Sisters Jamie Choler and Sara Choler Hale started Fair Shares Combined Community Supported Agriculture in 2008 to aid local farmers by selling their provisions to customers at three distribution points in St. Louis. “The CCSA lets farmers know that if they grow it, we will buy it,” says Hale. Members select a share size and a weekly or biweekly pickup schedule. Memberships range from $36 to $52 a week. Providers receive payment in advance, and members pay, up front, a minimum of $150. Fair Shares, which began with 225 members, is now at 350, with “people signing up by the minute,” says Hale.
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Go for the unique items, which change with the harvest.
Straub’s Fine Grocers dates back to 1901, when William A. Straub opened his first store, in Webster Groves. Each morning he headed out into the community to collect orders, which he filled once he was back at the store, and delivered them later in the day by horse and buggy. Trip Straub, current president and CEO, remembers going to the Clayton store as a young boy to have lunch with his grandfather. “As a kid, we didn’t go to McDonald’s every week, so getting to eat with Grandpa at his work was pretty cool,” he recalls. For four generations, Straub’s has been offering high-quality specialty foods and fresh meals prepared in-store.
Go for the chicken salad, which is made daily.
Schnucks was founded in North St. Louis by Anna Donovan Schnuck, grandmother to the current generation, in 1939. Her husband, Edwin, was in the wholesale meat business, and their children—Ed, Annette, and Don—each opened up stores of their own. The family began reorganizing their seven stores in 1947 and in 1952 incorporated the business as Schnucks Markets Inc. “The fastest way we’ve grown has been by acquisitions,” says Paul Simon, senior communications specialist. “In 1970, we acquired the Bettendorf Rapp chain; in 1995, National; and in 2018, Shop ’n Save.”
Go for the pork steak, which was invented by Don and Ed Schnuck.
Back in 1854, Dierbergs Markets began as one store on Olive Street Road, now Olive Boulevard. It’s grown to 24 stores in the metro area and one in Lake of the Ozarks. Laura Dierberg Padousis, vice president and secretary of Dierbergs Markets, and her brother Greg Dierberg, president and chief executive, are the fourth generation to run the chain. Laura says she’s learned by watching the previous generations at work. “Our family vacations weren’t really vacations,” she says. “It was my dad’s opportunity to visit other grocers.” Now, she does the same thing. “I’m constantly visiting other grocery stores to learn,” she says.
Go for the Crownie, a cake baked with a chocolate brownie base.
