There was a meeting Wednesday morning at the Coffee Gallery to discuss forming a food co-op in the Altadena area. Patrick Reagan, who got the ball rolling, writes Altadenablog:
My original hope was to have at least a two people attend the first meeting and expected that they would take some convincing to explore this idea.
Instead we had six very motivated attendees. (Two others were interested but couldn't attend today.) Wonderfully reflecting the character of Altadena, we have slightly [different] reasons for wanting a co-op but share a strong desire to pursue the idea. The other thing I'm pleased about is the range of skills and experience that this group has. We could still use some more help but are off to a good start.
The next step is for us to do research. We have to become knowledgeable in what it takes to get such a business off the ground, how co-ops compare to normal grocery stores and to begin to get a handle on financially justifying such a business. Along the way we need to clarify our goals and determine if it might be possible to accomplish them by some other means - working with existing businesses for instance. We need to make sure there are no insurmountable obstacles to an Altadena area co-op and prepare ourselves to present our findings to a community meeting. Yes this is a lot of work but I find it fun. It would be great to establish such a valuable community asset.
We're planning on having our next meeting in about a month. If you know anyone interested in helping, especially if they have experience in small business startups, please send them my way before then. I'll have to confer with the rest of the committee but at some point we'll stop announcing the steering committee meetings and just work with our existing group.
If you're interested in helping out, send a note to Patrick.
