My second-grade teacher Ms. Lasche made sure our class recognized Earth Day, even if we never heard of it before. From second grade on, Ms. Lasche’s concern for the environment had a lasting impact on me.

No surprise, Ms. Lasche was a hippie from the ‘60s, starting with insisting that we address her as Ms.Lasche–unheard of in Northeast Iowa! For art projects we made sand candles. She showed documentaries of factories belching smoke and helpless ducks treading through rivers of toxic sludge. We sang sad Bob Dylan songs in class accompanied by some dude she knew with a guitar.

What grew out of the counter-culture sixties and a groundswell of concern for air and water pollution, turned into an established annual holiday in 1970. It’s led to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

Co-ops are all about protecting our environment. It’s no coincidence that cooperative grocery stores emerged at the same time Earth Day became a ‘thing’. Co-op members wanted less packaging for the food they consumed (hello Bulk Departments!), and they demanded more sustainable and organic produce.

At CCM we believe Earth Day should be ‘Earth Year’. We’re honoring the planet we live on (with a nod to teachers everywhere who teach kids about the environment) with an Earth Day celebration to remember:

Kids Can Cook! (I promise not to bring my guitar)
Bulk Sale
Plant Swap and Sip

Troy Bond

Community Co-op Market CEO

Earth Day Should Be ‘Earth Year’