Founded in 2025 in Allegheny County, Zeromile is building a worker-owned cooperative kitchen and market that puts food-production resources and decision-making in the hands of workers and small producers. Its dual-cooperative model pairs a buyers club for reduced-cost local food with shared production space, while connecting farms, cooks, and fermenters through community food programs and collaborative projects. Zeromile’s broader aim is a replicable, community-rooted food system centered on food access, economic sovereignty, and mutual aid.
Small World FoodSince 2007, Small World Food has operated as a cooperatively run Rochester food business, turning ingredients from local organic farms into handmade baked goods and naturally fermented foods. Its small-batch kitchen draws on old-world baking and fermentation traditions, while its market work connects as many as 15 regional farms with customers. The cooperative’s members, including local farmers, are paid according to what their contributions produce rather than a flat hourly rate.ROCHESTER, NY
Five Rivers Cooperative, IncFive Rivers Cooperative grows local produce while training new and beginning farmers in central West Virginia. Launched with its first crop of heirloom tomatoes and Swiss chard in June 2021, the cooperative supplies food to area businesses, schools, and the Mountaineer Food Bank. Its Nicholas and Webster county initiative uses intensive, resource-conscious farming to make small-scale agriculture and farm-related employment more viable.RICHWOOD, WV
All Good BakersAll Good Bakers, founded by Nick and Britin Foster after they began baking for regional farmers’ markets in 2004, runs Albany’s farm-to-bakery café with from-scratch breads, baked goods and casual meals. The shop helped launch the Capital Region’s first Community Supported Bakery in 2010 and builds its menu around seasonal ingredients, sourcing about 90% of them from vendors at the nearby Delmar Farmers Market from spring through late fall. Its Delaware Avenue kitchen also serves as a co-op workspace for other small local food producers.ALBANY, NY
Groundwork Market GardenGroundwork Market Garden is a two-acre USDA Certified Organic urban farm on Buffalo’s East Side, growing food in the city since 2015. Co-founders and co-owners Mayda Pozantides and Anders Gunnersen built the farm from vacant lots into a working operation with a farm stand, CSA and wholesale customers. Groundwork pairs intensive, soil-focused farming with community food-access work, including Solidarity Shares and its collaboration with nonprofit Fare Share WNY.BUFFALO, NY