Cooperative food market coming to Manchester, NH
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 8:10AM My wife bought $15 worth of organic red bell peppers at Stop & Shop earlier this week.
In case you're wondering, $15 will get you all of six - count 'em six - organic red bell peppers. That's a per pepper price of $2.50! And as I documented in a previous post, Stop & Shop is, if you can believe it, the cheapest place in town to buy organic food.
Clearly, buying organic food in Manchester, NH, is an expensive proposition. And forget about buying local food, as the Downtown Manchester Farmers Market has incredibly inconvenient hours, at least to those of us who work Thursday afternoons between the hours of 3 and 6:30.
Which is why I am excited to hear that the School of Community Economic Development (CED) at Southern New Hampshire University is spear heading the creation of member-owned and operated cooperative food market here in Manchester, NH, that will provide, in the words of Veronica Kamerman, assistant to the CED dean, "access to good quality fresh organic food stuffs, by local growers and suppliers at prices that consumers can afford."
"People are becoming more and more conscious about what they're eating and buying in stores," she told me yesterday. "We think this has huge, huge potential."
And best of all, CED has the knowledge and capacity to pull this off. At the forefront is Professor Christina Clamp, the project's chief advisor who has taught masters- and doctorate-level courses on co-ops for more than 20 years and is a director of the National Cooperative Business Association. Also on board is Manchester businessman Howard Brodsky, a pioneer of the cooperative business model who founded the Carpet One chain. Folks from the Concord Cooperative Market will also help out with their advice and expertise. And start-up funding will come from the sale of shares, as well as grant and loans from places like the Food Co-op 500 program and the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund.
Kamerman said she expects the start-up process to take about two to three years, beginning with an informational meeting on Thurs., Dec. 3, 2009 (details below) for anyone in the community who would like to learn more about the food co-op model and how they might participate in the new venture.
To make it work, Kamerman said a co-op will need a minimum of 1,500 share-buying members, though she does not think this will be all that difficult when pulling from the entire greater Manchester, NH, area. And the more members, she said, the more successful the venture will be and the faster it will get off the ground.
Speaking of shares, she said they are likely to start at $100 per family, though she did note that there will be a sliding scale as they want the co-op to be accessible to residents of all income levels. Those who can't pay anything will be allowed to exchange volunteer labor working in the store. Volunteer labor will actually be a key component to keeping food prices affordable, she said, while noting that labor will never be mandatory for members, as it is in some co-ops around the country.
"There are huge mark-ups in the retail food industry that we will be able to avoid...we should be able to save people about 25 percent on an average weekly grocery bill," she said.
Also keeping prices low will be the purchase of used capital equipment (shelving, refrigerated cases and the like), as well as donated labor from members in legal, banking, graphic design, marketing, art, IT and other fields.
While nothing is set in stone, she said the group is already considering sites for a 3,000-6,000 square foot store, including site across from the Verizon Wireless Area, a site near the intersection of Elm and Pearl streets and the former Vista Foods location on the West Side.
The December 3 informational meeting will start a 6 p.m. in room 106 of the new SNHU Academic Building. If you have any questions about the co-op or the meeting, contact Veronica Kamerman at 644-3101 or at v.kamerman (at) snhu (dot) edu.
Reader Comments (5)
This is the best news I have heard since moving here in 2007! You made my day with this news, Will.
Glad to hear it, Lichen. I'm pretty excited myself.
This is great news for all of us who crave organic offerings. I hope that So. NH University has the support of the community for this.
This city could use local, freshly grown produce at a fair price. But why organic? Looks like these peoplea are just catering to the chic-chic North Enders. I'll take my greens with the chemicals any day.
It's about time! The sad excuse for a Farmer's Market downtown always had me gritting my teeth, LOL. Although you don't mention local options, I usually buy what I don't grow myself at that farm down off Bow St. in S. Manch. I can't remember the name, but they always have signs up on Brown Ave and just off the exit ramps from 293.
Back in the late 80's I belonged to a great Coop in Allston-Brighton where I worked a couple of weekend shifts a month and ate well on a "starving art student's" budget. Stacking cans, rotating produce... it was actually fun.