Whole Earth Center (Princeton, NJ)
The Whole Earth Center is a non-profit natural foods grocery store in Princeton, NJ. It was founded in April of 1970, the same year as the first Earth Day, to provide sustainable choices to reduce harmful impacts on the environment. The founders were five women (Barbara Parmet, Florence Falk, Margot Sutherland, Hella McVay, 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.
The store's produce is 100% organic and, if possible, locally sourced within a 150-mile radius. The store carries hundreds of bulk items to reduce packaging waste, including spices, grains, beans, nuts, coffee, dried fruit, and household cleaners. There is a bakery providing bread and muffins made daily without preservatives and a deli serving fresh-made, vegan and vegetarian prepared foods. There is a peanut-butter-maker, where you put in fresh peanuts and they are immediately crushed into fresh peanut butter. Also on hand are specialty ingredients for macrobiotics, some household goods, and some local grass-fed, pasture-raised, hormone- and antibiotic-free meats and fish.
In addition to the store, the non-profit organization helps sponsor events for healthy eating and environmental preservation, including in-store discussion groups on healthy living, Bike to Work Week, the annual Princeton Environmental Film Festival, Princeton School Gardens Cooperative, The Suppers Program (now rebranded as "Eating for your Health"), The Town Topics newspaper, and the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.
The Whole Earth Center store is located at 360 Nassau St. near the intersection of Nassau Street and North/South Harrison Streets.