How a regional food retailer is building community resilience - despite floods and a changing climate

By combining local sourcing, community collaboration and a purpose-led business model, Santos Organics is transforming organic food retail into climate adaptation infrastructure for the Northern Rivers.  

"We want to procure more local than ever, more nutrient-dense than ever - fuelling our local economy and Mother Earth at the same time"

- Robert Baldwin, General Manager, Santos Organics

For nearly 50 years, Santos Organics has been part of the everyday fabric of Mullumbimby and the wider Northern Rivers. Founded in the late 1970s as a needs-based food co-op selling wholefoods “out the back of a truck”, the enterprise emerged from a simple local problem: there was no access to healthy, organic food, and limited infrastructure to support the growing community.

Today, the context is more complex. Climate pressures – including catastrophic flooding – have collided with rising costs for small farms, supply-chain fragility, and volatility in the organic retail sector. 

When major floods devastated the region in 2022, national transport networks and digital infrastructure failed simultaneously. Many farmers lost crops, equipment and even organic certification due to contaminated floodwaters. Santos Organics stepped up where larger organisations could not – providing critical physical and social infrastructure support in their region’s time of need. 

Now in 2025, Santos Organics is navigating challenges common to purpose-driven enterprises. Since moving to a not-for-profit structure in 2016, Santos Organics reinvests profits into environmental causes – but this makes attracting investment capital difficult, placing pressure on the organisation’s financial sustainability even as community dependence grows. 

In this context, Santos Organics faces a dual challenge: remain commercially viable while continuing to provide critical social infrastructure in one of NSW’s most climate-impacted regions.
 

The response: A purpose-led food hub grounded in place

Santos Organics has responded by evolving into far more than a food retailer.

A not-for-profit model reinvesting in community and planet

Since transitioning from a proprietary company to a member-based charity, Santos Organics has donated around $350,000 to environmental causes such as Save Wallum and regenerative farming groups. 

As CEO Rob Baldwin explains, “we’ve always tried to give back to community… it’s baked into who we are.”

Local, ethical, regenerative procurement

Santos Organics prioritises local, organic and biodynamic produce, sourcing as close as possible to its Mullumbimby hub. This strengthens regional food sovereignty, reduces food miles and channels revenue directly into small farming enterprises.

Strengthening local growers

The Grow the Growers program, led by Paula Williams and Grace Ferrier, has supported small-to-medium regenerative farms to navigate organic certification, reduce barriers to market access, and connect with consumers – catalysing a more resilient regional food economy. 

A community hub woven into everyday life

Customers, members and staff describe Santos as a true “community hub”. Noticeboards, in-store events, educational talks, sampling sessions and local food showcases create daily moments of connection. The organisation’s 70 staff, 75 members and 4,500 local customers form a dense social network centred on care for people, care for Country and nutritious food.

Deep First Nations partnership

Santos hosts the First Nations social enterprise The Returning in its Mullumbimby offices and kitchen. The Returning, among a breadth of programs, prepares meals for postpartum Indigenous women and collaborates closely with Santos on cultural food events, product development and emerging shared initiatives.

A rapid-response lifeline during floods

During the Northern Rivers floods, Santos Organics became one of the only stores able to:

• stay open when digital payments failed
• accept cash, and give credit to loyal customers who couldn't access cash to buy food because ATMs were also down due to power outages.
• take in small deliveries from local suppliers using alternative routes
• distribute essential food, wellbeing supplies and natural mould treatments
• feed emergency workers through its cafe
• repurpose its warehouse truck to deliver canned foods and plant milks directly into Lismore
   

As Paula Williams recalls, “it was one of the few places people could get food.”

This agility – in contrast to large retailers dependent on centralised logistics – emerged from deep local relationships, local supply chains and a flexible not-for-profit governance structure that allowed immediate activation of donation budgets.

Positive impacts: Local food security, enterprise incubation and social cohesion

Santos Organics generates benefits across multiple dimensions:

Food security and climate resilience

By sourcing locally, maintaining diverse relationships with small growers, and operating flexible distribution infrastructure, Santos has strengthened the region’s ability to withstand shocks and shortages.

Economic vitality and enterprise support

Santos provides distribution and customer service capabilities for several small manufacturers such as Sacred Earth Medicine, helping early-stage businesses to scale. In the future their warehouse and packing operations offer a foundation for regional food product innovation and shared logistics. 

Cultural and social cohesion

Events, talks, local producer showcases and First Nations partnerships make Santos a vibrant cultural anchor point – a place where community, identity and shared values are felt daily.

Environmental stewardship

Through donations, ethical sourcing, advocacy and community campaigns, Santos channels financial and cultural energy into regeneration of land, habitat and local ecosystems.

Building capital across multiple dimensions 

Regional businesses often play an outsized role in driving transformational adaptation, responding to the needs of place and creating value that extends far beyond jobs or profit. Much of this impact is often invisible or unacknowledged, but applying the Eight Capitals framework reveals how Santos Organics is contributing to the vitality of its region.

Lessons for other regions

What can people from other regions in NSW learn from Santos Organics?

Local supply chains are climate resilient infrastructure

Short, relationship-based supply networks enable rapid response when centralised systems fail.

Retail can be catalytic

A retail store can function as a hub for education, culture, resilience and enterprise incubation.

Purpose drives collaboration

Santos Organic’s clear mission has opened the door to meaningful partnerships, including deep collaborations with First Nations organisations. 

Invest in existing social infrastructure

Established regional enterprises like Santos often hold critical community trust, logistics capability and cultural capital that cannot be built overnight.

Flexible governance supports adaptation

Organisations that are clear on their purpose and flexibly governed can activate at speed during a crisis.

Looking ahead 

Whilst Santos Organics’ immediate focus is on financial sustainability, in the coming years there is potential to build their role as a regional anchor for food resilience:

• Developing a community hub café in its Mullumbimby garden – a welcoming space for learning, connection and cultural exchange.
   
• Reviving and expand ‘Grow the Growers’, sharing market insights to help regenerative farmers grow the right crops at the right time.
   
• Scaling regional food distribution, using its warehouse and packing operations to make organics mainstream across NSW.
   
• Activating an incubator/accelerator function to support emerging regenerative and First Nations-led enterprises.
   

Santos Organics demonstrates how a long-standing regional enterprise can evolve into a regenerative hub - blending commerce, care and culture to strengthen resilience in an era of escalating climate disruption.

This case study is part of a series sharing inspiring examples of regional enterprise and their positive impacts across multiple dimensions, using the Eight Capitals framework.