Co-ops R Us

Last October, at the Annual Meeting, I listened to our General Manager recount the many successes of the Wedge Co-op- from baking our own marvelous bread and starting our own produce warehouse to donating our profits to various community groups. I heard of the dedication and excellence of our staff and the key role the Wedge plays in the national co-op scene as well as our influence in setting and protecting organic standards. I thought: "Ah, they are so great at what they do." Then as I looked around at the many caring and earnest faces at the meeting, little shivers began to run up and down my spine, as I remembered seeing looks like this on faces long ago...

In 1973 I made my first visit to a co-op. As I entered this foreign world to get cheap natural foods, a person asked, "Do you have a car? Good! Would you go to the warehouse and pick up our order?" I found myself surrounded by women and men of different sizes, shapes, and ages who were bagging food, moving bins, and calling out orders. A sense of purpose, dedication, and fun prevailed. My thoughts wandered next to the hundreds of co-ops that dotted our area, and all the people who made them happen. My mind flashed upon images of that bustling activity: the benefits, the arts groups that supported us, the loans, the donations, the shopping, the work.

I was filled with a feeling of awe and power - not my power, our power. We made this happen and we continue to nurture this dream of "people doing for themselves." We are the Wedge Co-op, you and me. Yes, all of us. We who buy a loaf of bread and some peaches as well as we who spend $600 a month. We who work and serve here - members and non-members. We re-make the co-op every time a bagger smiles a happy smile that prepares us for our trip home. Every time we stop and talk to each other and share our stories. Every time we help a fellow shopper who wants to know how to use couscous. Every time we walk into the Wedge, we live out the statement that was proudly displayed on bumper stickers in the Twin Cities during the peak of the last co-op movement: We say: "Co-op - we own it."