As our mission statement says, we aspire to be “Individuals nourishing community nourishing individuals.” This circular phrase has been an ongoing source of inspiration and guidance. It encourages us to maintain high product standards so that the products we provide our community are nourishing. It leads us to be care-full in how we treat one another so that our social interactions may also be nourishing. (continued below)
Sundance Natural Foods is a traditional natural food store specializing in: unprocessed or minimally processed foods, organic foods, organic, wild-crafted and locally grown produce, conscientiously produced nutritional supplements, cruelty-free body care products, minimally and transported packaged natural foods, macrobiotic foods, and other ethnic cuisines, low salt and salt-free foods, fine wines and beers, imported and domestic cheeses, desserts, and indulgences (coffee, chocolate, alcohol, ginseng, kava kava, sweet treats, etc). All of the dishes we serve for the soup, salad, hot bar and grab and go case are “organic” – meaning at least 95% of the ingredients in each dish are organically grown. Sundance customers come into our store in large measure because they trust us to act as “gatekeepers,” applying special criteria to each product that we carry. Insofar as it is possible, we intend to provide wholesome, organic, fair trade, locally made products. If any staff member has opinions concerning what we should or shouldn’t carry, please share them with the grocery manager, the proprietor or the General Manager.
We use these general guidelines in selecting our products:
a. Health: We endeavor to provide healthy alternatives to the fare found at the average American grocery store.
b. Ahimsa: We try to select products on the basis of their harmlessness. For instance: Organic over commercial to spare our topsoil and to not contribute to toxic degradation of the environment or our bodies; products from organizations that pay livable wages to workers and/or are not engaged in unscrupulous or immoral activities; products using reusable or recyclable materials.
c. Bioregionalism: We give preference to products from local farms and businesses in order to support our community and to minimize our carbon footprint. Whenever possible we select the products of small businesses over those of large ones.
Key to Sundance’s approach to business is a reverence for the earth, from which we ultimately gain all our sustenance. In reaction to the corporate farming model, which treats the land like a factory and thinks only of the costs of inputs and the price of outputs, we want to cultivate relationships in which we see the earth as a living entity – we seek to help restore the health of the land as well as providing nutritious, unpolluted foods to genuinely nourish our bodies. To this end, we support organic agriculture and food production, and eschew practices that destroy the topsoil and pollute the air, land and water with toxic by-products. We feel this to be critical to the long-term survival of our planet.
