From its humble beginnings in March of 2012, supported by a community that believes in the importance of cooperatives, the Taos Food Coop has grown slowly, steadily and beyond all expectations.
A small board of directors decided to take a leap of faith and open a tiny retail venue in the back of what was then the Optimysm metaphysical store, in the space now occupied by Verizon.
It literally started with five 25-pound bags of rice and beans, which were then bagged into one-pound packages and resold at a small profit. Despite the size of the venture in its infancy, the steadfast commitment of a few people has facilitated continual growth of the retail grocery to where we are now.
The co-op has moved three times since then, within the same building. First, in 2014, to a slightly larger space next door, that held the store, an office, a packaging area and all its storage. In 2015, the board made a bold decision to move the store to a larger space in the front of the building and keep the back space for all of the support functions.
The most recent move, about a year ago, expanded the store, the offices and the support space once again. Currently the store is in the process of expanding walk-in refrigeration and cool storage spaces, where we keep vegetables, nuts, seeds and flour.
The first major purchase was a used, single-door freezer that enabled the co-op to buy and sell frozen ground beef for the first time. Today the co-op owns 15 commercial fridges and freezers in addition to the walk-in and cool room.
People often ask the manager or cashier, “Are you the owner?” Truth be told, as an authentic cooperative, this store currently has over 1,100 member-owners who each pay a small annual fee to participate. In return, owners elect the board of directors and receive 10 percent off their retail purchases. About 45 of the members also volunteer for the various tasks, including cashiering, ordering, receiving, cleaning, packaging, keeping the books and marketing — everything required to run a small business.
Manager Susan Moore has been leading the team of volunteers for about eight of its 10 years.
“The growth has been amazing and we never anticipated such success and responsiveness from the community,” Moore says. “The pandemic seems to have made quite a few people aware of the importance of healthy food — plus, the restaurants were mostly closed and people stayed home and cooked more, so the bottom line for us is that we did as much business in the past two years as we did in our first eight years combined. That happened at the same time that the volunteer staff was reduced due to mask mandates and the pervasive uncertainty.
“We are on a mission to provide organic and non-GMO foods to our community and we are so grateful for the support we have received from the many volunteers throughout the years, all of our member-owners, and the whole community,” Moore says, adding “This Saturday, March 19, and throughout the week following we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary with music, refreshments, games, prizes and our annual half-price memberships. We are hoping the community turns out to help us celebrate.”
Taos Food Coop
10th Anniversary Celebration, Music, refreshments, games prizes, half-price memberships
314 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos
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