The Moscow Food Co-op is known for presenting students and the community with unique and healthy alternatives to their normal diets. Now, it is showing its flavorful options off to the entire city.
On Thursday nights, the co-op hosts Tasteful Thursdays, a weekly event that showcases the best the co-op has to offer. This free event features live music, booths for local food purveyors and free massages for patrons. The Co-op also offers free samples of local cheeses, wines and unique products like lentil brownies.
“Tasteful Thursdays is a way to bring the community together to celebrate the changing of the seasons and enjoy these new tastes and flavors that we have going on as we transition from fall into wintertime,” said Co-op Outreach and Education Coordinator Misty Amarena.
Amarena said their goal is to connect the community with those who produce the food or the products they use.
This yields many benefits for local producers like Amber Park of Cru Selections, a wine house and distribution company from Woodenville, Washington. Park offered samples of ciders and beers from local breweries to Co-op customers.
“It’s nice to be able to get the word out,” Park said. “Cider is a really fast-growing market. They’re a little higher price point, so it’s nice to pour before the consumer commits to buy something that’s a little pricey.”
Co-op customers Angelina and Chris Slaysman, who only three weeks ago moved to Moscow from Texas, have been frequenting the Co-op since they moved to town.
“The quality up here is just phenomenal,“ Slaysman said.
Angelina said she liked the different food tastings offered.
“Different recipes for you to try out, different local products to try that are all organic and homemade,” Angelina said.
Park said she believes it is important to connect with local customers.
“Their values in what they’re buying are in line with what we’re selling. I don’t sell to Safeway’s and corporate stores… they just don’t have the consumers that are interested in the products that I’m selling. This is right up my alley,” Park said.
Tasteful Thursdays are free to the public every Thursday night from 5-7 p.m. at the Moscow Food Co-op.
Bradley Burgess can be reached at [email protected]