Whole Earth Center

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Entryway of Whole Earth Center in Princeton, NJ, in March 2022. Whole Earth Center, Princeton, NJ.jpg
Entryway of Whole Earth Center in Princeton, NJ, in March 2022.
The Whole Earth Center building, as viewed from Nassau St. facing northeast. Whole Earth Center (Princeton, New Jersey).jpg
The Whole Earth Center building, as viewed from Nassau St. facing northeast.

The Whole Earth Center is a non-profit organic food grocery store and vegetarian eatery at 360 Nassau Street in Princeton, New Jersey that specializes in bulk items. [1] Mid-year, tables and benches outside the store provide expansion seating for diners. [2] Governed by a non-profit board, the store earns money from sales and pays taxes. [3] However, they spend all of their earnings [4] on programs for healthy living [5] such as Bike to Work Week, the annual Princeton Environmental Film Festival, [6] Princeton School Gardens Cooperative, [7] the Suppers Program (now rebranded as "Eating for your Health"), The Town Topics newspaper, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen [8] the D&R Greenway [9] and Friends of Herrontown Woods. [10]

Contents

History

The Whole Earth Center was founded in April 1970, [11] the same year as the first Earth Day, to provide healthy, sustainable food choices and to raise funds to reduce harmful impacts on the environment. The founders were five women: Barbara Parmet, Florence Falk, Margot Sutherland, Hella McVay [12] and Susy Waterman, who raised $4,500 in a door-to-door, child-in-tow, funding campaign that enabled them purchase the center's initial stock of bulk foods. [13] [14] The store's original location was a 10-square-foot space at the intersection of Pine and Nassau Streets. The store moved to its current location near the intersection of N. Harrison St and Nassau St six months after its founding. [3] In 1994, it increased its footprint by expanding into the neighboring store's space, and in 2008, it conducted a LEED-certified renovation of the entire building that added solar panels to its roof. [3] [4]

Location

The Whole Earth Center's parking lot can be accessed and exited on Nassau Street and North Harrison Street. [15]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Stratton, Jean (April 23, 2025). "Princeton's Flourishing Whole Earth Center Is Celebrating a Mega 55th Anniversary". Town Topics . Archived from the original on April 23, 2025. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  2. ↑ "The Whole Earth Center: About the Deli". Archived from the original on June 19, 2024. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 The Whole Earth Center: Bigger and Greener Archived June 19, 2024, at the Wayback Machine by Michele Alperin in the U.S. 1 newspaper, January 4, 2008 (updated in 2022). Last access September 4, 2024.
  4. 1 2 The Whole Earth Center: Our History Archived June 19, 2024, at the Wayback Machine on the store website.
  5. ↑ Whole Earth Center of Princeton Archived June 19, 2024, at the Wayback Machine on website "allevents.in" shows recent environmental events sponsored by the non-profit.
  6. ↑ About the Princeton Environmental Film Festival Archived June 19, 2024, at the Wayback Machine , showing the Whole Earth Center as a sponsor in 2024. Last access June 19, 2024.
  7. ↑ Whole Earth Center Archived June 19, 2024, at the Wayback Machine (WEC) on localharvest.org notes that, by 2015, WEC had raised over $10,000 to support the town's school gardens.
  8. ↑ "Environmental Commitment". Whole Earth Center. Archived from the original on April 6, 2024. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  9. ↑ "D&R Greenway, Whole Earth Partnership". Princeton, NJ Patch. November 22, 2017. Archived from the original on April 6, 2024. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Whole Earth Center donates $3,000 to FOHW". Community News. June 18, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  11. ↑ Levin, Anne (June 2, 2021). "Keeping it Independent". princetonmagazine.com. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  12. ↑ Knapp, Krystal (April 2, 2024). "Princeton couple to be honored for land conservation efforts by state group". Planet Princeton. Archived from the original on April 6, 2024. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  13. ↑ "Local Grocery Store's Aim Towards Sustainability". AIM2Flourish. Archived from the original on April 6, 2024. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  14. ↑ Podger, Pam (April 22, 2020). "The Whole Earth Center: A Sustainability Story". The Watershed Institute . Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  15. ↑ The two one-way alleys, and the Nassau St. driveway, can be seen on Google maps Archived August 8, 2024, at the Wayback Machine .

40°21′16″N74°38′41″W / 40.35444°N 74.64472°W / 40.35444; -74.64472

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