Community Natural Foods

Though on occasion they run out of supplements we like to buy, over all they are great for friendly & helpful customer service, reasonable prices and of course they’re healthy! :) Located just across the street from Chinook LRT station.

First time into the south location of Community Natural Foods and… I like the layout more than its downtown location. Everything seems a whole lot easier to see… and is it just me? Or are the aisles wider?
Community does a great job of providing a list of ingredients on the foods they prepare. So when you’re headed to a potluck where the majority of folks don’t eat meat, this is mighty helpful. And when you bring your leftovers home and your best friend is hungry… she’ll be able to tell whether that 7 grain salad will prompt her food allergies or not.
Also, I figured I hadn’t done enough to save the planet for one day, so I bought a dark chocolate bar with raspberries in it. 10% of sales go to save endangered animals. Guess what? No dairy went into the making of said chocolate bar. So dairy free folks who need a chocolate fix… come save the planet with me!

I don’t mind coming to this location on an evening to get a few things, but good luck getting around the store if you’re shopping with a cart (and this applies to both locations). I’m pretty sure there is a secret gathering amongst all of the other shoppers in the store that I’ve not been invited to yet, where they all get together behind the store to smoke patchouli or maybe wave incense sticks over be another. Every aspect of ignorant customer behaviour going on in this store — but it’s hard to blame people when you can’t fit more than one person in an aisle at a time.
I both locations overall have a good selection, but I prefer the Beltline location for produce — larger selection and it seems fresher.
I won’t lie — my life would be complete if Whole Foods would open a Calgary location. I’ve yet to find an organic grocery store here that has the perfect balance of produce and non-​perishables like Whole Foods does.

I love this supermarket… Everything there is very natural and healthy!.. it is a little pricey, but everything is Great! The best of all are the cheeses. This place has the best selection of cheeses in Calgary… they are all delicious. As I mentioned before, it is not cheap, but I never regret going there!

OMG. CNF just started carrying a TON of vegan goods that were, for the longest time, only available in the US. Things that I’ve been drooling over for years and have had to make a long drive to Montana for (or risk ordering online and dealing with customs)… until today! And they don’t have a ridiculous markup! Goodbye, diet!
They now carry the following:
— Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss Coconut Milk Ice Cream
— Field Roast Grain Meats
— Amande Almond Milk Yogurt
— Dandies Air-​Puffed Vegan Marshmallows (!!!)
And a bunch of other stuff! And they have green tea Late July oreos again! Yes, Superstore carries Vegenaise and Tofurky now too — BUT — CNY usually has it for a dollar or two less, and I enjoy the fact that I’m supporting a local store. If they suddenly got a liquor license, I’d probably never leave.

I had heard great things about the market at CNF and couldn’t wait to check it out for a quick bite before a yoga class. My fiancé and I ordered a bunch of deli salads and veggie chili. We sat down and were a bit sad to find the silverware was all marked and a bit dirty in places. The salads were also not the most delicious veggie food I have had either. The curry chickpea was the best of the bunch, but the slaw had way too much fennel and the wheatberry really just needed a bit of salt! The chili also had a bit too much of a smokey chili spice for my liking. We ate what we could and decided to take the left overs with us as we do not believe in wasting food.
We wandered around the rest of the store and I was impressed by their selection. Especially their selection of raw confections! We picked up a couple more items, drooled over a couple appliances, and left.
I am sad to say the salads never did get eaten as they were no better the next day. Or the day after. And then they started looking inedible. I don’t know that I will go back to to the fresh market, but I will come back for groceries and specialty items when I am in the area.

While the other Community Natural Foods is about three blocks north of my apartment building, it always feels like it is a special treat to be able to get over to this one for some reason. When I first went consciously vegan when I was much younger, I got very into cooking myself. Eventually, I realized that I could make more than just stirfries for dinner every night if I had the right resources. Queue my amazing padre driving me into Calgary soley for special vegan groceries when this location opened!
Community Natural Foods was initially very overwhelming to me, coming from a rural Albertan town that had an IGA and Co-​Op only until recently; each boasting one kind of soy milk, and a handful of organic cereals and maybe some tofu, or organic peanut butter if I was lucky. I was floored when I would go to Community Natural Foods, and I could have treats such as vegan iced cream, dried pineapples, bulk teas, Earth Balance for baking, ingredients such as nutritional yeast and coconut oil that I had only dreamt about after hearing about these things in magazines! This is also where my family would purchase our annual Tofurkey meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas time.
These were my favourite trips in the city. A decade later, I still get equally excited for my trips to this Community Natural Foods, although some of the charm and wonder of easily attainable Earth Balance does wear off when all of a sudden you have to order 30 pounds of it because you’re putting on a bake sale (yes, I was once the proud owner of 30 pounds of Earth Balance)…
Also, I like this Community Natural Foods more because they see my face less. For awhile there, a gentleman at the 10^th Ave SW location was keeping track of how many heads of kale, and tofurkey products I would purchase in a week (not all of them were for just me… I have roommates!). Therefore, I feel more free to binge on all of my favourite things here because I will not have to take the walk of shame back into their store later that week when I’ve already devoured all of my kale salads and expensive grapes!
Life rules.
(25÷30)

Everyone wants live a healthy life. Sometimes it’s hard to do when «healthy» isn’t always the most convienent or affordable option. Community Natural Foods has made huge strides in making «healthy» easier for everyone. CNF has a very eclectic product line to cover any of your needs, no matter what age or need you have.
This location specifically is tucked away and a bit difficult to find if you’re not familiar with the area. However, I do prefer it to the other location simply because it is much less busy that the downtown location. It does not have the food buffet bar that the downtown location has, but it does have everything else from a produce, bulk, and consumer goods front.
If you’re new to the environmental movement of eating healthy, I’d suggest picking up one of the many great books they have to help you get started cooking with many of their unique ingredients. It’s well worth the effort!
Happy Shopping :)

I’m a huge fan of community natural foods.
For the longest time, I preferred the downtown location because of the salad bar and hot vegetarian buffet. The downtown location is also closer to my work.
61 Ave SW location is definately closer to my home and recently,. they have also come forward with a salad bar and vegetarian buffet. Score!!!
My favorite items on the hot buffet is the samosas with a dab of mango chutney. I also really enjoy their chick pea curry and their vegetarian chili.
The salad bar is extremely diverse, all organic and also includes a wide range of grain salads. Community Natural Foods has done an extremely good job at making healthy, organic food extremely palatable.

Some really cool finds here at Community Natural Foods – really like seeing they have a pretty complete line of Aubrey Organics skin care products/​shampoos/​etc. Some produce, raw/​organic foods, kitchen accessories, and health care items. Pretty small place packs in a lot. For myself, I was able to find a substitute for a moisturizer I was unable to bring on the plane for my vacation. At the discussion of my friend, a native (also my host on my vacation to the area), I agreed with him that prices on imported goods, such as rice (grown in my home state, California), is rather exorbitant but not unexpectedly. However, some other items, such as dry goods that might be found at other stores (i.e., noodles from T & T, etc.) were from 3 – 5 times as expensive. Otherwise, a great resource for healthy food and health products

Community Natural Foods is your one-​stop shop to create a healthier, less environmentally impactful you. This organic and natural foods market boasts a wide selection of produce, bulk foods, meat & fish, vitamins, herbs and cosmetics. They also have a soup bar at the back of the market which offers two daily selections of hearty, healthy soups for only $ 3.99 if you need hot food fast.
Or perhaps you’re looking to stimulate your mind instead of your tastebuds. In which case, not to worry — they have what I suppose would best be characterized as a «New Age» selection of books at the front of the store for you to peruse. In other words, they’ve got what you need to fuel your mind, body and soul.