Wytheville’s Seventh Day Adventist Church members have always been interested in healthy eating. For years, until COVID hit, the church offered vegetarian cooking classes. Now, the church is offering a way for local residents to purchase non-GMO and organic food, herbs, beauty products and more, through the Wytheville Natural Food Coop.
Once a month, Azure Standard, an Oregon company dedicated to organic farming, delivers products to the church so that those who have ordered products online can pick them up. According to its Facebook page, Azure has the largest selection of organic and non-GMO products in the nation.
Their list of products is long and includes frozen foods, meat, refrigerated foods, special diet foods, bulk foods, canned goods, paper products, kitchen supplies, herbs and natural supplements, essential oils, health and beauty items, laundry supplies, clothing and more.
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Antoinette Martin is responsible for bringing the service to Wytheville; the service is available to anyone in surrounding areas as long as they can pick up their orders.
Martin said she belonged to an Azure Coop before moving to Wytheville from North Carolina in 2012. For a while she belonged to a local coop, whose leader would pick up orders in Kingsport, Tennessee. However, that eventually ended, when Wytheville did not have enough orders coming in.
“But, deep in my heart, I wanted Azure back in Wytheville,” she said. “A few of us at our church felt the need for natural foods to be brought here, especially since King’s Produce went out of business.”
Eventually, the church found a health food store owner willing to deliver products to the church, and orders kept getting bigger and bigger. Martin figured it was a good time to ask Azure to return and the company agreed.
The church has been an Azure drop site since January. The next drop is slated for March 3; the deadline to order for this drop has passed.
“We feel so blessed that a door opened wide for us to have Azure Standard in our neck of the woods as our supplier for the Wytheville Natural Food Coop,” Martin said. “The Wytheville Seventh-Day Adventist Church is very excited about providing this service to the community, given the current concerns about the transmission of COVID.”
The next deadline for orders is Monday, March 22, at 7 p.m. The delivery is scheduled for March 30, at 8 a.m. in the church parking lot at 1600 Chapman Road, Wytheville.
To join the coop, visit the Azure website and sign up. Products are ordered and paid for online. There is no membership fee or commitment. There is a minimum order of $50, but if your order is below the minimum, it can be combined with another order. If there is a change in the delivery time or date, the company will notify you. Arrangements can be made with Martin on a case-by-case basis if you are unable to pick up your items at the designated times.
For more information, visit the Azure website at www.AzureStandard.com.
To reach Drop Coordinator Martin, call 919-763-2381 or email her at WythevilleNaturalFoodCoop@gmail.com.
To reach Millie Rothrock, call 228-6611, ext. 35, or email mrothrock@wythenews.com.