HWFC Staff: Meet Erika and Anastasia
Meet Honest Weight’s Marketing Manager: Erika Lopez
In a nutshell, what is your role at HW?
Hi! I’m Erika Lopez, and I am the Marketing Manager at the Co-op! I lead the incredible team behind our outreach, education, and branding and design efforts for the store. This includes tabling events out in the community, donations and sponsorships we make to local nonprofits and organizations, our in-house events and practitioner services, social media, signage, advertising, and branded merchandise, among other things!
2. Within that role, what are your goals for HW?
My goals for Honest Weight are that we lead with our mission in everything we do and approach our work with our triple bottom line in mind:
People: This is first for a reason! We want to ensure that everything we do is in service to our community, shoppers, members, staff, and local producers. Through leading with this value first, we not only set ourselves apart from our corporate competitors, but we also create an environment that people want to be a part of, and a more resilient local economy. This is our greatest strength, and I believe it is what makes us so successful.
Planet: Sustainability and eco-friendly practices are areas of opportunity for us to strengthen in the coming year. Increasing our efforts to minimize food waste, increasing our composting efforts, reducing our dependence on plastic, rethinking signage favoring recycled and reusable materials are some of the ways that we can accomplish this. We do our best to order merchandise from local vendors, reduce supply chains, and use more natural materials, but we will continue to research the best products available to live up to this plank of our commitment.
Profit: While this might be third on the list, it is equally important to maintain the health of the business, which in turn allows us to expand on how well we meet the first two planks. Driving profits allows us to make more donations to local nonprofits, sponsor more community groups and activities, promote and assist local farms and producers, explore alternative packaging that is better for the environment, and to continue existing as a community resource for education and engagement activities.
3. What are you most passionate about at HW?
I am most passionate about being an effective leader for my team and helping meet the needs of the store. Our jobs are all-encompassing, touching every department of the Co-op, and as such offer variety and excitement which I thrive on. I love that I can bring my love for making things — like the giant flowers that now sit near the seeds at the front of the store by the shopping carts — and find ways to include and teach the community as we did with our paper flower classes earlier this year. The giant “50” that is hanging in the vestibule to celebrate our 50th anniversary is the product of these classes, and it makes me smile to see what we all made together!
4. What is the weirdest part of your job?
I don’t know that I think any part of my job is necessarily “weird,” but I do have many “I can’t believe I am getting paid to do this,” moments, like teaching the aforementioned paper flower classes, or attending events and practitioner appointments offered through our education program so that I can better market them. My job is never dull and I absolutely love that!
5. Do you have any stories you’d like to share?
I just celebrated my 1-year employment anniversary on May 27th, which funnily enough, happened to be the 50th anniversary of the store signing its certificate of incorporation. This is my first job working in a grocery store — I came from the national nonprofit communications realm, and before that was the Director of Sales for a Hilton-branded hotel — so I still have a TON to learn and improve on. I joked when I first started that working in a grocery store means learning a new language, science, and math all at the same time, and I still think that is an accurate description. My hope is that now that I have been through one whole “cycle” things will be easier this time around, but also that I have worked hard enough to develop a sense of trust with both members and my colleagues that if I fail at something, they will know that I will turn that experience into a learning opportunity and do better next time. I try really hard not to fail at things, but we’re all human and I have to remember that I am still learning, and that is ok.
Meet Outreach Coordinator: Anastasia Rodgers
In a nutshell, what is your role at HW?
Hi, Anastasia here! I've worn many hats here at our beautiful co-op, but as of January 2026, I am the Outreach Coordinator at Honest Weight. I am your point person for things like our Donations & Be the Change programs, and lead a team of fabulous members who go out into the community to represent HWFC. We do things like wellness fairs, library cooking programs, and visiting schools to teach students about fruits, veggies, and other healthy food options. This summer we will be going to local libraries to do food activities based on their Summer Reading Program theme, "Unearth a Story;” we'll be 'excavating' zen cookies like pastry archeologists using toothpicks to uncover all the goodness hidden inside the cookie; and making 'Dig Site Parfaits' using different HWFC treats to represent the different layers of earth. We'll be at the Ten Broeck Mansion for their free family programs on 7/11, 7/25, 8/1, & 9/12 to share some delicious HWFC snacks with families as they learn about significant foods from different cultures.
2. Within that role, what are your goals for HW?
I would like to do more Outreach programming within the West Hill neighborhood of Albany, our direct neighborhood. I plan to develop new and engaging activities to bring to community events that represent our mission and highlight the people and the products that make HWFC special.
3. What are you most passionate about at HW?
Teaching the community who we are, what we do, and most importantly, that all are welcome here.
4. What is the weirdest part of your job?
I wouldn't say weird, but I'd say interesting! This role involves getting out into the community and meeting people, learning about all the different ways the communities are working to help each other, and that definitely keeps things interesting!
5. Do you have any stories you’d like to share?
Honestly, too many stories to parse through right now. I'll get back to you!