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History of the Cooperative
Bob's Notes, Part the First
November 2006
History and Future. . .
Three years ago, we launched the first Oklahoma Food Cooperative order. We
had about 60 members, and that first order grossed about $3500. It was a
riot. We had to figure everything out from nothing. I remember showing up
to delivery day with only a hazy idea of how we would proceed. I didn't,
however, tell anyone I didn't have a clue as to what we should be doing.
Like everybody else that day, we just went forward as if we knew all about
how to operate a local cooperative order-delivery system, and thus
continued the process which began the previous year of creating the
self-fulfilling prophecy of hope which is the Oklahoma Food Cooperative.
Nobody had ever done anything quite like this before. We had a list of
products on the internet and that was it. Everybody sent me emails with
their orders and I copied and pasted those emails into word processing
documents to make invoices for producers and customers. They were so ugly
I appended an apology to them, saying, "We will do better next month."
And we did. Better, that is. Emma McCauley and Sandra Storey then began
the process of building our online shopping system. The first thing was
an order system so that all we had to do was enter product codes and
amounts, then we got the shopping cart, and everything has grown from that
simple beginning.
Thirty-six months, and four hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars in
groceries and non-food products later, here we are at the November 2006
Oklahoma Food Cooperative order. We have 868 members. We have helped
start similar cooperatives in Nebraska and North Texas, both of which are
presently operating, and we are working with folks in other states who are
interested. In February, I will present a workshop in Ontario, Canada,
which will include info about the cooperative. I know, February is a great
time to go to Canada, but if you want to talk with farmers, generally the
winter is when you do it.
In the beginning, we didn't know all the details of what was to come.
There were any number of people who predicted disaster and failure. But
we had our eyes firmly fixed on a vision of community, social justice,
environmental sustainability, and economically viable local food systems.
That vision continues to sustain and inspire us today, although it seems
like lately I've been so busy with the details I haven't had much time to
contemplate that vision.
There are many stories that could be told. People tell me, "My kids would
never eat tomatoes until we got tomatoes from the coop." "I never knew
hamburger could taste so good. Now my family complains if I buy ground
meat from the grocery store." "Bob, I'm making the mortgage payment on my
farm from my coop sales." "We decided to stop spraying our pastures with
herbicides." "Going to delivery day was like going to a barn raising in
the old days." And so on and so forth.
The coop itself is a story. We have been written up all over the country.
People follow our progress and pay attention to how we are doing. They send
me emails and ask questions. I get phone calls from people in Germany who
want what we have to sell.
You are part of that story. We are our members, a growing community of
common purpose and hope who reject the idea of food as fuel and commodity,
and embrace the authentic regional foods and tastes of our area. Oklahoma
food is good enough for us. We are producers and customers, re-weaving the
ties that once bound rural and urban areas together in mutual support and
service. The relationships we build today will serve us well for decades
to come.
We don't know all the details of where the story is going or where our
journey will eventually take us. But it has been said, "All the way to
heaven is heaven", which is a way of saying that the journey itself is
worth the effort and the work. And of course, the food is certainly worth
our investment.
The future is not without its challenges -- in particular, understanding
how to scale up our operations to meet the continually increasing demand.
But I figure that if we have made it this far, we can find the rest of the
way forward. The hard part was four years ago, when this was just a crazy
idea that was fun to talk about. At any time, we could have decided,
"this idea is too crazy, we should just abandon it." That would have been
easy to do. As my friend Sean said, when I told him of my idea of a local
food cooperative, "It sounds like a lot of work, Bob." And it has been
work, and will be even more work in the future, and so what? The journey,
and the goal we reach toward, is worth the price.
Thanks to everybody who is making this cooperative a success -- producers,
customers, volunteers, leadership. I am honored to be considered part of
your company.
Bob Waldrop, president
Oklahoma Food Cooperative
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