By Ian McNulty
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wwno/local-wwno-994085.mp3
New Orleans, La. –
Walk the aisles of the New Orleans Food Cooperative's gleaming new grocery store in the Faubourg Marigny, and it seems there's something different to catch the eye on every shelf and in every bin, from rare and colorful heirloom produce varieties to specialty meats to bulk grains and seeds. It turns out, there's also a mission and a community purpose behind them too.
The Food Co-Op marked the grand opening of its grocery just this month. That opening has been a long time coming for the Food Co-Op, which has the goal of making healthy, sustainably-produced food more accessible in New Orleans.
The Food Co-Op has been working on plans for a community-owned grocery store to help accomplish this goal for years. Meetings for the Co-Op first got underway back in 2002 and soon members started a monthly buying club. By the fateful year of 2005, the group was working on plans to open a store on Elysian Fields Avenue. Hurricane Katrina dashed those plans, but eventually the store began to take shape not far away at the corner of St. Claude and St. Roch, in an area where access to groceries of any type has been severely limited.
The Co-Op is located inside the Healing Center, a recently redeveloped collection of contiguous buildings that forms a sort of indoor campus of offices, businesses, agencies and services, all more or less aimed at personal and community improvement.
The Food Co-Op's store occupies a big, 4,800-sq.-ft. chunk of this center, and the casual visitor will find it stocked with an inventory aimed at fulfilling customers' everyday shopping needs. But the specific products and producers it selects to answer these needs, and its business model, is informed by the Food Co-Op's goals of providing healthy foods and building community networks. It's Louisiana's first community-owned grocery store, and many of the products on the shelves have stories to tell about their producers, their farmers and even the land itself.
For instance, when the Co-Op threw a grand opening for its store, there were raffles, giveaways and lots of free samples, just like many another retail grand opening. But at this party there were also farmers and artisan food producers stalking the aisles, ready to explain their offerings, describe their methods and thank consumers for supporting them through their grocery carts. They made a shopping experience into more of a community building opportunity.
While anyone can shop at the store, the Food Co-Op is supported by what the group calls its "owner/members," who each make a financial investment to join. Even before the store opened some 1,800 people had paid to become Co-Op owner/members. Within the first month alone since opening the store, that number has grown to 2,100, with most of these new owner/members joining at the register, inspired by what they saw in action under the store's roof.
Part of the idea here is to help people form an emotional connection with their food, not just from cooking it or the memories of eating this or that certain dish as a kid, but learning where it actually came from and who produced it. Basically, it means making a difference when making groceries.
New Orleans Food Cooperative
2372 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans
504-565-6632