Recent food recalls have raised a question in almost every home in America: What am I feeding my family? At Happy Day, we’re answering with Happy Day Local, an initiative built on partnerships with local farmers and producers right here in our valley. By partnering with these producers and farmers, we have been able to start a miniature Happy Day Local market that is currently set up in our main office, available for purchase online. With products ranging from food to body care and health, there’s a wide variety of locally made, healthy options for everyone.
Before we get to what’s on the shelves, let’s talk about the why. Happy Day is made up of people who live here, work here, and raise families here. We share the same love for this valley and the same desire to see it thrive. That belief led us to start something bigger in 2021: Happy Day Local. Not as a buzzword, but as a real investment in building a food system closer to home. Our goal is better quality, more transparency, and stronger regional ties. To get there, we’re working toward vertical integration, which simply means we handle as many steps as we can ourselves, from raising and growing to processing and baking, and source locally whenever possible.
We’re already seeing the benefits ripple through our community. When we first started, we partnered with 14 producers. Now, we have 24 and we’re still growing! What started as getting local beef into our restaurants has become so much more, and it affects you as well. With Happy Day Local, you can get to know the people behind every item, and it gives you the unique opportunity to question the methods and processes it takes to get a product to a shelf. That kind of openness is hard to find on a grocery store shelf. Grocery store beef, for example, can travel thousands of miles and change hands several times before it reaches your cart. Our products are raised and made just miles from your home. Fewer handoffs means fewer places for things to go wrong, and a shorter line of accountability if they do.
Local farms are green space. Compared with the footprint of a big box store, a working farm can store carbon in its soil and support the land around it. And unless you really can’t stand the sound of a rooster, responsible farms make good neighbors. Not only are they great for the environment, but there’s also some major benefits in it for you, too. Locally grown produce spends less time in transit and on shelves, and it can ripen fully before it’s picked. Fresher produce often retains more of its nutrients, so you can taste and feel the difference. Our lotions, soaps, and other body care products are made with natural ingredients, and the ingredient lists are short enough to actually read. The meat on our shelves is antibiotic and chemical free, maintaining its quality and the ‘natural’ endorsement. All of this to say: We’ve got the goods and we want to share them with you!
All products listed below are available at Happydaylocal.com. You can also see everything currently available, along with details on where each product is made and who’s making it!
Happy Day Local is only as strong as the producers and neighbors who support it. Thank you for helping us build a food system closer to home. Shop the market in our office or online at Happydaylocal.com, and watch for new products as we keep growing.
