Downtown food co-op raises over $ 17,000 for Feeding South Dakota
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By Main Street Square / Photos by Andy Greenman
strongest co-op presences in the Midwest and n 2000, Breadroot Natural Foods the new Breadroot General Manager Allan Cooperative was started by community Burkard has brought his specialized knowledge members who wanted to bring affordable, to Rapid City. “We are pretty fortunate in Rapid delicious, nutritional, and local food to a City to have such a strong co-op at Breadroot. single storefront. That idea has been able to The size of the store and the offerings rival keep this unique store open for over 20 years. those of the Twin Cities,” said “When you shop at Burkard. Breadroot, you are keeping "You're supporting a “What makes Breadroot so your money in [Rapid City], unique is we are located in and supporting the community business with integrity you live in. You're supporting the regional hub. We can offer that builds connections regional producers [from] as a business with integrity with local farmers, close as Piedmont all the way that builds connections with local farmers, ranchers, and ranchers, and producers." to Buffalo, Wyoming. It's great to offer our community quality producers,” stated Rachel -Rachel Wester, Wester, Marketing Manager for products at a reasonable Marketing Manager, Breadroot Breadroot. price. That is why co-ops were founded — that and to support The idea of food co-ops the local producers.” have been around for centuries however the Burkard joined the team at Breadroot in modern co-op has been around for 150 years. December from the Twin Cities and has eyes on Originating in Europe during the industrial revolution, modern co-ops gained popularity in expanding to match co-ops in larger cities such the 1960’s in the United States. as Minneapolis and Portland. “With the pandemic, we have noticed the The Twin Cities currently have one of the
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