Downed trees and power outages cause headaches for people and businesses alike, especially grocery stores specializing in fresh, organic food. Outpost Natural Foods on State Street in Wauwatosa lost power for over 24 hours after the storms last week. Luckily, they were able to get a refrigerated trailer on site save as much fresh produce as possible.
“We kind of just rallied the troops and got anyone that was available in the company went out to Wauwatosa Thursday morning,” says Kurt Baehmann, Sustainability Manager for Outpost Natural Foods. “The power was back on, refrigerators were cleaned out and we emptied everything we could from the semi back into the store.”
Everything that couldn’t be saved was composted, which Outpost is no stranger to. They do business regularly with Compost Crusader out of St. Francis, who comes to collect their unsold and expired produce. On average, Outpost composts 400,000 pounds of food and clippings every year, which they cycle back into the store and sell as compost for customers to use in their homes or gardens.
“We ordered up a big 30- or 40-yard dumpster in anticipation of having to throw a bunch of stuff away,” says Baehmann. “By the time we separated compost, recycling and trash, we barely had anything to put in the dumpster. We thought that was really great.”
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Baehmann and the founder of Compost Crusader, Melissa Tashjian, share a passion for sustainability and work together in a few groups, including the City-County Task Force on Climate and Economic Equity.
The outcome seems to be right on brand for Outpost after 50-plus years of helping provide healthy, diverse and sustainable food to the community.
