Featured in Category

Wisconsin Cheeses Compete to be the Big Cheese of Willy Street Co-Op

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The Willy Street Co-Op is hosting their Fourth Annual Cheese Challenge, where 32 local cheeses compete to be the official “Big Cheese.”
Putting an edible spin on March Madness, Willy Street Co-Op customers are asked to fill out brackets predicting the winners of each round. The individual who is closed to predicting the actual results will receive eight pounds of cheese, one pound from each of the “Edible Eight” finalists. Although brackets were due March 14th, Willy Street invites customers to come in every Thursday through Sunday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. to sample cheeses and vote for their favorites. The contest continues until April 1st. The 2017 winner of the challenge was Extra Innings Triple Play from Hook’s Cheese Company, which is a blend of cow, sheep and goat milk that is aged over a year.

Food

Willy Street Co-op to Award $25,000 in Community Reinvestment Fund Grants

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The Willy Street Co-op is currently accepting applications for grants from their Community Reinvestment Fund until Feb. 28 at 11:59 p.m.
This year, $25,000 in grants will be distributed to a variety of projects focused on improving food access, sustainable agriculture, community well-being, equity and more. Recipients must be 501(c)3 or cooperative organizations working on projects benefiting Dane County that have not previously been funded by the grant. According to Brendon Smith, Communications Director for the Willy Street Co-op, the number of grants given, and the amount of each, varies depending on the projects mentioned in the applications. Last year, 14 organizations received a total of $35,000 in funding from the Community Reinvestment Fund.

City Life

Wisconsin-made gift ideas for the holidays

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Still looking for the right gift for your loved ones? Traveling over the holidays? Possibly leaving Wisconsin? Look no further. Here are ten amazing gifts ideas made in Wisconsin.

Food

Willy Street Co-op aims to help small vendors with monthly program

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Willy Street Co-op launched a program in September to help small businesses market and improve their products. The Retail Ready Lab program debuted during the co-op’s Eat Local Month promotion. The program provides support from the co-op and customer feedback on products for local vendors for one month. General Merchandise Category Manager Angela Pohlman said in a press release that the program was inspired by vendors’ interest to appear on the co-op’s shelves but whose products or packaging needed further development. Throughout the month, staff at Willy Street meets with the vendors, gives them space in stores to advertise and hand out product samples to customers, and features them in the business’s magazine and social media.