Building a Nashville Food Co-op

I remember snapping string beans at the kitchen table with my grandma. She was the wife of a farmer and the vegetables from her garden were more delicious than anything I’ve ever bought at a grocery store. Many in Nashville have similar stories. I wish the vegetables I bought these days were as fresh as the ones I ate when I visited my grandparents. But life has sped up a little and it’s difficult to get fresh food in the city. Nashville needs a way to make fresh foods available in a way that supports our community of farmers. The answer may be to shop the way many of our grandparents shopped, at their local food co-op.

A co-op, or cooperative, is a business that is owned, financed, and controlled by the people who use it. You may have heard of farmer co-ops or electric co-ops. Ocean Spray, Organic Valley, and Florida’s Natural are all farmer-owned cooperatives. Are you a member of a credit union? This is a form of cooperative. If you are from southeast of town, you may be familiar with Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation. These types of businesses operate for their members, not shareholders, by investing profits back into the company or giving the profits back to their members through discounts or payments. You may have heard of buyers clubs where people pool their money together to buy bulk items. This is a small form of food co-op.

Cooperative grocery stores are not a new concept. Food co-ops have survived economic hardships and many are still in operation after decades when traditional grocery stores came and went. In food co-ops, people who want to buy high-quality local food band together to buy from local farmers and producers.

The Nashville Food Co-op is dreaming bigger. We envision a full-service grocery store, where any Nashvillian can buy everything they need to feed their family. Customers can stop in and buy local meats, dairy, produce, and other locally made goods. Customers can also buy items that must be sourced from outside the local area such as spices, vitamins, cleaning supplies, and anything else you would find in a normal grocery store. The food co-op will be a one-stop shop.

Cooperatives are special because they keep our money in the community. Food co-ops source food from local producers so the money we spend helps our neighbors maintain their businesses. At the Nashville Food Co-op, you can eat well and feel good about using your money to support your community.

Any native Nashvillian will tell you the city has changed so much over the years! Nashville is a bustling city with a vibrant cultural scene. But, despite our growth, there is still an old world, down-to-earth sensibility so many of our city’s musicians sing about on street corners in front of open guitar cases. We appreciate juicy homegrown tomatoes. We love the deep flavor of farm fresh eggs. And we can taste the difference in a scratch-made biscuit. How do we get to experience these things with our busy schedule?

The Nashville Food Co-op will make shopping locally and ethically easier for our community. Join us and together we’ll build something wonderful!