Food Co-ops: Good Food and Good Prices

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Yet-in spite of the store's difficulties with volunteer help, cash flow, and food supplies the Tahlequah Foods Co-op has been able to "keep on keeping on". Members can save money on whole foods and take some control over their grocery-buying lives . . . the store's honor system works amazingly well .. . and-most important-a small but active cooperative community does exist. Enough trustworthy folk show up to make the needed cheese-cutting tool, find a gravel source for the potholed parking lot, participate in the meetings ("We use your run-of-the-mill democratic process"), and handle the store's daily needs so that the coop can continue to function.

"I don't recommend running a co-op the way we do," Lance confesses, "but it's right for the members we have."

BURNSVILLE FOOD CO-OP

The simplest, most economical, and perhaps most truly "cooperative" manifestation of the fast-growing food co-op movement is the small buying club. Such organizations are almost "invisible coops" ... because they don't operate a storefront at all! Instead, the clubs consist of groups of people (sometimes as small as four families) who pool funds so that they can buy food in quantity. When their supplies arrive, the members divvy up the booty at a mutually agreed-upon location and then tromp off to their homes . . . until they're ready to get together and place another order.

The Burnsville Food Co-op in the mountains of western North Carolina is an example of one young but growing buying club. BFC got off to a slow start last winter because heavy snowstorms kept the six original member families from getting together often. But the club has grown rapidly since "thaw time", and now numbers 19 member families.

The food ring's cooperative structure has also grown. "When we first got started, three of us were doing most of the work," says member Susan Long (who was one of the "three"). "Finally, I stood up in one of our meetings and said, 'All right, nobody can order any more food until everyone signs up to work!' It wasn't very democratic of me ... but it got results!"

Burnsville hasn't dealt with such issues as enforcing and balancing the volunteer work load. "But we'll get around to that some other month," says Susan calmly. "We're still growing and learning."

The most novel phase of the Burnsville Food Co-op's operation is its "food auction". On ordering night (after the business meeting is taken care of), the members actually hold a bidding session for food. You see, the cooperative warehouse the club buys from can only handle bulk food orders. So if someone wants just a few pounds of oats, gallons of cider, or whatever . . . the auctioneer will try to find enough "partials" buyers to make up the necessary total quantity.

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