February 16, 2008: Vol. 31, No. 7

The push to create a Fort Greene food co-op is beginning to resemble something more than a kale-fueled fantasy, with nearly 50 people turning out to a recent meeting, the creation of a co-op Web site, and the germinating seeds of an organizational structure.

“Everything’s moving very fast,” said DK Holland, who hatched the idea to replicate the Park Slope Food Co-op with her friend Kathryn Zarczynski. “It’s a groundswell of amazing energy.”

A meeting on Jan. 23 at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church was so well attended that the supermarket group was able to form committees and began organizing a functioning cooperative grocery store. A second meeting was held last Thursday.

Organizers say the hardest part will be finding a space large enough — at least 6,000 square feet — in which to house it.

The idea is to re-create the Park Slope Food Co-op, which upholds (to the amusement of the cynical) do-gooder ideals of community, teamwork, and the notion that one should labor to attain discounted produce. Members must work one two-hour-and-45-minute shift every four weeks, performing tasks ranging from checking out customers to stocking shelves.

Joe Holtz, the general manager of the Park Slope Co-op, said a Fort Greene version made sense because hundreds of the Park Slope co-op’s 13,500 members trek from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill to the Union Street grocery store, between Sixth and Seventh avenues.

One of those Fort Greene-based members is Jim Colgan, now also a member of the Fort Greene co-op’s “Outreach Committee.”

“It’s a great feeling to know you’re not being ripped off,” said Colgan, who visits the Co-op about once every two weeks on his bike and only buys what he can fit in his backpack.

Holtz, one of the original 10 people who founded the Park Slope Food Co-op in 1973, has taken an active role in the breakaway effort. He’s sent letters to Co-op members based in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill and is even allowing members to earn credit by assisting their Fort Greene brethren.

Odd? Not in the co-op world, where one of the main rules (and there are a lot of rules) is “co-operation among co-operatives.”

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper