©Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels

Independent Retailer Shared Services Cooperative continued to work with various food businesses (often 7 days a week) to navigate many challenges with respect to food security. We measure our joint successes and collaborations by the number of jobs supported and employees impacted by our work, and increased incomes / decreased expenses…

The IRSSC congratulates Rick Gowell’s family and staff on the grand opening of their beautiful new store in Greene, Maine. Their staff has been working extremely hard, especially during these challenging times. The pandemic and other global issues are impacting the entire food supply chain, as well as the manufacturing industry…

The Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative (IRSSC) created our BUY-LOCAL Loyalty Program to help lower costs for consumers while also ensuring farmers are paid fairly for their hard work. The IRSSC created this program in response to the worldwide challenges created by Covid and reduced crop production. © The Independent Retailers…

Grass-fed Beef, Pasture Raised Pork & Poultry right here in Union, Maine! The Common Market is excited to be working with Green Meadow Farm, which is situated on 180 acres in Union, Maine. Did you know… — Grass-fed beef contains up to six times more Omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed beef.…

United Charitable has been awarded a 2021 USDA Farm to School Turnkey Grant through its fiscally sponsored program, ReTreeUS. This grant will enable ReTreeUS to support 10 schools throughout the state of Maine with ReTreeUS’ Back to School Garden program. This program solves major issues confronting school gardens, especially summer maintenance,…

The IRSSC has been providing technical assistance to a group of farmers in Maine for over 32 months at no charge; the IRSSC has invested well over 475 hours into researching and mentoring our clients. Additionally we were successful in securing a large grant from a private donor to support the…

The IRSSC is extremely grateful to have been working with Gary Sukeforth, principal owner of The Common Market, located at 40 Burkett Road, Union, Maine, for well over 9 years. Gary’s been a long-term founding member of the IRSSC, serving as an adviser, and is now retiring. The IRSSC facilitated the…

The IGC of Maine have a new video on TV and YouTube. You can watch it here, too. The organization is pleased to announce that they have a new web site as well: https://igcofmaine.com . IRSSC congratulates them on their efforts to increase awareness of local garden centers and urging customers…

We foresee working with Bad Adz, Shophero, and locally owned businesses impacted by the pandemic in a coordinated public relations campaign to help increase the gross sales for those businesses impacted. Our project will help make jobs more secure and enhance food security and education at the same time by leveraging…