We try our darndest to eliminate waste as far back in the supply chain as humanly possible however, some of our suppliers are only set up to get us goods in single-use packaging meaning we cannot always be 100% zero-waste.
For example, oats come in a 50lb paper bag. We recycle this bag but sadly, it’s still single use. The way we see it is that a 50lb bag of oats uses WAY less packaging than 50 x 1lb packages of oats so we’re still significantly reducing packaging.
Our intention is to tread as lightly as possible on this earth. We think through the impact of every product from the seed to when it reaches your doorstep. As we grow, we will be able to push for more change from more of our suppliers.
We aim to create a food system that improves the health of our lands, our communities and ourselves.
We try to source as much of our produce as possible locally so that it has as few food miles as it can. Not all of our local produce is certified organic, but all of the farms we source from follow organic practices. It is incredibly expensive for small farms to get certified, and we don’t want to exclude farms that are doing everything right just because they couldn’t afford the certification.
Remember buying local means you are not contributing to harmful practices like factory farming and large agribusiness.
If we can’t get something locally then we source from a distributor who provides organic produce.
Finally, we also occasionally do flash sales where we take on ‘ugly’ or ‘rescued’ produce. Ugly means produce that it was not going to be sold at a mainstream store. This is the cucumber or potato that looks a little odd (tastes just as good!) and is not up to the normal grocery store’s visual standards.
Rescued means that we buy overstock food that is perfectly good but would have been destined for the landfill had we not caught it in time. Sometimes farmers or distributors have too much of a certain item that they can’t sell. Not only does this avoid food waste, it helps the farmers out by paying for produce that normally wouldn’t have a home.
Our dry goods are mostly certified organic, or locally grown.
We source dry goods locally whenever possible, and are proud to offer many Colorado-grown grains and dry beans. Unfortunately, Colorado doesn’t provide the perfect climate for things like almonds and dates so a lot of our dry goods are ordered in bulk from around the country or internationally.
We receive our dry goods in enormous quantities, in recyclable bags, and are greatly reducing the amount of single use containers you normally get at the store.
These come from our local producers/suppliers. Sometimes companies goof up their products a little bit, mispackage something, produce too much of it, or discontinue a line.
Whenever we find these, we bring them to you as rescued products. Still perfectly good, just not the right fit for other stores. Our role in this is to provide a market for this food. Doing this we (including you!) have been able to divert so many local, delicious products from the landfill.
These will usually be packaged (often in plastic) but our belief is that it’s still better to use the food/product than trash the whole lot.
We get our locally-sourced products in reusable bulk containers, or vendors pick up jars to fill their products directly. This completely eliminates waste from our supply chain.
However, most of the stuff we receive in packaging comes from bulk food suppliers. Food needs to come in some type of container to keep it sanitary while shipping.
With the small buying power we have, we don’t have the ability to strong arm all food suppliers into using our reusable containers, but one day we will!
Luckily we have the ability to buy in bulk and the packaging we receive is always better than small serving packaging from the store (which all come in multiple layers of single-use packaging to get to that point). If you have questions about the packaging for any item we are selling please email us at [email protected] and we can provide that info.
Large paper bags with string ties – we recycle the bags and collect the string to use for things like our Holiday Cookie Jars
Cardboard boxes – we reuse or recycle these (you’ve probably used them yourself at checkout!)
Bulk plastic bags – we collect these and take to Eco-Cycle where they can be properly recycled
Large plastic jugs or barrels – we reuse / recycle these / offer them out to the community
Plastic buckets – we reuse / recycle these / offer them out to the community
Before getting to you, we package all of our products in glass jars, bread bags, and reusable clamshells or egg cartons. We buy all of these brand new, made from virgin materials due to health department codes.
If you get delivery, we pack your order in reusable boxes made from recycled plastic. Please return the boxes with your order 🙂
Some of our products do come packaged. These are either rescued items (see above) or some of the essentials we have decided are must-haves in order to make Nude Foods a viable one-stop-shop for most people, even if they are not available in bulk.
This is where Nude Foods Market is doing some groundbreaking stuff!
We have had the absolute pleasure to work with so many local brands, who are nice enough to deal with our extra particular standards when it comes to using their products. There are so many local sustainable food producers here in Boulder and we want to showcase them while getting their products without the packaging.
This is how it works; we form the connection with the company and we give them reusable containers they can fill with their product. When we’ve used all the products, we clean the containers and return it to the company.
For example, we get fully zero-waste local tortilla chips, pasta, chocolate desserts, keto donuts, bread, olives, veggie and bone broth, granola, soap, lotion, potato chips, crackers, popcorn, micro greens and so many more!
These local products account for more than 40% of what’s on our shelves. We are getting products from the source without any single-use packaging at ALL!
We hope to be the force that makes this the new accepted standard.
When first launched Nude Foods we delivered everything by bike which was AWESOME! As we grew, this became untenable because we had too many orders to efficiently do via bike and were delivering much longer distances.
We now have an electric van which we use to transport products between our stores! And we use local companies to deliver our online orders stacked with their business’ delivery routes – increasing efficiency and lowering emissions.
Want to get your groceries delivered? Check out our FAQs to see if you’re in our delivery zone!
