What’s all this about a food co-op?

Prairie Roots to bring grocery store downtown by next year

At last Wednesday’s 1 Million Cups event, Prairie Roots Food Cooperative announced the launch of its capital campaign to bring a new member-owned and operated grocery store to downtown Fargo, hopefully by end of next year. The campaign’s goal is to generate the necessary funds for opening a full-service, retail grocery store, while also effectively providing Fargo with a new option for purchasing natural, organic and locally sourced food.

Prairie Roots Food Cooperative is a consumer cooperative, which allows customers to become members of the cooperative and play a role in deciding how the store’s food is produced and distributed. The potential grocery store’s focus on offering local, organic and natural food comes as a response to a marked rise in people’s interest in the environmental footprintand economic impact of how we get our food.

The co-op store will be full-service, meaning customers will find full departments similar to those of any grocery store, including dairy and meat departments, as well as a robust deli with fresh sandwiches, soups and salads and café seating.

Kaye Kirsch, membership and development director for Prairie Roots, wasn’t part of the initial group that met to discuss bringing a co-op to Fargo, but she’s played a big part in seeing Prairie Roots towards a reality over the years. And while it seems like its been a long journey, Prairie Roots has been on par with the length of time required to get a fully operational co-op up and running.

“The idea for a food cooperative started way back in 2010,” says Kirsch. “We’ve been working at this for five years now. We’ve done feasibility studies, and Fargo has the demographics to support a food co-op. And there is definitely a lot of interest – we get phone calls weekly from people new to the area asking for the hours of the co-op. Fargo is ready for this.”

Of course, starting a new business is not inexpensive. Membership fees will help pay the costs to get the store running, and the capital campaign offers members additional options to invest in the store, including low-interest loans, purchasing preferred stock and opportunities for tax-deductible contributions. The goal is to raise about $1.1 million, with a pledge by the Burgum family to match $100,000 of funds contributed by Dec. 31 of this year.

The grocery store will be located at 1213 NP Avenue, in the building that Mathison’s Express Print shop currently occupies. Kirsch noted this decision was the result of much debate and study, joking that the process was made more difficult when everyone wanted the store to be close to their own home.

“We were thinking about things like accessibility, parking, demographics … we double-checked all of our study info and the location is in a great position for the business to be successful. The immediate neighborhood is underserved by grocery stores, and at the end of the day, it is centrally located, it represents a location with good accessibility and will serve the needs of the population around it.”

To be a member is a $300 investment, with payment plans available starting at $25 increments every six months for six years. Although you won’t have to be a member to shop, special discounts will be available for members once the store opens. Members do share ownership of the co-op, and every member gets a vote for major decisions and will also be able to vote for the board of directors, and even run for seat on the board, if they would like.

The rise of food cooperatives has gained momentum in recent years. The history of modern food co-ops stems from the wave of cooperatives that formed during the 1970s, when a push for locally sourced, organic food and sustainable alternatives became popular.

These days food cooperatives are flourishing around the U.S., with between 300-400 already running, and another 125 cities currently trying to start up their own co-ops. With over 40 current co-ops, Minnesota is currently leading the pack in regards to the number of food co-ops per state, and the Twin Cities serves as a sort of co-op mecca in the U.S.

Kirsch explained that with our steadily growing population, especially considering that we absorb a lot of the Twin Cities diaspora, the Fargo-Moorhead metro area seems to be prime territory for the grocery store.

“Lately, there has been a shift towards supporting local producers,” said Kirsch. “The grocery store will be complementary with those other venues already available (farmers markets, CSAs), and it will help them diversify their product offerings and provide a means to sell year-round. It will help get local produce to the people who want it.”

Prairie Roots also hopes to provide customers with not only information about where their food came from and how it was produced, but also help instill new, healthy habits in those who drop by the store.

“There will be a lot of info about the food that customers are buying,” said Kirsch. “In-store demos will occur regularly, and we hope to educate people about eating locally, healthily and seasonally, and how to properly cook and preserve food so that you can be eating local food in January.”

“We also plan to have quite a large bulk section, and customers will be able to bring in their own containers to get their desired amount. This will remove some of the packaging involved … we’re trying to push the bar about being environmentally conscious when grocery shopping.”

The proposed store has certainly excited the community’s interest in the co-op over the last week, and in the months ahead we’ll see how the capital campaign unfolds. However, members of Prairie Roots are confident that community support is strong enough to make the “grocery store by the people, for the people” into a reality.

YOU SHOULD KNOW:

To become a member, http://prairie-roots.coop

for more info contact Kaye Kirsch at 701-446-8781