"The Takoma Park/Silver Spring Co-op & Glut are wonderful places to shop/work. Now, we can add the City Garden Co-op to that list. It was great hearing that our meeting yesterday fulfilled their long-standing desire to connect with Community Grocery Cooperative. Their 30 years of experience will provide valuable insights." - Loryne JOYce, Community Grocery Coop Member
Members of the Community Grocery Cooperative, which is organizing to build a community-owned grocery store serving neighborhoods East of the River, were excited to visit the City Garden Coop in Mount Pleasant over this weekend, which has been serving its 130 members since the 1970s.
"City Garden Coop seems to be a great benefit to its members and a model that our CGC can learn from. I enjoyed hearing details about how they have kept the business operation running for over 40 years. I’m looking forward to continued dialogue with them. And it was especially wonderful to catch up with so many of our CGC members in person." - Nancy, Community Grocery Coop Member
City Garden Coop members were generous in sharing a wealth of insights and resources related to their coop's operations, including information on sourcing goods, managing financials, scheduling volunteer shifts, and making collective decisions. This information will be instrumental to the Community Grocery Coop as we grow our buying club and build toward our vision of operating a brick and mortar store. We look forward to continuing the conversation with City Garden Coop and we appreciate Beloved Community Incubator for facilitating this exchange.
"It was really encouraging to share with and learn from City Garden folks. Even better to share and feel the energy of the CGC fam." - Anthony