Food Co-Ops, Celebrities, and You

If you've ever read pointless celebrity gossip-- and why wouldn't you?-- you probably have heard the name "Park Slope Food Co-op" a few times. Most recently, Maggie Gyllenhaal was accused of shirking her co-op duties in favor of sending someone else to cover shifts. Before that, a Ryan Gosling fan started the silly, single-serving blog entitled, Hey Girl, I Belong to the Park Slope Food Co-op. The name is everywhere.

Photo courtesy of Pam Brophy, and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons.

I know what you must be asking yourself: What are you talking about? Alternatively: Why should I, or anyone, care about whatever it is you are talking about? These are fair questions. First of all, no one should care about celebrity gossip. Secondly, it turns out that food co-ops can be excellent resource if you're looking for food that is ethically produced, organic, seasonal, and, more often than not, inexpensive. Celebrities like food co-ops, but everyone should.

Read on to learn the basics of food co-ops, what they are and how to find them.

Doesn't Rhyme with "Troop"

"Coop," or sometimes "co-op," is short for cooperative. A food co-op is basically a grocery store, except it is owned and managed by the people who shop there. The advantage of organizing a store in this way is that it allows the end-goal of the business to be something other than profit. Most food co-ops are willing to take in a narrower profit margin if it guarantees that the food on offer is fairly traded, or grown organically, or just "healthy" in general.

Another advantage is that this style of organization keeps costs down for shoppers. The first reason for this is simply that the store does not intend to make boatloads of money from shoppers. Like a credit union, all profits earned are used to directly benefit the members. The second reason is that overhead is lower, as the store is often staffed by members who volunteer their time.

To take Brooklyn's famous Park Slope Food Co-op as an example, members are expected to volunteer to work in the store once in awhile to help keep it open. According to the website, most of their 16,000+ members volunteer once every four weeks or so. In return, the co-op claims they save their members an average of 20% to 40% on groceries. (For the record, it was this once-monthly shift that Maggie Gyllenhaal was allegedly trying to get out of.)

Sounds Good. Now What?

If you're interested, and you've got a little free time volunteer, now you'll want to know where to find your local food co-op. Local Harvest has a nice food co-op finding tool that allows you to search by zip code. You can also check the Co-op Directory Service for listings and links to other resources. If all else fails, try searching Yelp for "food coop" or "food co-op" to see if any smaller local co-ops fell through the cracks.

If there isn't a food co-op in your area, do not lose hope. Farmers' markets are still pretty good, and pretty affordable. And Local Harvest also has a handy farmers' market locator.

What are your thoughts on food co-ops? Please share in the comments.