Giving Back
Protecting the Flavors of the Holiday Season
This holiday season, even moreso than last, consumer packaged goods companies and consumers alike are feeling the strain of supply chain and climate change challenges on the food industry. Droughts, extreme rainfall and other climate impacts have been limiting supply and driving up prices for some grocery items for some time now.
Halo Award
We’re thrilled to announce that Frontier Co-op has been named the winner of the prestigious 2022 Silver Halo Award in the Social Service Initiative category by Engage for Good! The win recognizes our Breaking Down Barriers to Employment initiative supporting our employees and community members to overcome systemic barriers to employment and economic mobility by providing access to childcare, transportation, second chance hiring practices and an apprenticeship program. "At Frontier Co-op, our foundational belief is that doing good, works,” said Tony Bedard, CEO of Frontier Co-op.
Exploring the Viability of Ugandan Vanilla
Rebecca Skipp, Source Development Manager Frontier Co-op At the beginning of August, I travelled to Uganda with Corey Rolffs, Frontier Co-op’s Supply Integrity Manager. We spent a week driving through the country, stopping almost every day in a new community to meet with local vanilla processors.
Well Earth Partnership: Parsley and Dill from Tunisia
Herbs like parsley (Petroselinum crispum) and dill weed (Anethum graveolens) show their love for healthy soil with bright, green color and delicate flavor and aroma. The regenerative practices of good organic agriculture helps maintain the nutrients that farm soil needs to stay healthy and avoid depletion that can affect crop quality and yield after just a few seasons.
Well Earth Partnership: Cumin from India
In Rajasthan, India, our Well Earth partner Swani Spice Mills works with 250 farmers across several villages to produce high quality, organic cumin seed (Cuminum cyminum). To ensure strict adherence to organic growing principles, Swani Spice deploys an agricultural support team that visits farmers and provides training and guidance on the most productive ways to produce an organic crop.
Well Earth Partnership: Elder from Bulgaria
Our sourcing of Frontier Co-op elder leaf and elderberry is a great example of the mutually beneficial partnerships we build with our suppliers through our Well Earth sustainable sourcing program. Our Well Earth partner in Bulgaria supplies not only our elder products, but a number of herbs other that are all grown on small farms or responsibly wildcrafted.
Well Earth Partnership: Fennel from Turkey
Our fennel is sourced from a long-standing Well Earth partner in Turkey. It’s a local variety of sweet fennel grown in the region around the village of Tefenni in the southwest part of Turkey.
Well Earth Partnership: Pepper from Vietnam
Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is not native to Vietnam, but it grows well there. The country's economic reforms in the 1990s boosted pepper production and export and Vietnam has become the world’s top black pepper exporter.
Grow: Johnson County
Grow: Johnson County is a hunger-relief and educational farm not far from our North Liberty facility in Iowa City, IA. The three-acre farm grows organic fruits and vegetables that are donated to local hunger-relief agencies and provides hands-on gardening and farming experience for community members of all ages and backgrounds.
HACAP Food Reservoir
The Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) Food Reservoir is a nonprofit organization committed to providing food to the hungry. A Feeding America network member agency and American Institute of Baking (AIB) food safety accredited food bank, the HACAP Food Reservoir works in collaboration with community partners and businesses along with 105 non-profit partner agencies in seven counties of Eastern Iowa.
