Love your co-op? So do we; which is why we work for Outpost. But we don't have to work for Outpost just to be owners of Outpost ... unlike the souls who trade elbow grease for spinach at a well-known New York co-op.
The Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn was established in 1973, and has grown to 15,000 members. Those members enjoy an impressive discount (up to 40%) on fresh, organic food, but they also have to adhere to a stringent member-volunteer policy; 2.75 hours of work in the co-op every four weeks for every adult member of a household. Missed shifts carry the penalty of makeup shifts, and apparently, these can mount up, leaving members overwhelmed by their planners and abiding sense of inadequacy.
In the New York Times, writer Alana Joblin Ain recounts her experiences at the co-op with humor and self-deprecation in equal measure. It's a fascinating glimpse into a world half-familiar to us, but thankfully not quite.
She writes: "Like any place that wears its ideals on its sleeve, the co-op evokes rage, adoration and all the emotions in between. In 2006, the food Web site chow.com published 'Won't Work for Food,' an essay by a onetime co-op member who described the place as 'something between an earthy-crunchy health food haven and a Soviet-style re-education camp.' Three years later, passionate comments about the piece are still being posted.
Joblin Ain's piece is an amusing tale of good intentions, swiftly followed by disgrace in exile. It's also a deft commentary on the lengths to which we will go for some community spirit and pesticide-free pea shoots. We recommend it.
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