This holiday time of year, we are grateful to offer an inspiring array of colorful, flavorful, healthful produce – varieties that you can’t really find in the regular grocery stores –grown by an equally inspiring array of colorful farmers!

Connectedness, community, invention and innovation, creativity, and perseverance are part of the fabric of every day’s adventures – we know you live and breathe this just as we do here at Sun Produce Co-op! Which is why we love to work with you and for you! And why with your support we are beginning to see the reality of our own field of dreams: by growing it, together, we are lifting up local farms and food, creating a sense of place, a sense of taste.

This past year, the Co-op has

• Expanded state-wide partnerships, serving 7 of 15 counties in
• The state of Arizona, including 40+ farmers, bakers, pasta, and beverage makers
• Increased local food sales to just under $1 million
• Paid out 85-90% of all Co-op sales as income to small-scale Arizona
• Farms, producers, and local food distributors
• Hired 2 additional delivery drivers and a warehouse assistant to increase our ability to pick-up and distribute local foods
• Served over 75 small businesses, schools, markets, food banks and institutions
• Helped support over 300 Arizona jobs
• Established the Sun Produce Cooperative Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit
• Supported 5 Dietic Interns to complete their Registered Dietician rotation at the Maricopa Co. Dept. of Public Health with the David Schwake Memorial Scholarship and continue his legacy of community service
• Hired an AmeriCorps VISTA member to increase the Co-op’s capacity to contribute to solutions to poverty and food insecurity

There is so much more to be done – Arizona farmland is disappearing as this is written and as hard as we are all working, without the actual farms…there will be no local food!

Our gift request this coming year for us and for you:

Get to know your farmers – you will love them, I promise.

Buy local food and let us know how that is working for you, what we can do to make it easy, what you do with it, why you enjoy it and why it is important to you!

Drop us an email any time – we would love to hear your questions, thoughts, and ideas – (and local food recipes!): [email protected]

Sending best wishes for health and happiness for you all! And happy Chanukah, happy Kwanzaa, happy Solstice and happy Christmas everyone!

Cindy Gentry

President