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Draft:Whole Earth Center

Coordinates: 40°21′05″N 74°39′39″W / 40.351497°N 74.660747°W / 40.351497; -74.660747
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Entryway of Whole Earth Center in Princeton, NJ, in March of 2022.
The Whole Earth Center building, as viewed from Nassau St. facing northeast.

The Whole Earth Center is a non-profit organic food grocery store in Princeton, NJ, carrying many bulk items (where consumers bring their own container) to reduce packaging waste[1]. Included is an in-house bakery and a small self-serve eatery serving vegetarian food. In summer, tables and benches outside the store provide much-needed expansion seating for diners.[2]

Governed by a non-profit board, the store earns money from sales and pays taxes[3] but annually spends all of its earnings[4] events sp9nspring discussion groups on healthy living[5], Bike to Work Week, the annual Princeton Environmental Film Festival[6], Princeton School Gardens Cooperative[7], The Suppers Program (now rebranded as "Eating for your Health"), The Town Topics newspaper, and the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.[8] The non-profit also supports the local environment by donating to, and working closely with, organizations such as the D&R Greenway[9] and Friends of Herrontown Woods.[10]

History

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The Whole Earth Center was founded in April of 1970,[11] the same year as the first Earth Day, to provide healthy, sustainable food choices and to raise funds to reduce harmful impacts on the environment. The founders were five women (Barbara Parmet, Florence Falk, Margot Sutherland, Hella McVay,[12] and Susy Waterman) who raised $4,500 in a door-to-door, child-in-tow, funding campaign that enabled them purchase the center's initial stock of bulk foods.[13][14]

The store's original location was a 10-square-foot space at the intersection of Pine and Nassau Streets (now the location of Thomas Sweet). The store moved to its current location near the intersection of N. Harrison St and Nassau St six months after its founding.[3] In 1994, it increased its footprint by expanding into the neighboring store's space, and in 2008, it conducted a LEED-certified renovation of the entire building that added solar panels to its roof.[3][4]

Location

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The Whole Earth Center store is located at 360 Nassau Street near the intersection with Harrison Street. Its parking lot can also be accessed and exited on North Harrison Street via two one-way alleys on either side of a doctor's office building (very near the intersection with Nassau Street).

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Stratton, Jean (2009-09-02). "It's New to Us". Town Topics. Retrieved 2024-04-06.
  2. ^ The Whole Earth Center: About the Deli
  3. ^ a b c The Whole Earth Center: Bigger and Greener by Michele Alperin in the U.S. 1 newspaper, 4/1/2008 (updated in 2022). Last access 4/9/2024.
  4. ^ a b The Whole Earth Center: Our History on the store website.
  5. ^ Whole Earth Center of Princeton on website "allevents.in" shows recent environmental events sponsored by the non-profit.
  6. ^ About the Princeton Environmental Film Festival, showing the Whole Earth Center as a sponsor in 2024. Last access 6/19/2024.
  7. ^ Whole Earth Center (WEC) on localharvest.org notes that, by 2015, WEC had raised over $10,000 to support the town's school gardens.
  8. ^ "Environmental Commitment". Whole Earth Center. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  9. ^ "D&R Greenway, Whole Earth Partnership". Princeton, NJ Patch. 2017-11-22. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  10. ^ "Whole Earth Center donates $3,000 to FOHW". Community News. 2015-06-18. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  11. ^ Levin, Anne. "Keeping it Independent". princetonmagazine.com. Retrieved 2024-04-06.
  12. ^ Knapp, Krystal (2024-04-02). "Princeton couple to be honored for land conservation efforts by state group". Planet Princeton. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  13. ^ "Local Grocery Store's Aim Towards Sustainability". AIM2Flourish. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  14. ^ Podger, Pam (2020-04-22). "The Whole Earth Center: A Sustainability Story". The Watershed Institute. Retrieved 2024-04-07.

See also

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40°21′05″N 74°39′39″W / 40.351497°N 74.660747°W / 40.351497; -74.660747