Portland Neighbors Work Together to Create New Farmers Market, Two New Co-op Grocery Stores and Food Buying Clubs

Farmers markets have sprouted in just about every corner of Portland in the last few years, and local CSA farms are supplying a weekly box of produce to growing numbers of families who want to know where their food is coming from and support local farmers.

Since the economic downturn, more and more families are replacing patches of lawn with rows of vegetables. Churches and schools are doing it, too. A major shift is afoot in how Portlanders are feeding themselves and their families.

While a group of committed eat-local, eat-affordable folks are making plans to open a new farmers market in the Cully neighborhood this summer, other groups in Montavilla and Lents—also on the city’s eastside—are working on plans to open grocery co-op stores in their neighborhoods similar to the city’s established co-op groceries: People’s, Food Front and the Alberta Co-op. And throughout the area, a growing number of families are spending more of their food budget through food buying clubs and bypassing grocery stores.

A Farmers Market Where You Can Buy, Sell or Barter

King neighborhood Farmers Market

Cully resident Joy Ceilidh, who serves as a member of the Cully-Concordia Economic Development Collaborative, is a member of the core group organizing the new Cully Collective Market slated to open in June at Trinity Lutheran Church on Northeast Killingworth Street. Following a one-month trial market in the neighborhood last year, the new farmers market has garnered financial support through a grant from the Central Northeast Neighbors Coalition. More than 120 people responded to a neighborhood newsletter survey about the market.

Cully is one of the city’s lowest-income neighborhoods—80 percent of students in neighborhood schools are eligible for free lunch. The new market will not only accept SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) and Oregon Trail Cards for WIC, the food assistance program for women, infants and children, it will also encourage bartering.

“Lots of people here grow food and make things, so we’ll have a barter table and regulars vendors can also barter if they want, says Ceilidh. “Our focus is on neighbors meeting neighbors and bringing what they have. We might also have an anchor farmer from outside the neighborhood. Long-term, we’d like to see education booths, cooking demos, cross-cultural events, and local businesses promoting what they do.”

New Co-ops for Two Eastside Neighborhoods

People's Co-op in Hosford-Abernethy.

A lack of convenient grocery stores is a major factor in a groundswell of interest in new grocery co-ops. In Montavilla, which has seen a resurgence of small businesses on Southeast Stark Street between 75th and 82nd, and where a farmers market began in 2007, a modest-size Safeway store on 82nd Avenue is the only supermarket for general groceries.

The idea of a co-op grocery store where Montavilla residents could access year-round the kind of locally grown food sold at their farmers market began in a conversation among neighbors at a barbecue last summer, says Lydia Hallay, a member of the co-op’s steering committee. The store that’s envisioned would also have room for “community-building activities,” she adds, much like the People’s Co-op store in inner Southeast Portland.

Hallay, who owns a home in Montavilla and works as a union organizer, says it typically takes two to three years to get a co-op store up and running. Her steering committee is busy. Three community-wide meetings have been held and support has come from both People’s Co-op and the Alberta Co-op. A group of students from PSU’s Community Development Program have also been helping, collecting demographic data from Montavilla and adjacent neighborhoods.

People's Co-op

In Lents, in east Portland, there is a small Asian grocery, but no general grocery store. Residents typically shop in other neighborhoods, at stores such as Winco along Southeast 82nd Avenue and the Fred Meyer in Foster-Powell. In 2005 the Lents Food Group was formed to look at food security and the lack of food resources in one of the city’s lowest-income neighborhoods, A co-operative grocery store was identified as the top need after a farmers market in a survey that the group conducted. The Lents International Farmers Market opened in 2006 at Southeast 92nd Avenue and Foster Road.

“The survey we did showed that people wanted more healthy food, such as local and/or organic produce, and many wanted gluten-free and other special foods that people with food allergies need, “ says Laura Bouma. She and her husband, Tim, are on the board of directors of a group working to develop the Lents Grocery Cooperative.

Although People’s Co-op carries no meat, Lents’ cultural diversity makes it likely that the planned co-op will carry meat, according to Joan Chakwin, who coordinates purchases for one of two food buying clubs that grew out of the Lents Food Group. She is hoping the co-op will supply the neighborhood with locally raised goats, rabbits and chickens.

Food Buying Clubs: Save Money and Bypass the Grocery Store

Dividing up an order at the Portland Green Parenting buying club.

Food buying clubs such as the one Chakwin helped start, Lents Food Buying Club, are probably serving several thousand families in the Portland metro area. No one has an exact count and some are private, while others are open to the public. Members typically join a club to save money through bypassing retail stores, to buy high quality, to know where their food is coming from, and to buy local and organic when possible. And, Chakwin adds, “We’re not just about buying, there is the community aspect of people working together and taking more control of your community and your food.”

Members of buying clubs we contacted may share ordering tasks, pickup of orders, potlucks, child care and more. Some clubs charge a yearly membership fee. The Internet facilitates ordering, both for members and suppliers. “Farmers and ranchers are looking to sell their products, so some of them are contacting us,” Chakwin explains. Her club has now grown to serve more than 180 families. Some live miles from Lents, so she’s encouraging and helping people to start food buying clubs in other parts of the city.

Rebecca Andersson started a moms’ Meetup group for green-minded women in inner southeast Portland in 2007. The group morphed into a buying club, an online home business for Andersson and a network of some 200 families called Portland Green Parenting. The next step for her will be moving the buying club out of her home and into a warehouse in the Brooklyn neighborhood this spring. The new location tentatively includes plans for a café and a children’s resale shop in addition to space for the buying club.

 Portland Green Parenting buying club helps members save money.

Some buying clubs use space in public places like churches, but many operate out of members’ homes, which can lead to complaints. Steve Cohen, who manages food policy and programs for the City’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, acknowledges there have been some complaints about food buying clubs in residential areas and says they will be addressed next year when the bureau reviews the City’s zoning code. “We’re trying to be supportive of all types of food distribution models, he says. “We want to remove any obstacles and barriers to greater food access.”

While new efforts to increase access to affordable, healthy food are under way in many neighborhoods, People’s Co-op in Southeast Portland will celebrate its 40th birthday this year. In the midst of the current economic downturn, Lori Burge, People’s development manager, notes with pride that store sales increased 5.5 percent in 2009, totaling $4.6 million in sales rung up in just 2,400 square feet. Although the increase was considerably less than in the previous two years, she says that ood co-ops have been doing “phenomenally wel” and adds that People’s continues to explore the feasibility of opening a second store in Southeast Portland.

The Details

Cully Collective Market: www.cullycollectivemarket.org
Montavilla Food Co-op and Buying Club: www.montavillacoop.org
Lents Grocery Cooperative: www.lentsgrocery.org
Lents Food Buying Club: www.lentsfoodbuyingclub.com
(see the link here for Other Portland Area Buying Clubs)
Portland Green Parenting: www.portlandgreenparenting.com
People’s Food Co-op: www.peoples.coop
Alberta Co-op Grocery: www.albertagrocery.coop
Food Front Cooperative Grocery: www.albertagrocery.coop