other shoppers can find a natural or organic alternative to just about every product found in other grocery stores: Produce; meat; cheese; cleaning products; pet supplies; lotion; lip balm; health and beauty items like shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste; 16 kinds of tea; frozen vegetarian meals; vitamins and supplements; natural chewing gum; ice cream; a big selection of organic, high-cocoa-content chocolate bars; bulk supplies of nuts, grains, seeds, spices and granola; environmentally friendly toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags and cleaning products; packaged pastas; canned foods; baking supplies; jarred jellies and jams; cookies, crackers and chips; and now wines.
Then, now
According to long-time co-op member and former board member Thomas Smith, Whole Earth started in the early 1970s after a back-porch meeting in 1972.
He remembers working there in 1975 in one of the first paid staff positions. Smith said back then, some employees took their pay in discounts or food.
The private owner of a natural foods store on the corner of Main and Elm was looking to sell.
He ended up selling to one of his employees who was keyed in to the growing coop movement happening in the upper Midwest at that time.
From there it moved to a building in what is now the M&I Bank parking lot. Smith said the location was perfect — a big walnut tree for shade plus good alley access.
After the alley, it was back to Main Street in 1979 to the space between Lund’s hardware store and what is now EconoFoods’ parking lot. Smith said during that period, the coop grew and expanded product selection.
After a 1983 move to a smaller space on East Walnut Street (used to be the KinniCroix vet clinic), Whole Earth struggled for several years before moving to its current Main Street location in the early 1990s.
Smith said, “Tom was largely responsible for bringing the coop out of the red and making a viable, vibrant business…Tom was really the right man at the right time — no doubt about it.”
Delahousaye said Whole Earth began based on an ideal: Natural foods and having access to them. She said Parent worked hard to further that ideal and the grocery coop.
She said, “It’s been apparent since he died that his energy is still very much here.”
