In the March 11th edition of the Gambit Weekly, the headline News & Views article focused on the co-op and the developing Healing Center. We are pleased to re-present this article in it’s entirety here by permission of the Managing Editor of the Gambit. The article is also available on their site via this link. Click more to read the entire article, and many thanks to author Sarah Andert and Editor Kandace Graves.

(more…)

CityBusiness recently mentioned to co-op in their online publication. The article, entitled Momentum builds for N.O. food co-op gives a brief summary of the project and our role. It features quotes from our own John Calhoun, and from Pres Kabacoff the lead developer of the Healing Center. (more…)

We had a wonderful potluck dinner yesterday at the First
Pilgrims Baptist Church in the St. Roch neighborhood. About 40 people
attended and shared a great dinner. We gained 6 new members at this
meeting and folks are really getting excited about owning their own
co-op grocery. Our membership committee plans to continue having
potluck dinners in rotating neighborhoods near our future store.
February’s potluck will be in the Bywater, and we are considering the
Treme for our March potluck. When we know the dates and locations they
will be sent out as part of the weekly announcement. I envision our
potlucks getting bigger and bigger each month!!

About 14 people gathered tonight and dined on gazpacho garnished with goat cheese, corn and parsley, a zesty roasted eggplant-creole tomato dip served with blue tortilla chips, a chopped salad of kale, cukes, and avocados in a tangy vinegarette, cold cucumber soup, fresh watermelon, fresh baked brownies, water and red wine. People attended from mid-city, downtown and uptown.

After munching for a while and enjoying some casual conversation, we fired up the projector and walked through how to use the Coopshopper website to place an order. The website is geared to splitting cases of grocery, splitting bulk commodities, refrigerated and frozen goods as well as health and beauty and household goods like toilet paper and cleaners. By shopping for staple items this way, members can usually save a few dollars and also get to meet other folks in their neighborhood.

There was a bit of time afterward where we had a group discussion about growth from a Buying Club to a grocery storefront. Everyone realized that it takes a lot of folks to put a storefront together, so starting small as a buying Club and evolving our club into a cooperative group that owns a grocery store makes sense. We are and will always be a volunteer group, organized by our members.

Many new faces had some good suggestions about marketing the Club and tending our growth. Tim had an interesting idea about running neighborhood based delivery service on bikes pulling trailers. And Lynn spurred a good discussion about marketing to growth.

One good question was about how much interaction members have with each other, since ordering from a website is not exactly a face-to-face exchange. And a few current Buying Club members pointed out that the divvy when the order arrives is always a fun social affair, and that there is a regular monthly get together like tonights pot-luck. Additionally, picking ones staple and case items up at a fun purposeful gathering is usually a lot more nicer than packing a grocery cart till it is too heavy to steer, trying to navigate crowded aisles, unpacking it all at the cash register, repacking it all back, pushing to your conveyance, loading it in your car or bike trailer and unloading it at home and putting it away. I mentioned that I still go to the store for last-minute items or specialty items, but I hardly ever struggle with a load.

I attended the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Grocery Retail Site Visit in Philadelphia on September 7th-8th 2006. In attendance as well was LA State Senator Anne Duplessis (whose district includes the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East) as well as a couple of LA State Senate and House staffers. Other represented states were Michigan and New Mexico, both of which have cases of populations under served by grocery access in both rural and urban areas.

(more…)