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from the NY Times
At 30 members, the South Bronx Food Cooperative is the smallest of the city’s five food cooperatives, and has been open since September. The Park Slope Food Co-op, 24 years old, is the largest, with more than 12,000 members.
Co-ops are like supermarkets where the customers are also workers, helping to reduce costs and therefore prices.
The Bronx food co-op is the brainchild of Zena Nelson, 29, who is studying for her master’s degree in business at Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College. A member of the Green Party, Ms. Nelson decided to start a co-op after a brainstorming session at a party.
Ms. Nelson had noticed, with some annoyance, the success of large marketers, like Whole Foods Market, in selling organic foods to an affluent clientele.
“Why is it that people with higher incomes were able to buy better food at lower prices,” she exclaimed, “but people with lower incomes were buying worse food at higher prices? This is stupid!”
Filed under: Food, Green Party Websites, Organics, social & economic justice
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