The freezers at Yampa Valley Foods are filled with a variety of meats including beef, pork, poultry, bison and lamb, and the shelves are lined with everything from breads and honey to handmade gift items.

The one thing they all have in common is that nearly all of them are produced by ranches, farms and residents of Routt and Moffat counties.

“We are primarily supporting producers that are in Routt, Moffat or Rio Blanco counties,” said Katie Stanhope, program director of Yampa Valley Foods. “We work with 86 different producers, and of those, all but two are located in one of those three counties. Those two are in Colorado, just outside (of this area), and they’re providing us with products that we can’t get in one of those three counties.”

The mission of Yampa Valley Foods is to promote and support local agriculture connecting producers to consumers and giving producers a sustainable and rewarding direct-to-consumer sales outlet.

“The (producers) take on the heavy burden of producing the product or raising the animal, but then beyond that we take care of the marketing and the storage and the sales and the inventory,” Stanhope said. “Everything that would go into getting that product into the hands of the community, and then on the community side, we offer a one-stop shop, a year-round indoor farmers market that allows consumers to connect directly with the local, the hyper-local food system, and the producers that are contributing to it.”

Yampa Valley Foods is the retail and distribution arm of the Community Agriculture Alliance and started serving Steamboat Springs in 2014 at a store located at 743 Oak St. In August 2024, the store was moved to a larger, renovated space at 35 11th Street.

“When we left Oak Street in the summer of 2024, we were working with 60 different producers, and we ended 2025 with 105 different vendors,” Stanhope said.

She said the store offers meats including Wagyu and grass-fed beef, pork, bison and lamb, as well as poultry including chicken, turkey and duck. There are also baked goods, condiments, sauces, spices, honey, syrups and jams. Customers will also find sweet and savory snacks, eggs, dairy products, beverages and treats for dogs and cats.

Stanhope said Yampa Valley Foods operates like a consignment store where they take in the product and sell as much as they can, and the producers are paid on what is sold. She said producers earn 88% of the sale, with a small portion being used to cover overhead costs associated with marketing, storage and staffing.

“Last year, after moving to the space, we saw increases in the number of products and producers and we saw a 70% increase in sales just from 2024 to 2025,” Stanhope said. “People are increasingly aware of where their food comes from, knowing who produced it and having that connection piece. We have a strong membership base primarily in the community, but we see lots of visitors and part-timers that come through.”