This Natural Food Store Cultivates Community with Local Businesses

Photos by Jacob Durbin

Abigail Mulligan

The Farmacy offers solace from the Appalachian winter. Fresh baklava greets customers at the front door and soft folk music plays in the background, making it easy for patrons to get lost in its atmosphere. Scents of nutmeg and clove pull customers into a room stocked with over 200 different herbs and spices.

A nostalgic sense of tranquility looms over The Farmacy, transporting customers to a simpler time. The classic wooden fixtures, herbed aromas and hand-written signs are rare among most modern-day health stores.

“It’s a healing store,” Farmacy owner Kevin Tidd says as Carrie—his spouse and Farmacy co-owner—nods in agreement. “It’s way more than an item on a shelf.” Carrie floats throughout the store, helping customers find various products and providing recommendations while Kevin acknowledges the range of meaning that The Farmacy has for the community.

The Farmacy acts as a place of refuge and empowerment for people who need it, and Kevin wants to challenge consumers to make more ethical purchasing decisions and to rethink what being healthy looks like.

The first of its kind in the region, The Farmacy was founded about 1970 by Athens native Barry Wolfe, who was later joined by his partner, Donna. A few years later, Sue and Tom Zano started working with them and eventually bought the store. She sold it to Carrie and Kevin in 2011, and they, along with their children, have been focused on providing natural products and nutritional education for the well-being of Appalachia ever since.

Buying the store was not the first run-in that the Tidds had with The Farmacy. Both Kevin and Carrie are West Virginia natives and worked together at Mother Earth Foods, a natural foods store in their home state. Kevin spent several years delivering different wholesale items to The Farmacy. Kevin says his connection to health food was a result of health complications early in his life, but “it really came from the idea of just wanting real food.”

The Tidds’ passion for providing sustainable, healthy options is fueled by their idea that food is medicine. To them, it is fascinating how different discoveries are being made about food and the interconnectedness of human life and the Earth.

Located less than a mile from Ohio University’s campus, The Farmacy serves a unique population of college students and local residents. The Tidds appreciate the mix of patrons as well as the diverse landscape in the surrounding area.

The Farmacy partners with other local businesses throughout Athens to provide fresh ingredients, but Tidd admits that on some levels it is impossible to be 100% local and sustainable. Particularly during the winter months, local products become increasingly hard to come by. He adds that despite their longstanding efforts, this is the first year since they bought The Farmacy that they have connected with a local farm that has access to a greenhouse. This is due to the difficulties of farming and the unpredictability of the weather. Kevin emphasizes how important it is to his family to stock their shelves with local products and buy from a local farmer who has a business to sustain.

The Farmacy offers many products such as oats, peanut butter and shampoo for purchase in bulk and customers can bring in their own containers to eliminate waste.

The Tidds admire the management of Village Bakery, a café and market located a few blocks away. The two local businesses share values of sustainability and community-building. Kevin praises the bakery for “the way they do things, almost to a fault,” and feels as though their ethical standards align.

Not all of Kevin’s insights are as optimistic, though. He predicts that a reckoning will force society to abandon the idea that certain foods will be available year-round, replacing them with local, seasonal products. Essentially, society will reach a breaking point with mass production and over-consumption that will cause consumers to be more conscious of their choices. This will cause a return to selfsufficiency and locally sourced products.

The store grows quiet as he recalls a conversation he had with a local beekeeper who said his father and grandfather’s bees used to pollinate the surrounding crops until everyone started farming corn because it was more lucrative at the time. They stopped collaborating with one another. He adds that it is strange to be in this place in time because, “it’s not like that was some big evil plan,” but he is now looking to local farmers and vendors to mend the broken system of unethical production.

Sourcing local produce isn’t the only focus of The Farmacy — the store has over 500 Ohio-made items which are another important part of fulfilling The Farmacy’s mission. Kevin says there are some products that are not available locally, but he prioritizes sourcing from the area when possible and building an interconnected community rather than making a profit.

A regular patron and Athens native, Emily Cass says, “I do understand the environmental impact our decisions make every day, especially related to food. I guess my way to reduce my carbon footprint is to find locally-sourced animal products like Snowville Creamery or Grass Green Farms. It is also important to me to filter money back into our small-town economy.”

Cass says she typically shops at the deli of The Farmacy which offers a range of hot and cold sandwiches, smoothies, salads, soups and snacks.

After almost a decade in their beloved Athens community, the Tidds are reaffirmed in their mission to provide ethical, honest food and contribute to the health of Athens residents and passersby alike.