Missoula Community Co-op Throwing a Party Saturday

By Matthew Frank, 6-12-08

	Caption: The Missoula Community Co-op. Photos by Alexia Beckerling

As the Missoula Community Co-op grows, so grow the benefits for local producers and local buyers, including lower costs and healthier food. And this Saturday, June 14, the Co-op will celebrate.

“The whole thing is going to be like a county fair,” says Maxine Jacobson, a member of the Co-op’s board of directors. The festivities begin at 1 p.m. at the Co-op (1500 Burns Street) and will include a cake walk and photo contest as well as local food and a producer fair. From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Rattlesnake Ramblers and Tom and the Tomatoes will play music during a barbecue.

Although the Co-op opened in November of last year, the store had only a small stock of supplies. It has much more produce and groceries on hand now, Jacobson says, and since there wasn’t a grand opening celebration when the store actually opened, springtime seemed as good a time as any.

The Missoula Co-op is a member run co-op, and “there’s only a handful of these in the United States,” Jacobson says. “Members are required to work to keep prices down.” The work amounts to about three hours per month in the store. Currently, a lifelong membership costs $125 for an individual; however, the Missoula Co-op has different rates for people of varying financial situations.

“We’re getting the volume growing and the membership growing,” Jacobson says. “It’s a slow process to get people.” But more members mean even lower costs, key to the Co-op’s mission.

The board of directors made the decision to decrease the markup to keep prices lower than in traditional grocery stores for certain items. “It’s definitely true for our bulk, definitely true for our local, and definitely true for our frozen –- buffalo, beef,” Jacobson says.

Currently the store is 800 square feet carved out of the old FedEx building. “We have huge expansion opportunities,” Jacobson says, such as room for a commercial kitchen, which would allow for cooking classes, nutrition, preserving and canning.

The shelves in the Co-op were free, donated or made. The bins have all been donated. Freezers and refrigerators, too. And the Co-op is always looking for more equipment donations.

“That’s what happens with co-ops around the country,” Jacobson says. Established co-ops share information and send equipment they are not using anymore, generally assisting new co-ops. Local residents also chip in.

Jacobson joined the board of directors last November. “I can tell you, in six months this place has really changed a lot,” she says.

The grand opening celebration sponsors include Le Petit Outre, Big Sky Brewing Co., Ten Spoon Vineyard and Winery, Lifeline Farm, and Free Range Hummus.