Starting with Food

It all started with food. Much of the food being grown on Rutherford County’s sustainable farms is exported to Asheville and Charlotte, while residents of the county struggle to find a consistent market for local, nutrient-dense, & affordable food. And so, as a starting point, we will focus our energies on shrinking the gap between local farmers/producers and consumers.
The Community Farm Stop of Rutherford County is a community-owned food market serving Rutherford County.  Our mission is to build a robust market for the farmers in Rutherford County who emphasize raising food crops in an ecologically responsible and sustainable manner; provide the community with a consistent market for local, nutrient-dense, & affordable food; and to honor the power and ability of community members through collective ownership.

Our Vision

The Rutherford Co-op is a multi-stakeholder cooperative, which means that the company is collectively owned and operated by local producers, its employees, and community members. The member-owners founded the co-op to address a major gap in our local food system. While many people in the community have wanted locally produced food, Rutherford County producers had already found financially viable markets in nearby metropolitan areas.  We united to satisfy the desire among consumers for affordable, quality food from Rutherford County’s producers and to build a stable, local market for those producers. 


In doing so, we strive for justice, equity, and sustainability. In 1970, the educator Paolo Friere wrote, “If for a person to be in the world of work is to be fully dependent, insecure, and permanently threatened—if their work does not belong to them—the person cannot be fulfilled. Work that is not free ceases to be a fulfilling pursuit and becomes an effective means of dehumanization.” Rutherford Co-op seeks to bring about the freedom that’s possible for our community when we own our labor. We prioritize stable, humble, and widely shared economic growth over the rush for massive profits for a select few. We believe that together, we can identify the most salient problems in our community and solve them collaboratively.

Want to know more? Shoot us a message!

rutherfordcoop1@gmail.com
Rutherfordton, NC