 | |
| Type | Consumers' co-operative |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1970 |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | organic food |
| Members | ~10,000 |
| Website | peoples.coop |
People's Food Co-op or just the People's Co-op is a food cooperative located in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1970 by the members of a food-buying club, the co-op is owned by over 3000 member-owners and is a member of the National Cooperative Grocers Association and the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives.
The co-op was founded as a food buying club by students from Reed College. In 1970, the group incorporated as People's Food Store. [1]
The Board of Directors at People's Food Co-op consists of 5-9 members elected by the membership of the co-op. The Board uses a modified version of consensus decision-making to reach its decisions. In 2006, the Board adopted Policy Governance as its governance model.
People's is managed by a non-hierarchical collective. As of 2007, there are 27 co-managers. Collective meetings are held once a month where co-managers make decisions regarding the co-op's operations. Like the Board, the collective uses a modified version of consensus decision-making. 26 out of the 27 co-managers have to agree on given proposals. The collective is divided into semi-autonomous "teams" which are responsible for reporting and heading up their various departments. The collective is accountable to the membership via the Board.
In 2002, People's embarked upon an expansion project to increase its retail space. [2] People's secured loans from its membership and Shorebank Pacific to finance the $900,000 expansion project. The expansion doubled the store's retail space and included an expanded Community Room as well as an elevator for wheelchair access. The co-op's efforts won them a BEST (Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow) Award from the City of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development in 2003 for energy efficiency.
The building which People's Food Co-op occupies incorporates a number of environmentally friendly technologies. [3] All of the wood used for the expansion was either salvaged or FSC certified. The building's natural ventilation was improved by the use of a solar chimney.
People's added two green roofs to its building during its expansion. Drought-tolerant plant species were chosen for the green roofs. Due to the stormwater management benefits, [4] People's received a $2,500 grant from the Community Watershed Stewardship Program.
Cob, a mixture of earth, sand and straw, was used as infill for two walls of the building as well as for benches inside and outside of the store. People's Food Co-op was the first commercially zoned building in North America to be built with cob wall infill.
The co-op is heated and cooled by use of a geothermal exchange heat pump which includes a series of tubes coursing water through the store's floor. This system, in conjunction with other design strategies, has reduced the heating and cooling energy consumption at the co-op by approximately 40%.
In 2022, People's Food Co-op was selected as a site for a mural campaign by the nonprofit Fairtrade America. The mural depicts Ghanaian farmer and climate advocate Deborah Osei-Mensah, whose community produces fair trade cocoa. [5] [6]
People's hosts a year-round farmers market in its courtyard on Wednesday afternoons. In the summer months, there are typically 15-20 vendors offering a variety of locally grown and produced goods.
People's Food Co-op has adopted a model of ethical consumerism and adheres to strict guidelines for the products that are retailed as well as its practices. By vote of the membership, the co-op does not carry any products containing meat with the exception of pet food. The Board of Directors has approved product selection guidelines prohibiting products containing artificial colors, flavoring, or preservatives. The guidelines also allow for the exclusion of products from companies that test on animals or operate in contradiction to the co-op's mission.
People's composts all of its vegetable waste off-site at the 47th Avenue Farm in Portland via an industrial vermicomposting bin.
The co-op maintains connections to the cooperative movement via its membership in regional and national cooperative federations. People's is a member of the National Cooperative Grocers Association, the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and the Portland Alliance of Worker Cooperatives.
People's Food Co-op has a community meeting space on-site for public and private events. Free yoga classes for members are held in the room. The room is also used for capoeira and tai chi, as well as for meetings of both the membership and the Board of Directors. A lift was built during the expansion to ensure accessibility to the space.
In 2006, People's Food Co-op began using IS4C, an open-source Point of Sale (PoS) System. The program was developed by Tak Tang of the Wedge Community Co-op in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [7] People's ported the IS4C software to the Linux platform, making it the only open-source software made specifically for food cooperatives. [8]
A cooperative is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise". Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives may include:
The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including grocery retail and wholesale, legal services, funerals and insurance retailing.
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7,000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844, though the history of co-operation in Britain can be traced back to before 1800. The British co-operative movement is most commonly associated with The Co-operative brand which has been adopted by several large consumers' co-operative societies; however, there are many thousands of registered co-operative businesses operating in the UK. Alongside these consumers' co-operatives, there exist many prominent agricultural co-operatives (621), co-operative housing providers (619), health and social care cooperatives (111), cooperative schools (834), retail co-operatives, co-operatively run community energy projects, football supporters' trusts, credit unions, and worker-owned businesses.
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Many cooperatives, however, do have a degree of profit orientation. Just like other corporations, some cooperatives issue dividends to owners based on a share of total net profit or earnings ; or based on a percentage of the total amount of purchases made by the owner. Regardless of whether they issue a dividend or not, most consumers’ cooperatives will offer owners discounts and preferential access to good and services.
A food cooperative or food co-op is a food distribution outlet organized as a cooperative, rather than a private or public company. Food cooperatives are usually consumer cooperatives, where the decisions regarding the production and distribution of its food are chosen by its members. Like all cooperatives, food cooperatives are often based on the 7 Rochdale Principles, and they typically offer natural foods. Decisions about how to run a cooperative are not made by outside shareholders, therefore cooperatives often exhibit a higher degree of social responsibility than their corporate analogues.
The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business organization.
IS4C or Integrated Systems for Co-ops is a free web-based point of sale software for retail stores initially developed by Tak Tang for the Wedge Community Co-op in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The software utilizes an SQL database and enables tracking of customer purchase totals that cooperatives use in calculating patronage refunds for their members. IS4C and Fannie, its backend management system were written almost exclusively in PHP. IS4C software is used primarily by food cooperatives and has been released under the GNU General Public License. Versions of IS4C have been adopted by Whole Foods Co-op, People's Food Co-op, Alberta Cooperative Grocery, River Valley Co-op, and the Clintonville Community Market Co-op in Columbus, Ohio.
The Wedge Community Co-op or The Wedge is a food cooperative located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Located at 2105 Lyndale Avenue South, the Wedge derives its name from the popular nickname for the Lowry Hill East neighborhood, called "The Wedge" due to its shape. The Wedge is a member of the NCG.
Co-op Food is a brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group in the United Kingdom.
Consumers' Cooperative of Berkeley, informally known as the Berkeley Co-op, or simply Co-op, was a consumers' cooperative based in Berkeley, California, which operated from 1939 to 1988, when it collapsed due to internal governance disputes and bankruptcy. During its height, it was the largest cooperative of its kind in North America, with over 100,000 members, and its collapse has provoked intense discussion over how food cooperatives should be operated.
The Willy Street Cooperative is a food cooperative located in Madison, Wisconsin that specializes in natural, organic and locally produced foods. The co-op offers products from over 180 local farmers and vendors. The cooperative is owned by over 33,000 equity-owning members.
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The Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) is a non-profit corporation founded in 1962 that feeds and houses Oberlin College students. Located in the town of Oberlin, Ohio, it is independent from but closely tied to Oberlin College. OSCA is one of the largest student housing cooperatives in North America, though membership has declined in recent years.
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The Berkeley Student Food Collective (BSFC) is a collectively-operated nonprofit grocery market founded by students of the University of California, Berkeley. The 650-square-foot storefront is located across the street from the university, on Bancroft Way.
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The Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market is a food cooperative located at 4765 Voltaire street in the Ocean Beach community of San Diego, California. It was previously called the Ocean Beach People’s Food Store. People’s started as a retail store at 4859 Voltaire Street, selling natural foods and household products. The current co-op is member-owned, but open to the public, and focuses on offering locally grown organic food.