The vision that binds the members of the Great River Co-op is a community-owned market that emphasizes locally grown produce and meats and locally made food products.
Some members are drawn by the idea of supporting local farmers and strengthening the regional agricultural economy; others emphasize the idea of fresher foods as healthier foods.
Some have become members as a way to support local economic development and the creation of jobs, while still others have joined to foster greater competition and choice in our area's grocery market.
“The Great River Co-op is intended to help realize each of those visions,” said Kim Mastrianni, a sheep rancher in Langdon, N.H., and the co-op's new president, who describes the undertaking as having “progressed farther and faster than anyone had expected.”
Those visions brought a dozen people on a rainy December night in 2010 to the cellar of Walpole's town hall. The people who met there had heard about the idea of a food co-op through local news and through a public meeting to lay out the idea at the Fall Mountain Regional High School. Those who gathered on that night had volunteered to become the organizational group to drive the idea forward.
Together, they envisioned a store that would serve the greater area of Bellows Falls and Walpole – as many as 10 towns and a population of more than 21,000.
In subsequent meetings, the group settled on the name “Great River Co-op.”
The Connecticut River was known by its native peoples as the Great River; the river also unites Vermont and New Hampshire, which the co-op intends to serve equally.
The name was also a nod to Bob Jasse, founder of Alyson's Orchard, who sponsored the Great River Festival several years earlier in an attempt to raise awareness of local agriculture and local foods, and to bind the farming communities in both states.
Through a grant from the Minnesota-based Food Co-op Initiative, the co-op has been able to hire Holly Gowdy, a Walpole dairy and beef farmer, as the project's manager to work with other area farmers to build support and a network of future suppliers for the co-op.
The group has also received support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development office to conduct a market study and financial analysis of the project.
Steve Fortier, the executive director of the Meeting Waters YMCA and the co-op's first president, said that consulting firm Co-op Development Services concluded that the greater area of Bellows Falls and Walpole has the market strength.
“Now we have independent evidence to prove that the area will support it,” Fortier said.
The co-op's members now have a structure to build. The group's board is planning a fundraising campaign, drafting a business plan, and evaluating two possible sites on Route 12 in Walpole's commercial district.
A larger goal: to increase the number of member-owners to 1,000 before the store opens.
Owner-members can buy one $25 ownership share to join the co-op; owners of four or more shares can vote for board members.
The board's volunteer members, which can number as many as 14, serve staggered three-year terms. Any member can step forward and run for election to the board.