Rally for Change

Anytime you check-out at City Market, you can choose to "round up" your total to the nearest dollar. At the end of the month, we donate 50% of those funds to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, 40% to an organization that aligns with our Global Ends, and 10% to a local non-profit.

In April, you collectively donated $24,682.35! 

  • $12,341.18 for the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf
  • $9,872.94 for the Vermont Foodbank
  • $2,468.23 for the Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports

May's 50% Partner: 

Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf

The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf is the largest direct service anti-hunger organization in Vermont. The Food Shelf provides critical nutrition assistance to more than 11,000 Chittenden County residents who struggle with food insecurity and hunger every year. Food Shelf programs provide groceries, hot meals, job training and support for thousands of our neighbors.

The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf received a total of $11,656.46 through March's Rally for Change register round-ups. These funds will help provide more than 20,978 meals for our neighbors who are experiencing hunger or food insecurity. This support also helps sustain our Homebound Delivery Program which provides deliveries of healthy groceries and prepared meals for people who are homebound due to age or disability. About 150 people each month receive nutritious food and friendly visits from Food Shelf staff and volunteers through this program. 

We’re so grateful for the amazing support of all the co-op members who round up at the register each month.  You do so much to provide nutritious food and build community for some of our most vulnerable neighbors!

May's 40% Partner:

Vermont Youth Conservation Corps

The Vermont Youth Conservation Corps’ (VYCC) Food and Farm Program employs young people (ages 15 and up) to learn about sustainable agriculture and gain workforce readiness skills, while helping to provide over 1,000 Vermonters in need with locally grown, organic food. 

VYCC’s Health Care Share is a farm-to-hospital public health program that connects families with fresh, healthy food and nutrition education at their doctor’s office. Health care providers at partnering medical centers identify families experiencing food insecurity, or diet-related illness and prescribe a nutritious diet with a Health Care Share: 15 weeks of fresh fruits, vegetables and poultry. VYCC Food and Farm crews grow and distribute shares to local family practices, medical centers, and community clinics throughout Vermont.

We need your help! Volunteers are needed throughout the growing season (May-November) to help weed, plant, harvest, wash, and pack vegetables. Your service increases the amount of food we are able to provide to Vermonters in need. If you are interested in volunteering with The Farm at VYCC, please email volunteer@vycc.org.

Stop by the VYCC Farm Stand in Richmond to purchase your favorite vegetables, pasture-raised chickens, eggs, flowers, and herbs! The Farm Stand at VYCC is a great way to purchase local, organic produce while giving back to your community!

May's 10% Partner:

Protect Our Wildlife Vermont

Protect Our Wildlife VT (POW) is an all-volunteer nonprofit comprised of biologists, wildlife rehabilitators, educators and other professionals who seek to protect Vermont’s wildlife from exploitation and to end the fur trade.

With the dedication and support from our statewide network of volunteers, POW monitors wildlife legislation and rulemaking in an effort to keep the public informed and ensure enforcement of existing laws and rules.  We provide referrals to people who are looking for humane ways to address wildlife conflicts, and we support Vermont licensed wildlife rehabilitators. POW educates the public about the dangers and cruelty of trapping and how personal decisions impact wildlife.  

For more information about POW, and how you can help to make Vermont a more humane state, please visit our website at:  www.protectourwildlifevt.org.   

About Rally for Change

In October 2014, City Market updated its program for collecting donations at the register! Previously, we selected a different non-profit each month and donated 5 cents for each bag our customers reused (our "Change for Local Non-Profits" program). Every register also included tear off coupons so customers could donate to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. In addition, each year in February we sold $1 Hearts for the Intervale Center and in September $1 Lunch Trays for Hunger Free Vermont, with all donations going to each respective organization. We've consolidated all of these programs into our new "Rally for Change" program which allows customers to "round up" their order at each register, each time they check-out at the Co-op.

In the name of education, opportunity, and streamlining how we do things here at the Co-op, we created a Rally for Change program! This program allows customers to “round up” their payment at the register (e.g., a $25.42 checkout could be rounded up to $26 for a $0.58 donation). The Co-op will then donate this “round up” change to a variety of local non-profits each month (so, not just one!) that are doing amazing work in our community. Want to round up to the nearest five or ten dollars? You can do that too! Each month, we’ll share who will be receiving the donations (in our newsletter, with store signage and through staff education).

With more than 4,000 transactions each day through our registers, we all have the opportunity to share what we think of as “small change” to rally for bigger community-wide change. This new Rally program will take the place of the “tear off” coupons we have at the registers and will also take the place of our Change for Local Non-Profits (or bag refunds) program.

Not to worry, a large percentage of each month’s donation will go to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf and we anticipate that this program will actually increase their donations. Through this new program, we will also continue to offer donations to local non-profits that are on the waiting list for our previous "Change for Local Non-Profits" bag refund program (and any new ones that we add to the list!). Here’s how the donation percentages will work out each month:

  • 50% to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, every month

  • 40% to an organization that aligns with the Co-op’s Global Ends 

  • 10% to a local non-profit that may not directly align so closely with our Global Ends, but still works to make our community a better place (much like the Change for Local Non-Profits Program)

This new program gives our cashiers and staff an opportunity to engage with our customers and together we’ll both support and learn more about the organizations that make our community a better place to live. We’re excited to give it a try and are interested to hear what you think!

Past Recipients

Do you run a local non-profit that aligns with our Global Ends?

Your organization can apply to become a Rally for Change 10% Partner. We are currently filling slots 4 years out (it's a popular program and our community has many amazing non-profits!). Visit our donations page to learn how to apply.