At VG's Grocery, we are proud to support Michigan businesses by offering locally and regionally grown fruits and vegetables, meats, and other products throughout our stores. From hometown brews to nearby salsa we carry over 2,000 local items.
Benefits of Locally Grown:
- Locally grown food is full of flavor. When grown locally, the crops are picked at their peak of ripeness versus being harvested early in order to be shipped and distributed to your local retail store. Many times produce at local markets has been picked within 24 hours of your purchase.
- Eating local food is eating seasonally. Even though we wish strawberries were grown year round in Michigan, the best time to eat them is when they can be purchased directly from a local grower. They are full of flavor and taste better than the ones available in the winter that have traveled thousands of miles and picked before they were ripe.
- Local food has more nutrients. Local food has a shorter time between harvest and your table, and it is less likely that the nutrient value has decreased. Food imported from far-away states and countries is often older, has traveled and sits in distribution centers before it gets to your store.
- Local food supports the local economy. The money that is spent with local farmers and growers all stays close to home and is reinvested with businesses and services in your community.
Local food benefits the environment. By purchasing locally grown foods you help maintain farmland and green and/or open space in your community. - Local foods promote a safer food supply. The more steps there are between you and your food’s source the more chances there are for contamination. Food grown in distant locations has the potential for food safety issues at harvesting, washing, shipping and distribution.
Find out more about our local business partners by selecting locations in the map below:
Quick reference by department
Bakery:
Bay Bread Company, Bit Baking Co, Crooked Tree Bread Works, Field & Fire, Grand Traverse Bagel, Grand Traverse Pies, JJ Lomonaco & Co, Kind Crumbs, Little Rooster Bread Co, Ludwick Bakery, Monica’s Best Gourmet Cookies, Paul’s Mom’s Cookies, Super Green Market Bakery, Tres Hermanos, Underground Cheesecake
Dairy:
Sunrise Farm, Hamilton Eggs, Herbruck’s Poultry, Ranch, Inc., K&K Dairy LLC, Gernaat Dairy LLC, Deluur Dairy, Swiss Lane Dairy Farms, Nash Farms, McCune Centennial Farm
Meats:
Koegels Meats, Michigan Brand, Superior Foods
Grocery:
Great Lake Potato Chip Co., Food for Thought, Steenstra Windmill Cookies, Koeze, Ferris Coffee & Nut Co., Schuil Coffee, Cheeze Kurls, McClure’s Pickles, Faygo, Better Made Snack Foods, BLiS, TCR Food Processing, The Granola Goddess, El Matador, La Fiesta, Higher Grounds, Hudsonville, Kar’s, Coloma Frozen Foods, Dave’s Sweet Tooth, Roaster Jack, Country Fresh, Pop Daddy Popcorn
Deli:
Little Diablo Salsa, Hippies Chippies, Williams Cheese, Natural Northern, Old Europe Cheese, Garden Fresh Gourmet, Oh So Cheesy, Sam’s Famous Bar Cheese, Michigan Turkey Producers, Ada Valley Meat Co., Albie’s Foods, Miller Amish, Great Lakes Cheese, Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory, Farm Country Cheese House, Superior, Idyll Farms, Pearson’s Foods
Produce:
Eisenga Potato Farm, AL Johnson & Sons, Aseltine Cider Co, Belle Harvest Sales Inc., Casey Woodwyk, E. Miedema & Sons, SunnyBrooke Growers, Miedema Produce, Gun lake Farms, (DJ Alley), New Day Blueberry Farms, North Bay Produce, Richter Farms, Premier Melon Company, Riveridge Produce, Eding Brothers’, Celery Farm , Lubbers Brothers, Superior Sales, Victory Farms , Todd Greiner Farms, Hackert Family Farms, Traverse Bay Fruit Co, Twin Bee Orchards, Bolthouse Brothers Farm, Ruhlig Farms & Gardens, Wittenbach Farms
Floral:
Great Lakes Glads, Neal Mast Greenhouse, Huizenga Brothers Greenhouse, Michigan West Shore Nursery, Reed Perennial Farm