The Co-op Kitchen—a Peek Inside

If you follow our fabulous local media (lookin’ at you, Daybreak!), you may have heard that the Co-op is exploring the idea of finding a new home for the Co-op Kitchen, a state-of-the-art production facility where our delicious prepared foods are made from scratch by our own chefs.

We’re here to tell you that the news is true! That said, it’s important to know that nothing is for sure yet, and at the moment we’re simply exploring the options. While we do, we’d love for you to have the facts. Let’s start with a quick primer on the Co-op Kitchen.

What the Kitchen is Not

Evil robots cooking food

  • An industrial wasteland
  • A factory with machines spitting out food
  • The setting for a dystopian food movie starring Dolph Lundgren
  • A fast food joint run by evil AI robots!

What the Kitchen Is

  • A big version of a home kitchen where people make delicious food
  • Home to some of the best chefs and top-notch food professionals in the Upper Valley
  • A place where our delicious prepared foods are made from scratch (wait, did we say this already?)
  • A highly creative and imaginative space, where our team develops new recipes and catering menus and generates new ideas
  • A vital outlet for small family farms who rely on places like the Kitchen for their livelihoods
  • A popular destination for local students and young culinary dreamers

The Kitchen has been around in a quiet Vermont neighborhood since 2000, taking over a bright, expansive space originally occupied by our friends at Madhouse Munchies. Originally called the Commissary, employees renamed it in 2017 and it was rechristened as the Co-op Kitchen. The Kitchen is just over 9,000 square feet—a bit more than we currently need—and employs around 20 people at any given time.

In short, though it may not have the visibility of our retail locations, the Kitchen is a huge part of what makes the Co-op special. If you love the Co-op’s delicious prepared foods and scrumptious catering dishes (and who doesn’t?), that’s where they come from.


Our Kitchen team works with the best fresh local ingredients, specialty products both healthy and decadent, and the best of our local bounty—grown by people we know by name on area family farms. This leaves a lot of room for creativity, leadership, and vision, so the people on this team give the products their unique blend of style and flair. They also have a heart for the community, which is on display regularly. Recently, when a local technical school had a crisis and needed to find a space for its culinary students to tour for the day, they called our Kitchen team, who gladly opened the doors and welcomed them.

So where do we go from here? The Kitchen and its staff could use a new home, so we’re exploring the options. Once we know more we’ll take it from there, and keep our members and shoppers posted every step of the way.

Questions for us or our Kitchen team? Reach out!

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Ken Davis

Ken Davis is the Co-op's senior copywriter. Email him at kdavis@coopfoodstore.com.