Finally – A Real Live Store for the NOFC

We at the NOFC have an unprecedented Food Co-opportunity: to become part of the first ever Healing Center in New Orleans. The good folks working to convert the old Universal Furniture Building at St. Claude & St. Roch Avenues into a Healing Mecca have invited us to become a flagship tenant of this project, offering us up to 5000 square feet for selling groceries. And we accepted the challenge: to open a real live, bricks-and-mortar store in 2009.

“2009!?” you say, “but I’m hungry NOW!” …So are we, my friends, so are we.

Although the NOFC has actually been in operation for several years now, raising money and ordering groceries online, few people have heard of us. Why? Because we don’t have a store. And why don’t we have a store? Because few people have heard of us. But our new year’s resolution is to break this vicious cycle and open a store together, by hook or by crook. Or no—not by crook—despite our sincere devotion to local culture, we plan to be above-board in all matters financial.

So this is the crucial moment where we run in a hundred directions, like a free-range, organically-raised chicken with its head cut off. We’re applying for grants and looking at architectural plans and visiting neighborhood meetings and pounding the pavement because we need members, members, members. Why? Because by definition, a cooperative grocery store doesn’t build itself. We need the support of the community, which means people like you. In fact, we need people who are YOU. Our goal is to have YOU, along with 299 other people like you, become a member by May 1.

So, whoever you are, whatever you have, we can use it in our mission to open a cooperatively-owned grocery store. Keep in mind that cooperatively-owned means that YOU, the members, own this store, instead of a giant corporation who manages to eat up my Whole paycheck. Also, being part of a cooperatively-owned store means joining a community that cares about New Orleans, food, and progressive living in general. With that in mind, consider these options:

• For $100, you can become a Founding Member; this capital goes into a fund earmarked for opening our store.
• If you’re too broke to pony up the $100, you can volunteer to do almost anything for us, and we will be so grateful. We need people to spread the word – by distributing flyers, by writing articles, by gossiping, by printing up T-shirts. We need people who can cook for potlucks or boss other volunteers around or just tell us what it’s like to work at a grocery store.
• Low-income community members are invited to join for a member equity contribution of $25, payable in $5 installments, if that’s what it takes.
• If you don’t want to do any of these things, fine. Just please send us some good energy: we accept wishes as well as prayers from all faiths.