Photo Credit: ©2009 Kevin Sharp
My own experiences with Ann Arbor's People's Food Co-op started back in my student days, as they do for many Ann Arborites. First off, I'd come to Ann Arbor from Berkeley, CA, and secondly, it was still a whisper of the 70s (early 1980 to be exact), so the idea that a food co-op was one of the first things I'd seek out was a natural.
I spent the first couple of years as a co-op member cutting the cheese. I kid you not. And it was one of the stinkiest jobs imaginable, but it earned me my extra 5% discount, so it was worth every wire through every block of Jarlsburg.
These days, The Ann Arbor People's Food Co-op is in one location, rather than two. It has a gorgeous cafe that sells a huge variety of coffee drinks, sandwiches, juices and baked goods, and it has a full, delicious hot bar and salad bar. (Also, the volunteer discount program is discontinued, much to the chagrin of cheese-cutters everywhere).
And we now have a bright, shiny store with a large variety of local, national and international products, all natural, all carefully selected under co-op guidelines:
Photo Credit: ©2009 Kevin Sharp
And I'm still a member. Why?
Because we own the place. All of us. Every single member. All 6000 of us.
We get to make business decisions through our democratically-elected board members, and we have excellent professionals running our business for us. And we get to buy delicious, natural, local (when possible) foods and products. Who wouldn't want to be a share owner of that?
I sat down with Kevin Sharp, Outreach Director at the PFC, to get his take on what makes the People's Food Co-op unique, and Kevin's response was this: each co-op is designed to uniquely serve its members, so our co-op is a reflection of our community. While the Hyde Park co-op in Chicago carries Heinz Ketchup and Coca Cola because the members demand it, our co-op has a completely Fair Trade coffee bar and an emphasis on locally grown products.
Ah, yes - locally grown. Music to my ears.
The Co-op has long been in partnership with many of the area's farmers, and has actually had a symbiotic relationship with some local organic farmers for two generations now:
"They helped us get going and we helped them get going and this is the second generation of local organic growers, and hopefully we’ll be here 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now, we’re in an area that’s now producing more of our local foods, but that’s changing and growing and we’ll sell those things as much as possible."
Photo Credit: ©2009 Kevin Sharp
One of the great things about the Co-op is the solidity and the longevity. Even in Michigan's economy, the Co-op is solid, solid financially, and it will be around to serve us even as larger ventures tumble. And that means I can get food I trust from people I trust.
And that's the reason to be a member - to help to provide that stability for the local economy and to ensure that the Co-op will be here for generations to come. Plus, you receive many wonderful benefits.
As Kevin said it, "The local aspect is one of our core issues. It will stick with us long after the bigbox stores move on. Our business is really stable, even in this economy. With all the other options in town people still come down to this little storefront."
Besides, you can get wonderful things like these blueberry bars (Photo Credit: ©2009 Kevin Sharp)and a cup of great Roos Roast Free Speech Roospresso at the Co-op's Cafe Verde:
For more on our Co-op, see the wonderful video below by Zana Networks:
Are you a member of your local Co-op? Why or why not?
