Good Stuff NW - Good Groceries: Getting Good Food to Rural Areas, Supporting Producers

Kristy Athens founded Good Groceries in 2020 to deliver local produce, proteins, and value-added foods from Northeast Oregon's farmers, ranchers, fishers, and small producers to their neighbors' homes and workplaces. "It's everyone working together to bolster our local economy and get good food to people," she said.

Athens moved to the Northwest from Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1995 and, after bouncing around the region for a few years, began studying for a masters in food systems management at Marylhurst University. After getting her degree, she landed a job with the Northeast Oregon Economic Development District and came across a concept for a local brand called Genuine Wallowa County (GWC), which she then developed into a business packaging and selling gift boxes of local artisan goods.

Good Groceries offers seasonal produce from farmers like Aida and Felipe of Jimenez Farms

After three women farmers inquired about the possibility of adding their products to the GWC lineup, Athens realized there was an opportunity to support local food producers. GWC Provisions launched in June of 2020, and after selling the gift box business to another local entrepreneur, Athens rebranded it as Good Groceries in honor of her father-in-law, who would lean across the dinner table and say, “Gooooooood groceries!”

Currently delivering every week to drop sites in Wallowa and Union counties in addition to offering home delivery and shipping, customers order from the online store, paying with credit card or Venmo (delivery customers may use personal checks, cash, and SNAP/EBT).

With more than 50 vendors offering products from fish, meat and produce to health and personal care items, Good Groceries is helping support and build a more vibrant and resilient local food and agriculture system in a remote rural region.

Jams and jellies from Jean Collins in Heppner are favorite products at Good Groceries.

"Good Groceries shows what it looks like when a business's values and its daily work are the same thing," according to Tom Hering, co-founder of Benefit Corporations for Good, an Oregon-based certifier of purpose-driven small businesses. "Whether it's a same-day delivery for a family that's fallen ill, or taking the extra time to serve every SNAP customer with dignity, the mission isn't something added on. It's how the groceries get to the door. That's why we're proud to have certified them three years and counting."

With up to 80 percent of the retail price of an item going to the farmer or producer, Athens is also dedicated to donating a portion of Good Groceries' proceeds to local food pantries and other organizations like the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland. Her zero waste policy includes use of recycled packaging and donating food compost to local farmers for their animals. She's also just added an electric delivery van through a Healthy Food Financing Initiative grant made possible with support from regional nonprofits Ecotrust and MESO that support food entrepreneurs across Oregon.

With produce getting picked a day or two before customers get it, "it’s super fresh, and it is grown by your neighbors,” Athens explained, emphasizing that virtually all the proceeds from Good Groceries stay in the community. Farmers, producers and satisfied customers from North Powder to La Grande, Enterprise, Wallowa and Union are cheering.