A New Film Featuring Old Salt Co-Op
In the winter of ‘24, I met two remarkable people, Emma Ractliffe and Rostam Zafari, who had founded a nonprofit called World Within. Their focus was twofold: Make investments in community-owned businesses working to benefit the many rather than the few, then help tell their stories.
Well, that aligned very closely with Old Salt Co-Op’s mission to enhance our community’s capacity to take care of each other over time—and when we say “each other” we mean the land too, because Land is Kin. Today, I’m delighted to share that our own episode in World Within’s ten-part How to Change The World series has launched!
World Within is one of about 40 like-minded investors who have helped to lift Old Salt Co-Op’s work off the ground so far, along with hundreds who participated in our crowd-funded loan from Steward, and thousands of customers routinely buying and enjoying our meat and restaurants. Friends, we thank you.
Since 2025 when this episode was filmed, we’ve acquired our first USDA processing facility (in Butte) and established a second USDA dry-curing room (in Helena) for making bresaola and guanciale. Our new wholesale meat program is supplying restaurants, grocery stores, Yellowstone Park, and universities. We’ve launched three flavors of new snack sticks, as well as tallow balm in three blends. This summer we had our biggest and best Festival ever and achieved three consecutive months of overall profitability for the first time, having grown the business by about 80% over the past year.
Thank you to Rostam, Emma and the whole World Within crew for your vision, values, courage and tireless work. You’ve played an essential role in making Old Salt possible, and you’re doing the same for many other impact entrepreneurs.
If you’ve wanted to support Old Salt Co-Op and the work we’re doing beyond just purchasing our products and visiting our restaurants, there’s now a way. World Within uses tax-deductible donations from people like you to make patient, long-term investments into community-owned businesses like ours, helping build an economy that works for people. If you’d like to donate, please find more info HERE and help us keep building the momentum.
And my friends, it’d be well worth your time to check out the other heartening stories featured in How to Change The World episodes too!
Good work is being done all around us.
With gratitude,
Cole
