Who We Are

Our Mission

Lakewinds Natural Foods, a full-service cooperative grocery, has served the western suburbs for over 30 years, and currently has locations in Minnetonka, Chanhassen and Anoka. The soul of the co-op has always been the people involved, and Lakewinds has enjoyed a high level of commitment from everyone: members, staff, and board alike. Lakewinds is a proud past recipient of the "Retailer of the Year" award from the Consumer Cooperative Managers Association.

In the beginning, there was a small buying club called the Minnetonka Buying Club, started in 1972 by Edith Stodola and Helen Davis. In the basement of the Davis' (long since demolished) Glen Lake home, a handful of volunteers stocked as many natural food items as they could find. The Davis’ garden provided organic produce and the little hen house provided fresh eggs. The members loved buying food for their families from “people they could trust”. The club moved to a couple of other houses before settling into the famous “Red Shack” behind St. Luke church in 1975. A progressive church with an enlightened worldview concerned with poverty, health, fairness and cooperation, St. Luke was the perfect environment for the co-op’s growth.

By 1983, the little red shack was overwhelmed, and the co-op moved to a small building at Minnetonka Blvd. and Groveland School Rd. Just six years later, enthusiasm for natural foods dictated another move. Across the street we went, to the current site of the hardware store, simultaneously changing our name to “Lakewinds Natural Foods” in a successful attempt to help make everyone in the community feel welcome. Six years later, in 1995, we moved to our present corner location, allowing us to grow into one of the largest natural food cooperatives in the entire Midwest. In 1998, we added Lakewinds Natural Home, just a few doors down, to provide our customers with safe and natural cleaners and paint choices, as well as wonderful organic clothing, artisan-crafted jewelry and fair trade gifts. In January 2006, we closed the Lakewinds Natural Home store so we could incorporate its product lines into the larger wellness departments at our Minnetonka and Chanhassen stores.

In the summer of 2003, Lakewinds merged with the Anoka Co-op Grocery and Café, a small neighborhood store in downtown Anoka, giving us a second location to serve our customers. The Anoka store (located on 2nd Avenue South, off of Main Street in downtown) has been a part of its community for over 25 years. One of the most appealing features at the store is the cafe. The cafe is open Monday through Friday for lunch and offers fresh dill rolls, salads, soups, entrées and desserts.

Ever since the Minnetonka store became crowded with success, Lakewinds has been searching for a third location to better serve the western suburbs. In the spring of 2005, construction was started on a 13,000 square foot store in Chanhassen. When it opened its doors on December 10, 2005, customers were welcomed to a beautiful new store featuring our new color palette of earth tones presented in low toxicity paints and building materials. The store was built with a careful eye towards using environmentally responsible and sustainable products, and will feature solar power panels on the roof by spring. In addition to many exciting new products, the new store features an artisan bakery, hot soup and entrée bar, larger salad and olive bars, a café seating area, and an expanded wellness department that incorporates the best of the former Natural Home Store with an even better selection of health and body products.

Just as construction started on the Chanhassen store, the long-desired Supervalu location just west of the Minnetonka store became available. While two simultaneous store openings would be a daunting task, the unique opportunity to ensure a comfortable shopping experience for our Minnetonka-area shoppers was too good to pass up. The new 14, 000 square foot Minnetonka store opened January 12, 2006, and features all the improvements showcased in Chanhassen, with one exception. This store will feature a wood burning pizza oven instead of the artisan bakery, and Chanhassen will carry take ‘n’ bake pizza while Minnetonka will carry Chanhassen’s artisan breads.

Each of our departments offers many exciting and unique items. These products and services are designed around serving the needs of our diverse member and customer base. We offer the highest quality products with an emphasis on organic, locally grown, and fair trade products.

At Lakewinds, we take pride in being unlike other stores, and one difference we think you’ll appreciate is our effort to provide you with the best customer service possible. To exceed your expectations, our staff truly needs to know about our products and services. That is why we invest in extensive employee training in areas such as membership, customer service and natural foods. Whether you are speaking to the person working in produce or at the deli, you will be talking with someone who cares about service and who wants to ensure you have a uniquely satisfying shopping experience.

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