Farmer’s Pantry keeps Greeley’s groceries close to home

GREELEY — Greeley’s newest grocery store has a somewhat Las Vegas-like philosophy, believing that what’s grown in Northern Colorado should stay in Northern Colorado.

Calling itself a “community market,” Farmer’s Pantry is owned and operated by Todd Doleshall and Glen Cook. Both came from farming backgrounds and say they understand the plight of the local agricultural community.

“Our main goal is to help out some of the smaller farmers and smaller business people in the area who are just trying to get started, trying to break into the market,” Doleshall said. Those include Hazel Dell Mushrooms in Fort Collins, Innovative Meats in Evans and Boulder Organic Soups.

But Doleshall and Cook want to be more than just a local farm-to-table grocery store.

“I struggle with the fact that we’re in this amazing country and yet we have people that are starving or that have to be on subsidized food systems when we throw so much food away,” Doleshall said. So another goal of the Farmer’s Pantry is to repurpose as much produce as possible. It gives what Doleshall calls their “wrinkled” food — produce that’s still edible but may not be esthetically pleasing — to the local food bank or various shelters in town. Down the road, it hopes to open a commercial kitchen, where that produce can be turned into soups, salsas and other products.

While the pair had been kicking the idea around for some time, the impetus came when the downtown Safeway supermarket shuttered in June 2014. That closure left some 30,000 people without easy access to fresh food, an opportunity Doleshall and Cook couldn’t pass up, “so we worked with the DDA (Downtown Development Authority) and the health department here in Greeley to bring in this store (where) we have basically everything you would need,” Doleshall said, “while also trying to incorporate more Colorado products.”

“It feels like a throwback to the old neighborhood grocery stores,” said Pam Bricker, executive director of the Greeley DDA. “Couple that with really healthy food that is grown in the area and that’s the best of all worlds.”

Located in the former Book Stop building, Farmer’s Table opened in late November with the help of a grant from the Colorado Fresh Food Financing Fund. Since then, business has grown slowly but steadily.

“The first month, we averaged probably $200 a day in sales, and now we’re up to anywhere between $500 and $700 a day,” Doleshall said, but added that they’re hoping for better. “We currently have three employees, and right now they’re the only ones getting paid.”

Still, the owners are optimistic about the future, with plans to incorporate an adjacent coffee shop into the business and start a hydroponic farm in the basement.

“It’s a much different experience than if you go to a typical grocery store where you end up with a trunk load of groceries and go directly home,” Bricker said. “This is what downtowns are all about.”

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