The Neighborhood Co-op Grocery traces its roots back to the early 1980s, when a handful of friends formed a buying club that gathered in living rooms to split bulk orders of food. Francis Murphy, now the general manager, was part of those early days. A three-time SIU graduate, Murphy has been involved with the Co-op for more than three decades.
“In the early ‘80s, a group of friends got together in someone’s living room with a catalog from a wholesale co-op in Madison, Wisconsin,” Murphy said. “They would drive a truck up there, load it with grains, beans, rice, cheese and nuts, and then bring it back to Carbondale where people would gather in houses and divide up the food.”
That network of neighborhood buying clubs gave the Co-op its name.
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