United Natural Foods' Eastern Region has distribution centers in Chesterfield, NH, New Oxford, PA, Atlanta, GA, Dayville, CT, Iowa City, IA, and Greenwood, IN. UNFI Eastern Region Distribution services customers in the eastern and Midwestern United States with an extensive selection of natural and organic products in all categories, including grocery, dairy, frozen, beverages, bulk, health and beauty, nutritional supplements, pet care and general merchandise. UNFI Eastern Region Distribution is made up of what was formerly Cornucopia Natural Foods and Stow Mills.

Cornucopia Natural Foods (one of the founding companies of UNFI) began modestly as a small natural foods retail store in Coventry, Rhode Island in the late '70s. The storeowner thought he was being mis-serviced by distributors at the time and opted to get into the wholesale distribution side of the business, with an emphasis on service.

In the 1980s, the company grew and expanded, moving into a larger facility in Dayville, Connecticut in 1989. The 1990s brought continued growth as more and more people realized the benefits of a healthy diet and lifestyle. In 1995, Cornucopia acquired Rainbow Natural Foods, located in Denver, Colorado, giving the company further growth opportunities along with an established presence in the Midwest.

In 1996, Cornucopia merged with Mountain Peoples Warehouse (MPW), the largest distributor of natural foods in the Western United States. The unification of Cornucopia Natural Foods and Mountain Peoples Warehouse became what is known today as United Natural Foods, although each region retained its original name.

Similarly, Stow Mills had its roots in the basement of a natural foods store in Brattleboro, Vermont that encountered problems with deliveries from distributors back in 1973. An enterprising clerk at the store began driving to New York each week to pick up the order. After learning of this weekly trip, other local stores asked him to pick up their orders also.

He soon outgrew the store's basement, found two people to back him, and formed Llama, Toucan & Crow. This natural foods distributor thrived for a while, but eventually saw hard times due to poor margins and inexperienced management. The business was sold and drastic actions were taken by the new owner to get it back on track.

In 1979, Harvest Trading Company was established to distribute natural foods in Connecticut. And early in 1980, the owners of Llama and Harvest Trading heard that Stow Mills, a Massachusetts distributor was on the verge of going out of business. Since Stow had all the vitamin brands and Llama had all the food brands, Stow was bought and Llama, Stow and Harvest were put under one roof and one name: Stow Mills.

The company continued to expand and grow, moving to Chesterfield, New Hampshire in April of 1988. As a result of continued expansion, a second warehouse was opened in New Oxford, Pennsylvania in July of 1993. One of this facility's primary goals was to service the new supernatural stores that had opened up in the delivery area. In 1996, Stow Mills purchased Rainbow-Chicago.

In 1997, Cornucopia merged with Stow Mills. With the Cornucopia/Stow Mills integration complete, this division was renamed the Eastern Region of United Natural Foods.

Blooming Prairie Cooperative Warehouse, a natural products distributor was founded in 1974 in Iowa City, Iowa. Blooming Prairie grew to become one of the leading regional distributors of natural and organic products in the US, before joining the UNFI network in September 2002.

Blooming Prairie was founded by a small group of retailers and buying clubs in Iowa and Nebraska, with three part-time workers, and a network of volunteers who sought to bring natural and organic foods to an area with no other access at the time. Like other warehouses in the UNFI network, the early years were based on vision, entrepreneurial spirit, and a shoestring budget.

At first, orders were coordinated by a collective of volunteers and phoned in to another co-op natural products distributor, People's Warehouse, in Minneapolis. When the order was ready, a volunteer would hitchhike north to Minneapolis, rent a truck, pick up the order and deliver the goods to the stores and the warehouse in Iowa City.

Business continued to grow, and in 1976, the co-op bought its first truck. By 1983, after moving several times to accommodate growth, a new warehouse facility was built in southeast Iowa City.

In 1988, Blooming Prairie purchased DANCe Warehouse, a cooperative in Minneapolis and a successor to People's Warehouse (which had filled the orders in the early years), and it became Blooming Prairie Natural Foods. Numerous expansions took place at both facilities in the 1990s, and in the summer of 2002, the Minnesota operation moved to a new warehouse in Mounds View. By 2002, Blooming Prairie was the leading Midwest distributor of organic and natural products, with over 2400 retail stores and buying clubs as members and customers.

In late summer of 2002, the Board of Directors of Blooming Prairie recommended to the members that they become part of UNFI's national distribution network. With tremendous growth and increased competition taking place in the natural products industry, the time seemed right to join with a national partner. In September, 2002, the co-op members voted to sell their equity in Blooming Prairie to United Natural Foods, dissolve the co-op, and become part of UNFI.

Today, United Natural Foods remains focused on the original founding principles: promotion and distribution of high quality natural and organic products; providing customers with the best possible service and information; and support of organic and sustainable agriculture and protection of the environment.