When I travel to other cities, I always pop into their co-op grocery stores. (My favorite this summer was the Concord Food Co-op, where I bought a custom-made grilled cheese and had a picnic on the grass in front of the New Hampshire state capitol building.)
And then I come home and ask, “Why doesn’t Nashville have a co-op yet?” I’ve been a member of the Nashville Food Co-op since I wrote this article for the Nashville Scene in 2021. So, I asked Tera Ashley, president of the Nashville Food Co-op, for an update.
First things first, a co-op is a community-owned store. It’s not a charitable organization; the store's profits are reinvested in the store and/or paid to members as a dividend. In a co-op grocery store, Ashley says, about 23% of sales are from local goods, as compared with about 2% in a conventional store. That keeps more money in locals' pockets.
The Nashville Food Co-op just hired its first full-time employee (Ashley and other board members are volunteers). That should help the organization increase awareness, apply for grants, and look for a physical spot to open. You don’t need a reminder that Nashville area rents are high, and it can be challenging for small businesses to find real estate. But Ashley is confident the right space — maybe a non-traditional one — is out there.
Even without a brick-and-mortar store, the Co-op has lots of ways it’s serving its members with weekly farm boxes (with pickup spots in several areas around town), cooking classes, and farm tours. The next cooking class will be on Chinese cuisine (sign up for the newsletter so you’ll get registration info when available).
🍦 Plus, there are discounts available for meat and produce CSAs, and Ashley says ice cream and brewery discounts are in the works. The organization is looking at launching a mobile store that would allow folks to pick up vegetables and other groceries at schools and places they already visit.
Co-op membership is a one-time investment of $250 (it can be paid in installments), and that helps the organization build its next phase. “Membership is really for people who can dream,” Ashley says.
