Buy Local!

 Buying local means more than just buying food and other products and services from businesses in your town. It means patronizing the places that, in turn, are committed to bettering your community. That’s what Bart’s has always been about. When we succeed, it’s not just about our business growing, it’s about the communities that support us thriving as well.

 

When possible, we source our ingredients and supplies need locally. Like fresh peaches from Apex Orchards in Shelburne and blueberries from The Benson Place and Burnt Hill Farm in Heath.

We're building a small scale ice cream mix making facility.  This plant will make ice cream mix for Snow’s Nice Cream and Bart’s Homemade, as well as for other small ice cream makers.  As part of our long time support of local dairy, this facility will allow Snow’s to again utilize local milk and support multiple farms through the purchase of their milk.

 

We are active members of a number of organizations that play integral roles in sustaining our community. We have been active members of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) for many years, proudly supporting this fantastic organization as it has fostered connections between farms and consumers in the Pioneer Valley for nearly 20 years. CISA maintains an online directory of farms that sell food directly to consumers, at farmfresh.org.

Bart’s was instrumental in helping launch Our Family Farms, a local dairy cooperative based in Greenfield that sells the best tasting milk in Western Massachusetts. These eight family farms are surviving the worst dairy industry crisis ever because they are committed to their community and the community, in turn, has shown its commitment to their brand.

When we wanted our community to have better choices for finding fresh, sustainably raised food, we helped found River Valley Market. Today, this Northampton co-op operates in a green-constructed building and boasts fresh produce, fresh meat and seafood, cheese and dairy, bread and baked goods, an in-house deli, a wide selection of bulk foods, and a great selection of natural and organic grocery items. Best of all, it is owned and operated by its members!

Through Connecticut River Valley Foods, we help foster local businesses by offering fulfillment and distribution services to small food producers that use local, sustainably-grown ingredients.

We support organizations like The 3/50 Project and The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, groups that focus on supporting local businesses and endeavors.

And we’re always trying to reduce our carbon footprint, so that our community’s environment can be a bit cleaner. We recently changed out all of our old fluorescents to new electronic versions which will save 15% on our lighting electric usage. We also changed out six fan motors for more a efficient type and also installed computer controls to turn off the fans and compressors when the freezer or cooler has reached the desired temperature.  The computer then cycles the fans and compressors as needed.   In the past the fans ran all the time and the compressors rarely shut off.  This new equipment has already reduced electric usage by about 14%.