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The Central Brooklyn Food Co-op is a 100% working member-owned and operated food store with membership open to all. Our mission is to utilize our collective strength to ensure access to affordable and fresh food within the mostly-of-color, low- and moderate-income communities of Central Brooklyn.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=”Core Values” tab_id=”5c45b1be-6d06-7″][vc_column_text]Central Brooklyn Food Co-op’s Core Values are:
Openness and Accessibility to all
- Respect for and celebration of differences in race, ethnicity, gender, age, economic status, religion, sexual orientation, creed, ability status, and other social characteristics.
- Encourage membership by easing potential economic barriers.
- Strive toward the elimination of social, economic, political, and cultural barriers to healthy and sustainable food access. Central Brooklyn
Self-Determination and Community Building
- Commitment to maintaining and institutionalizing leadership representative of the mostly-of-color, low- and moderate-income communities of Central Brooklyn.
Skills-Sharing and Political Education
- Serve as a skills-sharing hub to build our collective knowledge around food nutrition, cooperatives and overcoming oppression in our food system.
Transformation of Local Food System and Social Responsibility
- Advocate policies that improve food access within the context of affordability, quality, and choice in Central Brooklyn.
- Maintain a pipeline to local, affordable and sustainable food in Central Brooklyn.
- Promote and prioritize buying relationships with local farms, farmers of color, and socially responsible corporate citizens.
- Adhere to environmentally responsible, waste disposal and land use practices.
- Support strategic alliances between local food security initiatives, local farmers, and Central Brooklyn residents.
Dedication to Cooperative Values
- Instill a culture of transparency within our cooperative’s leadership and member-owner relationship structures.
- Respect every member-owner’s voice and contribution to the cooperative community.
- Observe the International Cooperative Alliance’s 7 Cooperative Principles.
- Work together as one team to reap benefits for both the self and the community.
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From July through October of this year, Central Brooklyn Food Co-op member-leaders hit the streets to document their neighbors’ food shopping practices and attitudes. In all, approximately 350 surveys were collected using an on-line survey and an in-person survey distributed through more than 20 outreach sessions.
A few insights:
- As a whole, Central Brooklynites were satisfied with the store hours and shopping environment offered in their primary grocery stores.
- Conversely, they were unsatisfied with their primary grocery stores’ product prices and the lack of “ethnic and cultural” foods.
- Eighty-two percent of those surveyed said they would join and participate in a food coop in Central Brooklyn.
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Live in Bedford-Stuyvesant or Crown Heights?
Want to be part of starting a food co-op?
Get involved!
We are a group of local activists committed to creating a food co-op that is led by and serves folks, particularly people of color, living in Central Brooklyn.
We are expanding our organizing effort and looking for people to join one of our three committees (Park Slope Food Co-op members can earn work credit).
Skills and Experiences Needed:
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Cooperative Management
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Community Outreach and Organizing
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Fundraising
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Marketing and Market Research
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Business Law
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Financial Management
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Not-for-profit fundraising
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Business plan development
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Retail food operational management
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Real Estate prospecting
To join our food co-op organizing effort contact:
Call (718) 771-7000 | Email: cbfc@brooklynmovementcenter.org
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