By Joe Bachman

With fall comes a change of colors, but a new grocery store on 8th St. South plans to stay green year-round.

The Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce welcomed Green Tree Natural Foods to the Wisconsin Rapids community on Thursday afternoon. The health food store opened in August of this year, and offers organic and natural foods, including vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and other specialty options.

Green Tree offers hundreds of healthy and organic foods. (City Times Photo)

“You can either pay it on the front-end, or at a doctor,” said owner Liz Umlauf, who made a promise to herself to eat healthy at an early age as she watched her mother battle cancer. “Our philosophy is to do it on the front-end.”

Green Tree Natural Foods has a list of ingredients that they do not allow in any of their products called a “No No List”, which restricts everything from artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, and dozens more.

“We thought Wisconsin Rapids would be a very nice place to invest in the community and bring these types of products here.” said Umlauf.

Green Tree will also put time and effort into educating the public through future seminars and events, as well as health recipes.

“We appreciate their investment in Wisconsin Rapids,” said Mayor Zach Vruwink. “Consumers like options– and I think it will be a welcome addition to the Wisconsin Rapids community.”

Green Tree Natural Foods is located at 2020 8th St. South.