What to do in October
This article was originally published in October 2012
October is a special month at PCC — it’s National Co-op Month, Non-GMO Month and Fair Trade Month. These are core values, essential to our past and future as a company, and we’re celebrating them now. In honor of Food Day on October 24, we’re redoubling efforts this month to contribute healthy food to local food banks.
National Co-op Month
PCC has been a model of cooperative success since we began as a food-buying club almost 60 years ago. We’ve grown to be the nation’s largest consumer-owned grocery retailer, with more than 46,000 active member-owners. We’ve worked with other co-ops around the country and have achieved great things, from creating a marketplace for fairly priced organic foods to educating our community about food and environmental issues. National Co-op Month is a great time to revel in these achievements.
Fair Trade Month
This month we also celebrate fair trade — the business model that assures small producers in other countries are compensated and treated fairly.
PCC has been a longtime supporter of fair trade and offers a variety of certified products including coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, rice and bananas. All our coffees are 100 percent organic, shade-grown and fairly traded.
Also exciting this year: Two Oregon farms providing produce to PCC (Gathering Together Farm and Spring Hill Organic Farm) earned domestic fair trade certification — the first farms ever certified in the Northwest.
Non-GMO Month
Many PCC shoppers are passionate about avoiding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food. That’s why for several years we’ve partnered with the Non-GMO Project, the first independent, third-party certifier to establish Best Practices and testing throughout the supply chain to ensure non-GMO claims are valid and verified.
We also continue to advocate for mandatory labels on GMO foods by supporting signature-gathering efforts for Initiative 522. We need 241,000 signatures of registered Washington voters by January to get I-522 on next year’s ballot. Volunteers will be gathering petition signatures at all PCC stores this month.
Food Day Food Bank Drive
Everyone deserves good food. So to celebrate Food Day and the movement toward healthy, affordable and sustainable food, we’re collecting contributions for our 10 local food bank partners from October 1 to 21. The donations will be used to purchase quality bulk foods at wholesale prices.
You can add a donation to your bill at checkout — $1, $5, $10, $20 or any amount you like. A $1 contribution provides 13 servings of brown rice or 33 servings of dried oats!