Healthy Food for the Economy

“I was a member under the old system of annual membership; in part because of the discount you once got on all purchases and in part because I thought that it was a cool non-capitalist organization that I wanted to support,” says Nicole Colburn, a shareholder in the food co-op. According to Colburn, being a shareholder includes various rights and benefits. People get to vote for board of directors and the mission/values of the Co-op, a patronage rebate at the end of the year based on the percentage of the overall store purchases, owner special sales every month, ten percent discount six times a year, serious discounts on special ordering, and being an owner of a radical cooperative in downtown,.

Dilley explains how the People’s Food Co-op was started by a group of Western Michigan University students in the 1970s as a project for school. “In the 1950s and 60s food was becoming processed and refined and at that time there was no other way to get fresh food,” he says. So the People’s Food Co-op began as a way to get at food that was more nutritionally packed. The organization works directly with local farmers (local meaning within 100 miles); there is currently a relationship with 40 farmers and refiners. “What we can’t get from them we order from larger workers,” Dilley says.

For 35 years, the store occupied 1,000 square feet but recently the Co-op was moved to a new location that is 6,300 square feet, which opened on May 31. “The sales increased, we hired more people on the whole and we see people who shopped at the old location and new people,” Dilley explains. “[The new store] is a high traffic area, yet there is something peaceful about it.”

“The Co-op is not like any other store around town in that they are a not-for-profit and a co-operative,” notes Colburn. “Unlike any other grocery store the Co-op does not by cheap foods, give them a huge mark up, and rake in the profits which go back into the pocket of the one person who owns the store.” Colburn likens the co-op to a meeting place, and the more that people go there, the more everyone gets to know each other. “I love shopping somewhere where I know the workers by name and they know me, and that the world would be a better place if more businesses operated using cooperative principles instead of capitalist principles,” she says.

Dilley comments that although the People’s Food Co-op may be a bit more expensive, it offers organic alternatives not seen in other grocery stores like Meijer and Walmart. It is a place where everyone knows each other and people can purchase foods that have a healthy impact on their bodies as well as the environment and the economy.