Food Rebels and Food Co-ops
Today too many people associate food co-ops as European-American countercultural spaces. Dating back to the 1920s, food co-ops of various sorts had been common in lower caste black and brown communities. Those I call food rebel organized food co-ops in response to a community’s need for economic development, independence, and affordable nutritious food. For example, in 1930, 65 lower caste African-American grocery store owners in Brooklyn, New York united to form a food cooperative. Organizing into a cooperative allowed the store owner to stock goods in larger amounts for lower prices and then pass the savings on to their customers. The plan called for members of the cooperative to receive regular dividends on store earnings out of the money spent on groceries. The strategy permitted patrons to save money on food that would otherwise go to members of the dominant caste throughout Brooklyn.
