Newark Natural Foods expands to meet demand

Sluggish economic conditions have not managed to stunt the growth of Newark Natural Foods, which is undergoing its largest store expansion ever to meet rapidly growing demand.

Contractors have finished most work on the half-million-dollar renovation that will double the size of the 2,900 square foot store, located on Main Street in Newark, said Gina Cimino, marketing manager.

Newark Natural Foods has blossomed since it started 41 years ago, when a handful of Newark residents banded together to buy organic food in bulk, she said.

The store, which is run as a non-profit cooperative, now has 3,100 active members and Cimino said more new members join every month.

Shoppers at the co-op know what they like, she said, and the store’s expansion will satisfy requests for a wider variety of frozen food and more produce from local farmers.

But Cimino said Newark Natural Foods is striving to be more than a grocery store - they are adding a community room to hold healthy-living seminars and a seating area where people can listen to live music or watch cooking demonstrations while they shop.

The additions will cater to the store’s growing niche market of health-conscious shoppers, a group that seems to be impervious to economic conditions, said Cimino.

Despite the fact that the natural and organic foods the store sells are more expensive than conventional foods, people will pay extra for healthier options, she said.

“In the long run, they are making an investment in their health,” she said. “To pay a little more on the front end will help you on the back end.”

While many Americans are trying to eat healthier, a growing number of people are being diagnosed with food allergies, like celiac disease, which affects one out of every 133 people, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation.

Many customers diagnosed with celiac disease visit Newark Natural Foods to buy gluten-free products and eventually begin browsing the shelves for other types of healthy food, said Cimino.

Most of the groceries for sale at Newark Natural Foods have no artificial preservatives or colors, no hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup and as many natural ingredients as possible, she said.

Some produce is organic and almost all produce comes from farms that do not overspray crops with pesticides and herbicides, said Cimino.

Headlines about salmonella outbreaks caused by foreign vegetables have made customers wary of where their produce comes from, she said, but Newark Natural Foods buys as much produce as possible from local farmers.

Supporting local farmers is important to Barb Scira, 44, of Newark, who worries the last of the country’s small farms could soon be replaced by developers who are keen to pave over America’s past.

Buying local produce benefits the environment because it reduces harmful emissions from transport vehicles, she said, and produce grown on natural farms looks and tastes better than many items in a typical grocery store.

“Some of the food in the supermarket is gargantuan and the farmers clearly have been messing with it,” she said. “You look at some vegetables and think of the sci-fi channel.”

The peaches, apples, strawberries and blueberries Paul Hauser grows on his small farm in Lincoln University, Pa., are mostly untouched by chemicals.

He said he has been selling produce to the co-op for 20 years and runs a sustainable farm where he only sprays crops as a last resort.

Horses pull a plow over the farm’s four acres of mixed vegetables and their manure fertilizes the crops, Hauser said, instead of chemical fertilizers that create gigantic vegetables.

Many customers want to see local farms succeed, he said, especially in an era where the average tomato travels 1,000 miles before it is tossed into a salad.

“I think there is a constant, growing awareness of where your food comes from and the environmental costs of eating food shipped from so far away,” he said.

The local food movement has drawn many more customers to Newark Natural Foods and Cimino expects steadily increasing membership as people become more aware of the health and environmental benefits of natural food.