NORWAY — Fare Share Food Cooperative, a staple of Norway since 1978, is now offering 15% off to all shoppers who walk or bike to the store every Wednesday through October this year, and a new discounted grocery section with a growing variety of items.

The Co-op is also pleased to announce they have joined the network of local free diaper pantries serving our area, and have started collecting donations with round-ups at the register that raised nearly $1,500 for local charities in 2022.

The weekly discount for walkers and bikers is available in partnership with Fare Share’s longtime neighbor, local climate justice non-profit, Center for an Ecology-Based Economy (CEBE). The neighboring organizations hope the discount will make shopping locally more accessible to those without vehicles and encourage those in walking or biking distance to skip the drive and minimize their carbon emissions to support local businesses and farmers.

With success, both Fare Share and CEBE hope to expand the availability of this discount. Some of CEBE’s other offerings include home weatherization programs, consulting with local municipalities to create resiliency plans, a beautiful new local cooperative solar farm, and a developing resident-owned local affordable housing cooperative.

With the new Discount Grocery section, Fare Share joins the grocers making sure food gets onto tables instead of being wasted in landfills. The section offers products at deep discounts, with most items costing under $4.

Manufacturers will regularly send seasonal products, products with packaging damage, mistakes, or changes, and products past their labeled “use-by” to landfills, and sometimes resell them to stores like Ocean State Job Lot and Brownfield Country Market.

Products like these can be resold because “expiration dates” in the vast majority of cases are not safety dates, are not regulated, and eating products past their labeled date is not correlated with food-borne illness.

In fact, according to the Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic and the Natural Resources Defense Council, an estimated 20% of all food waste is due to confusion around food date labeling, and the average household loses $275-$455 per year on food needlessly trashed.

Everything on the shelves in Discount Grocery is no more than one year past its labeled date, is checked for quality, is fully refundable if shoppers are unhappy with their purchase, and is even eligible for further in-store discounts.

Fare Share also continues to collect donations for the Food Fund, which supports those seeking assistance purchasing groceries for themselves and their families. To take advantage of the Food Fund, the diaper pantry, for information about our charity round-up program, or any of our other programs call or ask a staff member at the Co-op and they will be glad to assist you.

Fare Share is cooperatively owned by more than 750 community members who enjoy access to large seasonal discounts, 15% off every Monday, and 18% off for senior Member-Owners every Tuesday.

To learn more about Member-Ownership visit our website www.faresharecoop.org, call, or ask a staff member in-store. Fare Share Food Cooperative is open every day, including Sunday, from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. 443 Main Street Norway, ME, 207-743-9044.