2020-07-17
GM Features Financials, Food, and Friction over BLM Statement
By Hayley Gorenberg
The June 30 GM veered from troubling financials, to a mouthwatering description of what luscious summer produce is on offer, to an online near-uprising over public positioning on Black Lives Matter.
From the outset several hundred attendees learned there would be no open forum or voting, though Zoom polling figured prominently and became the subject of many members’ ire.
MoreJim Thompson
By Thomas Rayfiel
Jim Thompson, whose membership in the Coop spanned five decades, died May 17 due to complications from the coronavirus and kidney failure. He was 75. Jim spent almost his entire professional career in the Fort Greene Housing Projects (the Walt Whitman Houses), working first as an assistant teacher, then for a drug intervention program, and as a counselor for at-risk elementary-school-age children. He also volunteered for early morning breakfast programs and a weekend basketball organization which emphasized leadership and team-building. A true community activist, Jim served on the District 13 school board as well as Fort Greene Council Inc., an organization dedicated to serving seniors, children, and enriching the lives of families living throughout the neighborhood.
MoreSustainability of Our Coop: July 10 Update
There are four questions that stand out to me as I assess the state of the Coop during this crisis:
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Black Seeds of Freedom
By Taigi Smith
It was June 18 and after four months of seclusion, I was on my way to tape an interview at the historic Abyssinia Baptist church in Harlem. I had been producing television from my home for the past four months and I was desperate to get out and see the world again.
MoreProposed PSFC Statement on Black Lives Matter Submitted by the Diversity and Equality Committee
The Park Slope Food Coop supports the Black Lives Matter movement and a dismantling of all systems that empower and enable systemic racism.
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Discussion Item at July General Meeting to Increase Coop Mark-up from 21 to 25%
In March, the Park Slope Food Coop took the unprecedented measure of suspending member labor in response to COVID-19. We hired members to work as temporary staff, narrowed our hours of operation, constrained the number of shoppers allowed in the store, and implemented other safety measures. As a result, we have been able to mitigate risks to both staff and shopping members.
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Faster Coop Votes
I’m gonna keep shopping at the Coop because the groceries are great but our collective core is taking a bad hit if the June GM is any indication. The agenda item to make a public statement of support for the movement for Black Lives should have been voted on, and not stalled via process designating it a discussion-only topic. This is not a new problem.
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PLAn to Save the Coop
Coordinators and some members have now suggested that member labor could indeed safely resume, something which would benefit the bottom line of the Coop. This is significant because the Coop is still losing money every week the pandemic, which shows no sign of abating, continues.
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After the General Meeting: BLM follow-up with Toisha Tucker
Interviewed after the GM, member Toisha Tucker expressed disbelief that the Coop had not spoken up, even after earlier killings of Black New Yorkers like Eric Garner (and many others). Tucker linked food justice, climate justice and racial justice as intertwined and called on the Coop to engage in “reckoning with racism and white supremacy in America.”
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