CO-OP DEVELOPMENT ACTION
Future of Local Food
By Jane Livingston,
CooperationWorks!
he last supermarket moved out of the city of
Chester, Pa., 16 years ago, after industrial
flight led to a decline in the town’s
prosperity. That means residents have had to
travel, often by public transportation, to find
the food they want. Even then, the best quality, locally
produced food is often out of their price range.
In 2006, a group of Chester residents who had lived,
worked, worshipped and volunteered alongside one another
for many years decided to
address the situation by
forming a steering
committee to create
Chester's Community
Grocery Co-op.
From the outset, this
group was dedicated to
providing food at fair prices,
with a strong focus on
linking food to health and
catering to the needs and
tastes of community
members, four-fifths of
whom are African
American. In addition to
opening a grocery store,
plans include establishing a
business incubatordemonstration
kitchen and
space for other community-support endeavors.
The project was already under way when Chester native
Tina Johnson attended a Sustainable Business Network
meeting, where she met Kate Smith, executive director of the
Keystone Development Center (KDC).
"Meeting Kate was like finding a goldmine because she
provided us with insights into the co-op development process
that were essential for us to set the tone and pace we wanted
to move our efforts in," Johnson says.
KDC's Smith elaborates: "Our work with the Chester coop
is part of an overall market development effort to
aggregate the 'local eaters' for the local farmers and food
processors." Cooperative specialists helped the Chester
steering committee learn how to develop a successful
consumer-owned cooperative enterprise, assisting them with
strategic planning, marketing and feasibility studies, business
plan development and obtaining funding.
Co-op expanding inventory
The co-op incorporated and has 170 members, who have
each paid $250 to join ($200 is refundable if they leave the
co-op). Local produce is
being sold twice a week at a
mid-city, outdoor market
site. The co-op plans to
expand its inventory this
summer to include other
locally produced items,
such as bakery products.
Under the direction of a
newly elected board, the
co-op is negotiating for a
store site and organizing an
equity drive. The goal is to
open a full-service, 8,000-
10,000 square-foot
supermarket by the end of
the year.
Johnson
emphasizes that the co-op
offers area producers what
they most need to move
away from selling primarily to the wealthiest consumers at
the highest prices they can get: the security of numbers.
"They have to pull in the needs of the urban communities to
create a sustainable system," she says, but admits this is a
difficult conversation to have. "We want to support our
family farmers, they are the linchpin in the sustainable food
network model."
Johnson, who spoke at last year's Farm Aid gathering,
acknowledges that family farmers are faced with enormous
challenges as commercial agricultural operations continue to
grow ever larger. Yet, as the demand for natural and organic
foods keeps racing up the charts, so does the price for the
food itself.
That is not the way to develop and maintain sustainable
food systems. It's not the way supply and demand is supposed
to work, she gently points out.
"The farmers need to know we think their commodity is
valuable, but it can't be out of reach or they'll never create a
sustainable food network," she says. "I may buy an heirloom tomato once for nine dollars, but I won't go back to that
vendor."
But by forming a consumers' cooperative, Johnson
explains, "We can create the market. We can create the lines
of distribution. We can even come to pick up the food from
the farm. I know that farmers' time is so expensive. But the
farmers also need to integrate our efforts – to bring local
food into the city at fair prices – into their farm operations."
Kentucky co-op feeds the Queen
Street Sense wasn't the only winner at the 133rd Kentucky
Derby this year. When Chef Gil Logan, official caterer
to Churchill Downs, was asked what he would be serving
Queen Elizabeth when she attended the nation's most
famous horse race, he replied, "The Queen has requested
an authentic Derby menu, which means she will enjoy many
of the same foods as everyone else… The beef will be from
the Green River Cattle Co. [along with] all the other great
local and organic Kentucky Proud products that are farm
raised."
Despite this majestic
moment, Green River Cattle
Co. (GRCC) co-owner
David Givens marks 2006,
not 2007, as the turning
point in the life of this
small LLC which operates
on cooperative principles.
That's the year GRCC
started working with the
Kentucky Center for Agricultural
and Rural Development
(KCARD).
"Working with KCARD
has been a wonderful
experience," Givens
says. The six-year-old
company, owned by a
small group of beef and
tobacco farmers looking
for alternatives to tobacco
production, was floundering when Givens had a chance
encounter with KCARD's Larry Snell.
Going the distance
A couple of years prior to this, GRCC had undertaken a
marketing study that indicated they should develop a brand
around locally grown and finished beef products. But as
they moved toward this goal, they found themselves hampered
by a lack of staff as well as other resources. The
pressures of — and changes within —their industry were
enormous. Tensions within the group, and constant challenges
from without, threatened its future.
By the summer of 2005, "The train was coming into the
station and it was time for the people who wanted to get off
to take the opportunity,” Givens says. “So they did, and we
had new members come on board." This transition infused
the group with new energy and optimism. Shortly after that,
Givens and Snell met.
As a result of their meeting, KCARD conducted a business
management and
operations audit for the
producers. Brent Lackey
recalls, "We worked
with the owners and
management for two
weeks and made several
recommendations,
most of them centered
on the co-op's need for
more planning, especially
with respect to
marketing."
In addition, KCARD
helped GRCC's managers
create three
teams to address cost
reductions, marketing
improvements and
pricing strategy. Lackey
says the new marketing
strategy will increase the value of their co-op’s beef
by 20 percent.
Followthrough has included helping GRCC forge relationships
with the likes of Foothills Country Meats and Allied
Food Marketer. The latter is a connection that led them all
the way to the winner's circle at Churchill Downs. (For
more on this story see Kara Keeton's article in The Farmer’s
Pride, May 16, 2007.)
