2025
Conspiracy
Mission
Report
Food Conspiracy Co-op acknowledges our presence on the ancestral lands of the Tohono O'odham and Yoeme people. We honor their ongoing stewardship of this place, its food systems, and its living desert. We are grateful to grow our cooperative on land that has sustained community, nourishment, and relationship for thousands of years.
A Note to Our Owners & Community
Since 1971, the Food Conspiracy Co-op has been conspiring for a better food system.
We are Tucson's only community-owned grocery store, a place where Owners vote, profits stay local, and the people who shop and work here have a real say in how this place is run. We do not answer to distant shareholders. We are accountable to this neighborhood, these producers, and this community. What we do on Historic Fourth Avenue is part grocery store, part democratic institution, and entirely rooted in the belief that people, not corporations, should control their local food system.
This is our first Conspiracy Mission Report. Each figure in these pages gives us a clearer picture of where we stand, points us toward where we need to go, and brings into view the stories and people behind the work. These numbers are not the mission. They are the tools we use to see how well we are living it.
What these numbers ask of us is not just how much we did, but whether we are moving toward a more just, more connected, more resilient food community.
All figures are for calendar year January 1 through December 31, 2025. We will be honest about what we cannot yet measure, and we are committed to measuring more going forward.
With gratitude,
The Board of Directors
Food Conspiracy Co-op, 2026
Rooted in the Sonoran Desert
51 local producer accounts. A million dollars kept right here in southern Arizona.
In 2025, total store sales reached $5.98M, an 11.4% increase over 2024. Of that, $1,04M went directly to local farmers, ranchers, bakers, and makers right here in the Sonoran Desert. Seventeen cents of every dollar spent here goes directly back into our regional food economy.
And that dollar does more than travel once. It keeps circulating here, supporting other local businesses, wages, and producers in a way that money spent at a chain does not. The detail is in the multiplier figures alongside this page.
Expanding local sourcing, especially in everyday staple foods, is a top priority for 2026.
Grocery
Co-op
Your Co-op. Owned by You.
At Food Conspiracy Co-op, ownership is not a loyalty program. It is a stake in something real: a vote, a share, and a commitment to community food sovereignty.
In 2025, 55% of all sales came from our Owners, whose investment in this place and day-to-day shopping directly supports our mission. The remaining 45% came from the broader Tucson community. Our prices are accessible enough to attract everyday shoppers who are not yet Owners, and every one of them is a potential participant in this conspiracy. Inviting those shoppers into membership is one of our priorities for the year ahead.
Everyone can shop. Anyone can join.
Investing in Our Neighbors
Food cooperatives are not just grocery stores. They are economic actors in their communities. Our $17,628 in community contributions in 2025 tells part of that story.
Our community contributions in 2025 flowed through three channels: grants to local organizations through our Cooperative Community Fund (CCF), customer-directed Food Bank Round-Up donations at the register, and additional coded charitable donations.
2025 marked the return of the Cooperative Community Fund, a program with deep roots in our cooperative history, brought back with new energy. Our community nominated twenty local organizations. Owners voted. Four received $2,500 grants each:
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Tucson Village Farm
Supporting hands-on food education and youth access to sustainable agriculture in Tucson. -
Youth On Their Own
Supporting Tucson youth experiencing homelessness, keeping young people connected, safe, and in school. -
Community Gardens of Tucson
Growing food access and community connection across Tucson's neighborhoods through shared garden spaces. -
Watershed Management Group
Stewarding the land and water systems that sustain life in the Sonoran Desert.
The Food Bank Round-Up, driven entirely by the daily generosity of our Shoppers, raised $7,448 for our local food bank, keeping that partnership at the center of our giving all year.
We have also recently begun formally tracking donated produce from our fresh departments.
An Honest Look at Accessibility
$190,638 in EBT sales. One number, and a commitment to build on it.
This number matters to us. It tells us that neighbors who rely on SNAP benefits are shopping here, and that is exactly who this Co-op exists to serve.
EBT sales alone do not fully capture our commitment to food access. They don't account for our Field Day and Co-op Basics affordable product lines, our Owner and student discount programs, or the everyday pricing decisions we make to keep healthy food within reach.
The People Behind the Conspiracy
Food Conspiracy Co-op is a cooperative employer. Our Staff are participants in our mission, contributors to this community, and the reason this store works every day.
In 2025, our team of 37 employees kept the Co-op running: stocking shelves, serving Shoppers, maintaining our building, nurturing relationships with local producers, and carrying our cooperative values into every interaction.
Seventy percent of our Staff are eligible for healthcare benefits, and we are proud to offer that coverage. Work means different things to different people: some want full-time hours, and others value the flexibility of part-time, and we respect both. Our managers work with Staff who want full-time hours and benefits, offering cross-training and shaping schedules so they can reach and keep the hours that make them eligible. When we build a schedule, we weigh our current Staff's hours and needs first, and we do not over-hire part-time roles to stay under the threshold.
What it means to be a cooperative employer goes beyond benefits. It means practicing the Conspiracy Way: the values, behaviors, and culture that make Food Conspiracy Co-op a different kind of workplace. We measure ourselves not only by wages and benefits, but by whether our Staff feel they belong, are heard, and can thrive.
Food Conspiracy in the Co-op Network
We are not alone in this conspiracy. Across the country, 167 community-owned food co-ops operate 244 stores in 41 states, all guided by the same cooperative values. Here is how we fit in, and what that context reveals.
Local Sourcing: Co-ops vs. Conventional
The local sourcing numbers tell the most important story. Conventional grocery chains source just 2% of sales from local suppliers. The NCG co-op network averages 23%. Food Conspiracy Co-op is at 17%, more than 8× the conventional grocery average, and tracking toward the co-op network benchmark.
This is what cooperative ownership makes possible. Conventional grocery chains optimize for centralized distribution and margin. We optimize for community.
Staff Healthcare: We Exceed the Network
Across the NCG co-op network, an average of 57% of co-op staff are eligible for healthcare benefits, with a shared goal of reaching 100%. Food Conspiracy Co-op's 70% eligibility rate exceeds that network average. We share this not as a finish line, but as evidence of our commitment to our team, and as a floor, not a ceiling.
Aspirations, Not Just Numbers
These benchmarks are a beginning. In the Conspiracy tradition, we name our aspirations openly, not as promises, but as the direction we are choosing to move together.
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01GROW LOCAL SOURCING TOWARD THE CO-OP BENCHMARK At 17%, we are already 8× the conventional grocery average. The NCG co-op network average is 23%. That is our compass: deepen local producer relationships, onboard new Sonoran Desert growers, and keep pushing the percentage up.
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02EXPAND FOOD ACCESS DATA Gather and report on EBT transactions, Co-op Basics and Field Day sales, discount program reach, and donated produce by weight and value, telling the full affordability story.
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03RE-ENGAGE OUR BROADER OWNERSHIP Of 7,095 Owner accounts on file, 2,714 shopped with us in 2025. We aspire to grow both numbers, building on the 441 new Owners who joined in 2025, and creating more pathways for existing Owners to reconnect.
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04INCREASE COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION VISIBILITY Track and report donated produce, expand the Cooperative Community Fund, and continue the Food Bank Round-Up, building toward a more complete picture of our community investment.
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05MEET STAFF WHERE THEY ARE Keep cross-training and shaping schedules so Staff who want benefits can reach and hold the hours that make them eligible, while honoring those who choose part-time for the flexibility it offers.
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06PUBLISH THIS REPORT ANNUALLY This is the first Conspiracy Mission Report. It will not be the last. We commit to returning to our Owners and Community each year with transparent, honest, and improving numbers.
Right now, most of what we measure is activity: how many producers, how many sales, how many transactions. That is a necessary and honest first step. As this work matures, our goal is to move toward deeper questions: not only how much did we do, but what changed because of it? Who had more access to healthy food? Which local producers grew because of our relationship? Whose economic security improved? These are harder to measure, but they are worth the effort. We will keep getting closer.