Make-and-Take Jewel Corn Craft

Stop by the Community Room, 11am-1pm, for a fun and festive event for you and the kids! Create and take home your very own jewel corn. It’s the perfect opportunity to enjoy the season’s bounty, share in the spirit of giving, and make something special together.

Co-op Statement on SNAP Benefits during Government Shutdown

At Wheatsfield Co-op, we are deeply concerned that SNAP and other government assistance programs may be temporarily inaccessible starting November 1, 2025. For hundreds of thousands of Iowan residents and 42 million Americans who rely on these programs to access groceries, even a short disruption can mean difficult choices about food, bills, and other essentials.

Food insecurity is a shared reality that affects not only our shoppers and staff, but many across our community. As a cooperative, we look to Cooperative Principle #7, Concern for Community, as we work together to address this issue. We will be donating cases of non-perishable items to local food pantries and will have a box in the front vestibule to collect donations if you would like to contribute. Our November Change for Community recipient will be local food pantries and we have updated handouts with local community resources.

We also ask everyone to be gentle with staff and volunteers at food pantries and community organizations distributing food for free or low cost. Many of these organizations are already working at capacity and will likely face even higher demand if benefits are delayed or reduced. A little patience and kindness can go a long way. We can show care through our actions toward each other by being understanding, patient, and connected.

Together, we can uphold our cooperative values by centering compassion, equity, and community when and where it’s needed most.

In Cooperation,

Wheatsfield Co-op Staff

Community Resources:

Local Food Pantry Resources – McFarland Clinic

Story County Food Pantries & Programs

HOPE Pantry – Ames Community School District

Making the Most Out of Your Produce Purchases

Adam Calder
Wheatsfield Produce Manager

A customer called me up recently to vent her frustrations with perished produce. She was confused, because she bought produce on a Sunday and by Wednesday it had already begun to deteriorate. She didn’t understand why this was so, when historically all produce was raised organically and people would store produce in pantries, cellars and larders for the entire winter.

I can certainly appreciate her concern, and I also understand why this might seem counter-intuitive to a person in this day and age. We try hard at the co-op to sell high quality produce with a good shelf life, and we have a lot of help. Our technology has come far, and humanity has learned much about food storage and safety, then surely it would make sense that food bought today should easily last for months.

Historically, yes, people did store fresh food for entire seasons. They also had to contend with mice, bugs, mold, mildew, blight and rot in their food. If any of those problems afflicted their food, the food was eaten anyway. There was little choice, you either ate the food you stored or you went hungry. They did the best they could, as root cellars were cool year-round and would certainly add weeks and months to the viability of fresh produce. They also did not work magic, and the food retrieved and eaten from those cellars would be bruised, blemished, over-ripe, bug-eaten, shriveled up or otherwise maligned after its lengthy storage. People back then could not afford to be too picky or squeamish.

As long as people have been growing crops for food, they have also figured out ways to preserve that food during times of plenty so it can be consumed when food is scarce. Modern grocery store shoppers have become accustomed to having any fresh food they want, at any time of year, regardless of what season it happens to be. Traditionally, mushrooms were only found by gathering them from forests during the wet months of the spring and summer. You picked everything you found, ate what you could fresh, and dried or smoked the remainder within a couple of days. Blueberries never used to be something you could farm, they could only be gathered in the wild during a brief window in the summer. You ate as many fresh as you could and then preserved the rest by canning them or drying them.

You can extend the life of produce with some of our ancestor’s wisdom and our modern food storage knowledge. Absolutely enjoy the bounty of each season as our ancestors did, but shop for a menu you already planned out so you only buy what you need and can use in a week. Making a menu for a Tuesday that includes leftovers from Monday’s meal is a great way to reduce food waste. Resist the urge to buy more produce than you need, even if it is on sale for a great price, because if you don’t have a plan for that excess it will likely end up in the garbage. Make a casserole or soup out of your sprouting onions, wrinkly-skinned potatoes, limp celery and dry-skinned carrots. You will have a tasty, hearty meal and no one will ever know that the produce that went into it wasn’t perfect. If you make too much soup or casserole, then can or freeze it to conveniently enjoy later.

In a time of rising inflation costs, every small effort that reduces waste can have a positive impact on your grocery budget. When you save money while still enjoying quality organic food and eliminating food waste, everyone in your cooperative community benefits.

Congratulations and Welcome Board Members!

The Wheatsfield Board of Directors and Member-Owners unanimously approved the slate of board candidates during the 2025 annual meeting of the members on Tuesday, October 14. We would like to extend a warm welcome to Alexandria Atal, Christina Campbell, and Duane Pitcher to new three year terms on the Wheatsfield Board of Directors.

We also welcome Alex Ludolph, our Student Board member appointed for the 2025-2026 school year. She wants to join the Wheatsfield Board to strengthen local food systems and support farmers, drawing on her experience with a CSA-based urban farm. As a sustainable agriculture graduate student, she hopes to deepen her understanding of cooperatives and the business side of farming.

Thank you to all of our candidates for their commitment to representing the membership by serving on the Wheatsfield Board of Directors.

September 24^th Board Meeting Highlights

Curious how your Co-op measured up last year? Our 2024-2025 Annual Report showcases our community giving, local sales, environmental impact and more.

October is Co-op Month,

and we’re especially excited this year as the United Nations has declared 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives! At Wheatsfield, we know that cooperation is more than just a value—it’s the foundation of who we are. In a world where corporate profits often come before people, co-ops offer a different path: one rooted in community, shared responsibility, and care for one another. This month, we celebrate the radical power of cooperation and the role co-ops play in building stronger, more resilient communities.

The United Nations International Year of Cooperatives 2025 (IYC 2025) was launched at the ICA Global Cooperative Conference and General Assembly held in New Delhi in June 2024. The conference attracted around 3,000 delegates from more than 100 countries who discussed how cooperatives encourage prosperity for all. This year’s theme, “Cooperatives Build a Better World,” underscores the vital role cooperatives play in sustainable development and positions them as essential solutions to today’s global challenges.

IYC 2025 highlights cooperatives’ contributions to sustainable development across social, economic and environmental dimensions and emphasizes the unique ability of cooperatives to foster inclusive growth and strengthen community resilience. According to the United Nations General Assembly, the resolution “notably focuses on the capacity for cooperatives to drive inclusive development, particularly in developing countries. It recognizes the role of cooperatives in promoting the economic status and capacity building of women and the wellbeing of vulnerable and marginalized people.”

Co-ops continue to be organized by communities across the U.S. and the world, anywhere people are interested in exercising more control over the kind of products and services they’re able to buy.

Here are several facts that highlight co-ops’ impacts on communities and our world:

• There are more than 30,000 cooperative businesses in the U.S.
• The food co-op communities across the country that own National Co+op Grocers (NCG) work together collectively to strengthen our ability to positively impact our food system and grow the cooperative economy in an inclusive and environmentally regenerative manner.
• Thirty-seven percent of food co-ops’ sales come from organic products (compared to 3% at conventional grocers), and 24% of sales at co-ops are from local products (as opposed to 2% at conventional grocers).
• Annually, $9 million was collectively donated to local community organizations by NCG co-ops.
• Co-ops work within our supply chain and industry and with the federal government to advocate for product labeling, disclosure of potentially harmful ingredients or contaminants, and protections for workers within our supply chain.