AI Summary
5 min readLa Montanita Food Co-op began in the summer of 1976 when 300 families in Albuquerque pooled resources to source healthy food. Today it serves more than 16,000 member-owners through four retail stores—two in Albuquerque plus locations in Santa Fe and Gallup—and a distribution center that functions as a food hub. The co-op does about $50 million in top-line sales annually, with the distribution center accounting for roughly $5.5 million of that in outside sales. It operates three delivery trucks on the road six days a week, servicing over 250 local cafes and restaurants across New Mexico. One of only five U.S. co-ops that run their own distribution center, La Montanita uses that infrastructure to aggregate crops from northern and central New Mexico, backhaul product from its farthest store in Gallup, and—through a partnership with the New Mexico Public Education Development Program—get local food into school lunch programs.
What a food co-op is and how it differs from a supermarket
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of The Garden Journal
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:52) **Episode Introduction & Guest Welcome** - Co-hosts Lissa and Nina introduce the monthly Slow Food Santa Fe segment and welcome James Esqueda and Leah Quali from La Montanita Food Co-op.
- 2 (03:18) **La Montanita's Origins and Scale** - James explains the co-op began in 1976 with 300 families and now serves over 16,000 member-owners across four stores and a unique distribution center.
- 3 (03:56) **The Distribution Center as a Food Hub** - James defines how the distribution center differs from traditional models by creating a fair market for local and regional producers.
- 4 (06:39) **Operational Scale and Local Procurement** - James provides concrete figures on the co-op's $50 million top-line sales and its million-dollar local procurement program.
- 5 (08:20) **What Makes a Food Co-op Different** - Leah defines the co-op as a member-based business guided by shared principles, not just profit.
- 6 (09:05) **The Co-op's Five "Ends" (Guiding Goals)** - Leah and James walk through the five core principles established by the elected board of directors.
- 7 (11:59) **James's Personal Journey to Leadership** - James shares his background as the son of Mexican immigrants, how he discovered the co-op in high school, and why he felt called to close the food access gap.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Slow Food Santa Fe's Lissa Johnson and Nina Rosenberg talk with James Esqueda, General Manager and Lea Quale, Marketing Director, of La Montañita Food Coop about the opening of the new Avanyu Plaza store in Albuquerque amongst other topics.
More from this podcast
The Garden Journal →