Working together to build a sustainable community, while treating all people with kindness and fairness.
Ends Statement
1) Educate, expand, empower and engage a community centered on food, health and sustainability.
2) Provide high-quality, safe food, at fair prices, with an emphasis on local, organic, fairly traded and natural goods.
3) Achieve and maintain profitability while operating in accordance with the eight cooperative principles.
We envision our community as a vibrant, exemplary model of healthy, sustainable, and cooperative living.
More information about our cooperative principles can be found here.
Articles, Bylaws, and Board Policies
People’s Food Co-op document links are here:
Articles, Bylaws, and Policies Revision 04.22.24
About People’s Food Co-op
People’s Food Co-op has two locations—La Crosse and Rochester. We are a longtime community fixture with easy-to-access downtown locations. We offer everyone a fun, convivial shopping experience.
We ensure the availability of high-quality safe food at fair prices with an emphasis on local, organic, fairly traded, and natural goods. We create an educated, empowered, and engaged community that thinks and cares about food, health, and sustainability. We develop a robust cooperative economy.
People’s Food Co-op—
La Crosse in 1990.
People’s Food Co-op—Rochester in 2013.
Our History – Cooperation Among Cooperatives
The People’s Food Co-op we know now was created by several thousand courageous co-op members in Rochester, MN, and La Crosse, WI. In 2011 these people took a great risk and voted to merge their two co-ops into one large organization to serve a dynamic, educated, growing community. On January 2, 2012, the consolidation became official, and the stage was set for development of a new Rochester store. In the first year our combined sales exceeded $16 million. The next was a year of integration and preparation for relocation and expansion of the Rochester facility. When “new store” operations grew Rochester sales by 90% in year one, it became clear that together, our stores were serving the community’s needs very well.
PFC is now powered by 11,600 owners and has sales approaching $22 million. Our stores are respected as true assets in downtown La Crosse and Rochester. PFC is widely recognized as a thriving business bringing people together to build a more sustainable community.
La Crosse - People’s Food Co-op was born from a natural foods buying club that was founded in 1973. The founding members had participated in a class about whole foods that was offered through the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. The buying club’s intent was to put into practice what they had learned in class—to provide themselves with a source of high quality, low cost, and minimally processed food. Incorporated in 1978 and having grown through three locations during the 1970’s, the newly formed National Cooperative Bank made one of its first loans to People’s Food Co-op in 1981, allowing the purchase of Bruha’s Grocery at 911 Adams Street. By 1990 sales had crossed the $1 million mark and expansion was again an imperative.
In 1991 PFC’s board voted to change to a member equity system rather than a dues-based membership program. This major change was a strategic key to assist the cooperative with gathering capital for its move to a bigger store downtown. On March 1st, 1993, PFC opened its doors at 315 Fifth Avenue South. Sales climbed past $2 million in the first year. In 2004, after purchasing the building they had leased for a decade, People’s Food Co-op undertook a $4.5 million expansion and renovation project that took the store from $6.3 million in annual sales to $8.3 million in the first year after completion. Ten years later PFC’s La Crosse location has annual sales approaching $13 million annually.
Rochester – The Good Food Store was founded in 1975 by a core group of organizers who had met in the Rochester Public Library. The first location was on Third Avenue and was mainly a bulk foods store that was built with member investments and the proceeds of numerous bake and rummage sales. The organization faced a major test when a flood wiped out the store and its entire inventory on July 4, 1978. But with tenacity that would serve them well in the years to come, they rebuilt the store with labor and commitment of their members.
The co-op officially incorporated in 1983. Annual sales remained under $500,000 until the year 2000. In 2003 the co-op passed the $1 million mark for the first time, but by 2005 sales had receded. In 2007, the co-op began to grow under new leadership at an invigorated rate crossing the $2 million mark by 2007, achieving close to $3 million in 2009 and surpassing $4 million in 2011.