Co-operation and Community

Our intention with this post is to talk about how we hope to build Fresh To Morrow into a local food co-operative through first building good working relationships in the community.

Our definition of community is likeminded people in Morrow and the immediately surrounding areas.  Ok so likeminded people would be people who wanted to know their neighbors, work together and help each other out, share resources, and generally be helpful to each other.  Ideally within this greater community, specifically also the people who loved nature, good food, good music, good art, good fellowship, gardening and plants and liked to keep learning from each other.

Before defining food co-operative, we should share some sobering statistics.  The average age of the US farmer is 58.  Of the food grown in the US that could be eaten, only about 25-30% of that food is actually eaten by people, the rest is wasted in the field, the warehouses, in the store, and then in the refrigerator of the home it was meant to feed.  Nearly 35% of the US population is obese.  Most of the food eaten in the US is not organic and the food is sprayed with known carcinogens.  In 1960 the average food expenditure as % of household income was nearly 20% and medical costs were roughly 10% of income.  Currently those numbers have reversed.  Hmmmm, I wonder why we are getting sick?

The food narrative in the US is scary indeed.  Primarily wealthy landowners employ people who can't afford to buy the land and live in near poverty, grow food laced with pesticides in which 75% of the food is never eaten and the people eating it are overweight and getting sicker.

So, rather than focus on these negatives we thought we would try to start working towards a solution.  We asked ourselves, is there a silver bullet that could "tackle" most of these issues?  We are now 100% convinced that a locally owned and operated food co-operative serving seasonal and chemical free food is the answer!

So, let's talk about this Food Co-operative that we see in Morrow.  In general, when researching food co-ops around the country, one common theme was to run a clean and efficient operation so that most of the revenue could be returned back to the producers, who actually did the work and grew the food.  So that is precisely what we aim to do.  Through running a tight ship, thrifty and low budget operation at the store, we can pay our employees (farmers and chefs) more and pay our vendors (farmers and producers) more and feed our customers clean food at an affordable price!  This is a win-win-win.

One more WIN that results from more people eating local food is the fact that all of our energy consumption would also go down.  Local food can literally be cheaper, better tasting, more minerally dense, last longer in your refrigerator, and when you spend your money, it stays in the community!

Everybody has a part to play in the community.  Starting with the owners, we promise to maintain the building and have a safe and clean environment for everyone to congregate at.  We promise to pay our employees fair wages, to feed them and to generally take care of them the best that we can while teaching them everything that we know.  We will work with anyone who wants to work and help us.  We love to share too!  Wednesday nights are community pot-luck night when we feed our leftovers to the community for whomever would like to come.  The food is donation only and if people cannot afford to donate, its ok friend, your meal has already been paid for by someone else before you.

Secondly our workers and vendors have the most important job and that is to grow the food, process it and prepare it weekly for our customers.  Our workers and vendors also tend to the land and improve the soil and their mini ecosystem so that it can continue to feed the community!  Earth tenders and caretakers they most certainly are.  When you give to the earth and allow the earth to rest and feed the earth with compost and mulch and cover crops, the earth will continue to provide that bounty for us always, and we don't have to worry about being a detriment to the land.  On the contrary, humans have the capacity to be master tenders of the land and to make the land better than it could be without us on it!  We do not need to be destructive to the land to grow food.  What an exciting message that everyone can really get behind!

The customers have the next most important job and that is to eat the food and come down and have fun!  Ideally our customers will get to know us and allow us to get to know them, it makes the job so much easier to know the people that we are feeding and know they are thankful for the work that we do.  Other important participants in the community are the musicians, the village administrators and police/fire, our neighbors and other business owners.

What will we sell at the Co-operative?  Mostly what we can grow in this region, and folks we are incredibly blessed with a bountiful foodshed!  We can grow the cold weather crops like broccoli AND the summer crops like peppers, squash and tomatoes and get excellent growing seasons from both!  We have many nut bearing trees in our woods and many types of fruit like berries, apples, peaches, pears, plums, paw-paws and more!  The food options will be plentiful, and we will add a few treats from the big box store like rice, coconut milk, and quinoa, but primarily people will eat the food that is grown right here in southern OHIO!  Our top sellers currently are meals from our menu, seasonal produce, eggs, sourdough bread, cookies and cupcakes, honey, wheat flour and corn meal, tinctures, ferments, syrup, preserves and jams, and body products like lotions and soaps.

Food Co-operatives are sprouting up all over the country as people are coming together to address such a fundamental need for everyone, locally grown and clean food!  When bringing lots of people together it is best to start simple and to address a few things that affect everyone.  When we come together to reclaim our local food system, we will realize that we can come together and accomplish whatever we want, and that we all have more in common than otherwise.