Do you know if the honey you purchased is made by people who engage their local community in educational efforts? Are you certain that your olive oil comes from olives pressed in the most recent harvest? Can you be sure if the ingredients in your cider are grown or produced with practices that promote resource conservation and minimize synthetic inputs, including pesticides, herbicides and fungicides?

If your purchase was produced by a member of the Good Foods Merchant Guild, then the answer is yes, yes, and yes!

At Provisions, we strive to find ways to make informed shopping choices easier for our guests. We do not have one set standard criteria for entry into our shop, because we acknowledge the nuanced nature of food production. One rule may not encompass the unique challenges faced by producers in different fields, but one thing that a honey maker, cheese maker and cider miller can have in common is a drive to create something authentic and real. The Good Food movement highlights the details that are important in defining a craft and creates opportunities to educate eaters on the process it takes to bring a product to market. It is our hope that the Good Food Awards logo will help our customers identify products that they can trust, and inspire them to learn a little more about why.

The Good Food Awards are more than just decorative; they have also inspired a nationwide retailer’s collaborative, a merchants guild and this weekend’s 2nd Annual NYC Good Food Mercantile, hosted at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint. The Mercantile is where American producers are given access to share their products with like-minded retailers from across the country. Events like these help retailers meet the consumer demand for clean food in their shops, and they also keep us encouraged on the path towards a more sustainable food system.

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The Greene Grape is on a mission to build commerce and community between the people who make, purvey, and enjoy Good Food. We are a proud sponsor of the Good Food Awards and the Good Food Mercantile and a founding member of the Good Food Retailers Collaborative. The Retailers Collaborative is a group of like-minded stores across the country who share the values of taste, authenticity and responsible production.