Sustainable Neighborhood Shopping at the Dorchester Food Co-Op

In just a few weeks, a new store's going to be opening up in Dorchester's Bowdoin/Geneva neighborhood, but it's not your typical grocery store. It's a food co-op, owned collectively by the members of the surrounding community and the store's employees. John Santos, the General Manager and CEO of the Dorchester Food Co-Op, joins Nichole this week to talk about the benefits of a cooperative for a neighborhood, the buildout, their mission, and what they have to offer.

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend. Each week
we come together and talk about allthe topics important to you and the place
where you live. As always goodto be with you. Thanks for joining
us. I'm Nicole Davis. NowHere in New England we have a few
famous co ops, and of coursethis is far from any sort of extensive
list, but we have the CabotCooperative in Vermont with all their cheese.

(00:30):
We have the Harvard Cooping Cambridge.Increasingly, though, around the region,
we are seeing a lot of foodco ops developing in rural and low income
neighborhoods. Now. As you wouldimagine from the name, co ops are
all about running as a collective,everybody involved has a say. Experts say
that model can often lead to moreneighborhood empowerment and also economic self sufficiency When

(00:51):
it comes to food. Co opscan also play a crucial role in fighting
food in security, something that Massachusettsis really struggling with, not just in
the wake of COVID but also recentlythose devastating floods. In just a few
weeks, a brand new co opis coming to Boston, specifically in Dorchester
in the Bowden Geneva section of town, and it's all about accessibility and sustainability.

(01:12):
Now, this is a project thathas been a long time in the
making. Let's learn more about itright now. John Santos is here.
He is the CEO and the generalmanager of the Dorchester Food co Op.
John, really good to be withyou. So first question here, tell
us more in depth information about coops. How do they work? Sure?
So, a co op model isn'tjust specific to a grocery store.

(01:34):
It's basically when individuals or a groupof people get together and they decide that
they want to pool their resources andpurchase something. So in our case,
it's the Dorchester Food co Op.We currently have over one thousand, six
hundred members and we started as abuying group three twenty twelve. In twenty

(01:59):
twelve we caame incorporated as a coop. We had no building at that point.
We were just a group of folksthat we're really concerned about trying to
get access to wholesome local foods andthen support the community. And that's a
very very big part of the coop because it is a collective. It's
a group of folks getting together overa concern. Sometimes it's an apartment building

(02:23):
or construction company, or it canbe anything. But in our case,
it's a grocery store. And becausewe had this concern of trying to get
really good food to the community,you know, we would go to events
like farmers markets and just local popups here and there there, and we
were promoting products like equal Exchange coffeeand other other items that we could sell,

(02:46):
but really trying to build a baseto get to a place so we
could have a brick and mortar wherewe could have the building that we have
right now. Okay, well,you've got more than a thousand people,
as you just said, involved inthis. That's a lot of cooks in
the kitchen. Pun not intended.How do you miss over sixteen hundred?
Okay, sixteen hundred, that's evenmore. I mean, how on earth

(03:07):
do sixteen hundred people get involved inone enterprise? How does this all work?
Like the hierarchy I suppose of sorts. That's a great question. Actually,
so we're not we're actually I shouldhave described the types of cops that
are available. So there's a consumercooper, an employee coop, and an
employee coop is when the staff ownsthe business. A consumer coop is when

(03:30):
the customers own the business. Sowe're a hybrid. So the sixteen hundred
people that make up our cooper,more than sixteen hundred are both employees and
the community. Now to get involved, all you have to do is go
online. It costs one hundred dollarsfor to become an owner, and it's
it's one hundred dollars just once forthe lifetime of your ownership position. And

(03:53):
if the hundred dollars is difficult foryou, we have subsidies that are available
to offset whatever amount that either youmight need support with. So when folks
become a member of the co op, they gain certain rights and privileges.
We have a discount program where anowner will be able to get five percent

(04:15):
off once a month on one oftheir shops. They'll be able to come
through and opt to have that discountas part of their member benefits. Also,
they help they participate in board meetingsand in the voting for members of
the board and in big decisions ofwhat the direction of the co op is
going in and again, as anemployee, as a hybrid employee and consumer.

(04:41):
As an employee, the employee partour staff plays a big part in
the direction and the rules and theprocedures that are co op operates, and
much more so than if this wasa private business. And it is a
private business, but owned by anindividual or a corporation. And that's how
you know it's really made for thecommunity because you are taking in not just

(05:02):
people who run the business side ofthis and have the business acumen, but
you are then bringing in people,I mean one hundred dollars to become an
owner in a business. That's apretty decent investment. I would say you
could you could invest in Apple andGoogle or whatever and pay a lot more
this at least you have a youhave skin in the game. But you
also know that you're working to changeyour community for the better. And that's

(05:24):
really got to be very rewarding ifyou ask me, you know, that's
that's awesome that you picked up onthat, because that's really one of the
most important parts of this co opprocess. We lower the barriers of entry
so that as many people as possiblecan become part of the co op and
then have a say in the foodchoices that they have. And this say

(05:47):
isn't only in the options, it'salso in things like, are these foods
that we're making available to the community, how sustainable are they? How good
for the environment are they? Tothat end, m we have a great
bulk department, which obviously cuts downon a lot of packaging. And folks
might have folk folks that have beento Whole Foods, they know of the

(06:11):
bulk bins where you take a bagand you know you kind of put in
as much quantity as you want ofnuts and beans and rices and things like
that. Well, we have thatum and that's to allow customers to buy
what they need. Also, wehave a liquid bulk department, and this
is kind of a new thing forour area. And so imagine that you've

(06:32):
you've got your tide, your jugof tide and it's empty. Well,
you can go to the store,you throw that one away, go to
the store and buy another jug oftide. Throwing away these drugs is a
lot of money because you're also payingfor the marketing of all that tide um.
So we sell laundry detergent out ofa vat. You can bring your
shampoo, your dishwashing soap, youknow, any of the liquids that you

(06:54):
commonly use around the house. Bothculinary liquids like maple syrup and all of
oil, as well as cleaning fluidsand other liquids. It's really you know,
you'll be able to go to theregisters. You'll see all these vats
and just ask the cashier to fillup this jug with whatever the liquid is
that you need, So that cutsdown on the pollution in the ocean,
all the plastic ending up back intothe waste stream. And it also saves

(07:17):
our customers a lot of money becausethey're buying the contents, not the packaging,
and not the marketing. Yeah,I've seen a few of those liquid
fill up places before. I thinkit's a novel idea. I think it
is fantastic because instead of, asyou said, going to the store every
two weeks and grabbing your detergent andyour dryer sheets and this and that,

(07:39):
it would be so much easier justto walk down the street every time I
needed laundry detergent right and go bringmy Mason jar. And I think that
a lot of consumers are trying tobe more eco friendly, so you're making
it more accessible to be eco friendlyand not in a greenwashing way, because
we see a lot of companies Ifeel slapping a leaf on something, right,

(08:00):
and they say, oh it's ecofriendly. This is way more intentional
in that enterprise. Yeah, no, this runs deep. I mean,
this is one of our core principlesto try to be as environmentally So do
have our practices as environmentally sustainable aspossible. I mean we are. We
do have the meat department, andour meats are going to be h free

(08:20):
range, pasture raised, organic,that kind of thing. So it's not
just you know, cheap meats.But at the same time, our grains
and our all of our planet basedproteins and things like that, you know,
they're going to come from sustainable sources. We'll have both conventional and organic,

(08:41):
and we'll have the full spectrum.So we're meeting right now because the
story is still in the the buildout phase. We're meeting with a number
of different suppliers to source those thoseproducts. We try to source as locals
as possible. But you know,it's tough to get a banana in this
area, so you know, butwe but we deal with companies like Equal

(09:03):
Exchange, which is out of Brocton, WO. By the way, they
were the founders, the coiners ofthe phrase fair trade Rink and his group
back in the seventies came up withthat term that everybody has latched onto,
but those folks actually walk the talk, and that's who we try to do
do business with, the people thatactually it's more than just you know,

(09:26):
a pr stunt. Yeah. Ifeel though that a lot of organic suppliers
and local suppliers. I think alot of the problem when it comes to
lower income neighborhoods and working class neighborhoodsis that they want to eat these fresh
foods and they want to have accessto these foods, but oftentimes they find
themselves priced out of healthier foods,and you find food deserts popping up in

(09:48):
places like Dorchester, I'm out ofpan Roxberry, Hyde Park, etc.
Etc. How are you trying tokind of bridge that gap between making sure
that you get fresh, local foodsand sustainable foods into your neighborhood, but
also making sure that it's affordable aswe deal with inflation and everything else going
on. Yeah, another great question. So, um, you know,
you have to really step back aminute and understand how the food distribution system

(10:13):
in the United States is structured andhow pricing for food is structured. We
have an expectation that that food shouldbe as cheap as possible. Good food
requires good practices, including paying thegrowers and the producers fairly and trying to,

(10:33):
you know, treat the animals fairly, treat the earth fairly as you
as you're going about your your taskas a farmer. And this is not
inexpensive. So I wish I couldtell you that our meats and our chicken,
and our beef and our pork andour lamb our veelic going to be
inexpensive. They're not, because tohave good food you have to have good

(10:58):
practices that cost money. They ouropportunities for us to provide customers with more
affordable options. So in other words, I'll buy a one hundred pound bag
of red beads or canary beads,and I will put those beans into my
bulk display and I will price themas though they were at one hundred pounds,

(11:20):
So you as a consumer can comein and you can buy rices and
nuts and granola and all these kindsof things that you can buy a one
pound package at half a pound ortwo point whatever you need, and you're
going to pay based on that bulkprice. Okay, and that's really one
of the ways that so it's reallycost averaging. But we have to we
have to understand what the true costof food is and how that impacts,

(11:46):
you know, our nutrition, right. And I think it's a difficult balance
because, like you said, youwant to make sure that the animals are
treated fairly and the farmers and everybodyare fairly compensated. But then I just
think about people who are struggling toget by, and it's it's a it's
a difficult task for anybody. Maybemore subsidies could be made available. I
know that some stores, farmers marketstake things like Wick and EBT. Are

(12:09):
those going to be options for people? Absolutely? We offer Wick, Ebt
Boating Bucks, and then there's adouble coupon program that we're working with the
city as well as any member thatis paying with EBT with Snap, so
we have a we have a specificfive percent available for the general member that

(12:31):
is not paying with EBT, butif you're on EBT and you're a member,
you will automatically pay ten percent lessfor your goods every time you shop
at the store. Wonderful, wonderfuland honestly not having to worry about going
to maybe downtown or going to Fenwayor going to Debtam or whatever to do
your grocery shopping. Anyway, it'sjust it's going to be a savings,

(12:52):
not just in that discount, butalso time is valuable as well, and
and transport it's difficult, so reallyyourself, so many problems for a neighborhood.
I think this is going to bea huge boon in that regard.
Well, thank you, And wedo have parking available here at the store.
We won't roll out initially with delivery, but in about a month or

(13:13):
two after our opening, we'll havedelivery available. Customers can order online and
then have the goods delivered to theirhouse. So we're trying to make it
as accessible for customers as possible.You know, it's been ten years since
you've started this venture, and Iguess my thought here is I'd love to
know how you're feeling watching it allcome together, right and you're so close
to opening up and you're in thebuildout phase. What has it been for

(13:37):
you, How has this emotional journeybeen going for you, and how are
you feeling about how it's all turningout. Well, I appreciate the question.
My experience with this particular. Theco op has only been since November,
but I've been working very closely withthe folks that were part We're on
early, early on where the founders, Jenny Silberman was really it was her

(13:58):
baby and has been her baby allalong. And you know, it's been
an emotional roller coaster for these folks. I know they keep pushing to try
over the years, trying to geta building, get a location. It's
been an amazingly effective group of individuals. I've been involved in other co ops

(14:18):
and this is by far the onewhere the board is the most participatory,
where the members come out for eventslike the parades and all the different gatherings,
and we have huge turnouts. Sothey've been really effective at getting the
message out and keeping the lines ofcommunication open with the member base. That's
another critical thing, being visible andcreating and participatory in the community. Let's

(14:45):
talk about the build out, thenlet's talk about when people are going to
be able to access all of thesegreat options, the food, the laundry,
detergent, all of it. Whatis your timeline looking like At this
we're in the process of getting ouroccupancy permit and then our very sport of
health permitting. UM, it lookslike at some point in August we'll we'll

(15:07):
we'll we'll have a soft opening,and then in September we'll have kind of
our celebration, our kickoff, whichis really our grand opening. But the
doors will open in August, andyou know, we're excited. We're located
at one Boating Street, right rightat Boating and the top Lift, right
across from the Family Nurturing Center.UM, it's an We're the first floor

(15:31):
of a forty one unit apartment complex. This is a brand new building.
It's all low income housing. WeUH employ about eighty eight percent. It's
a funny statistic, right that Iknow this. Eighty eight percent of our
staff comes from Dorchester, Roxbury andMattapan. The number come from this building

(15:52):
right here. We're we have slightlymore females than males. UH. The
age of our our group is youknow, youth to UM. Also,
it's the full spectrum of individuals,so we really are a reflection of the
community. We speak a Haitian Creoand French. We speak Cape Verdean Creo

(16:12):
and Portuguese, Spanish and Somali aswell as English. So those that's reflective
of the community. We're a littlebit weak on on our Southeast Asian so
we're working on trying to gather somestaff for that. But you'll see that
our staff reflects the community that weserve. Wow. And then of course
the community is helping to bolster thiswhole thing. So somebody is listening and

(16:33):
saying, I want to be partof this, I want to donate,
I want to become a to becomean owner, I want to work there.
How can people get in touch withyou and get this going, Well,
they can come. They can goto our website at the Dorchester Food
Coop dot com. That's one word, Doorchester Food Coop dot com, okay,
and they can find out all allkinds of information. Look for the

(16:55):
link tree and it will drive youto you know, whatever you whatever question
you have, what we find itin. Okay. This is great.
John Santos from the Dorchester Food coOp, I am so excited to see
this all open up and serve acommunity that really could use it. So
thank you so much for all you'redoing over there, and best of luck,
and thank you for the opportunity tospeak to your audience. Have a
safe and healthy weekend. Stay cool, stay dry. Join me again next

(17:19):
week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio