Our founder, Margaret Isely, was a whiz when it came to health and nutrition, and in the early days spent hours offering coaching and advice to our customers. As the company grew, the need for a well-educated and knowledgeable nutrition expert in each store to continue Margaret’s legacy became apparent and the Nutritional Health Coach position was born. Nutrition education continues to guide Natural Grocers today as one of our Five Founding Principles and nearly every one of our stores has an NHC on staff. This person comes to us with an education in nutrition and continues to receive 164 hours of continuing education every year. They are a treasured position in our stores because they are in the unique position of offering free nutrition education to our customers.

Our NHCs really can change your life, as they’ve done for countless people around the country in the last 50 years.

One NHC told me of a man who attended her Keto Reset program and as a result lost over 20 pounds, improved his blood sugar markers, and was working with his doctor to lower his diabetes medications. His wife couldn’t believe he was actually eating so well! Another NHC I spoke with told me of a particularly personal connection he had made supporting cancer survivors in his community by partnering with his state’s Cancer Foundation. As a cancer survivor himself, educating survivors and supporting healthy organic food prep for this group has been one of the most fulfilling connections he has made as an NHC. And I recently spoke with a customer who’s been shopping at Natural Grocers since the late 1980s who couldn’t say enough about how NHCs have helped educate her on supplements, helped her develop and fine tune menu plans, and have supported her overall health and wellbeing. She said she thanks “the universe every single day for all the good that Natural Grocers has brought into [her] life!” These are just a handful of the success stories we hear all the time about the amazing work our NHCs are doing in their communities!

How Can an NHC Help You?

1. Expert advice on the fly. Have a quick question while you’re shopping? NHCs are available in the aisles of the store to help answer questions and explain products.
2. Educating our good4u Crew. At Natural Grocers you may have noticed that most of our Crew are well versed in the products we carry, as well as healthy eating and living, and our NHCs are largely responsible for this. NHCs regularly educate Crew on supplements, diet, and healthy lifestyle habits. This means that even when an NHC is not around (they like days off too) Crew members can answer most questions that come up in the aisles.
3. Take a class. NHCs offer hundreds of classes on numerous topics throughout the year. These classes offer a convenient and easy way to gain science-based nutrition knowledge. Classes are free and are first come, first seated.
4. Get a taste of the healthy life. In-store health and tasting fairs give customers a chance not only to gain nutrition knowledge, but to taste and sample a wide variety of products from our stores and meet with different vendors. NHCs host these tasting fairs throughout the year in their stores.
5. Get the personalized advice you need. Perhaps one of the most amazing benefits our NHCs deliver are free one-on-one nutritional coaching sessions. You get personalized nutrition advice from our experts, for free!
6. They’ll even come to you! Our NHCs speak in the community to office groups, book clubs, churches, schools, and other organizations regularly. They can cater their talk to your group’s interests and can sometimes even bring goodies.

Usually when something sounds too good to be true it is, but our amazing NHCs are the real deal! We’re proud to carry on Margaret Isely’s legacy of offering free nutrition education services to our customers—with no strings attached.