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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Food

January 30, 2025

Movers and Shakers on the Northeast US Co-op Scene

Movers and shakers from Co-op Power, the Old Creamery Co-op, Real Pickles, River Valley Co-op, & UMass Five College Credit Union, Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives, Downtown Sounds, Flat Iron coffee house, Neighboring Food Co-op Association, Our Family Farms, & PV Squared.

January 13, 2025

New Co-op Financial Association for Southern Small Farmers

Focused on 12 Southeastern states, the new institution will offer low-interest loans and technical support to help farmers, landowners, cooperatives, and ag-based businesses start and grow operations.

Citations

Mari Nishitani (2025).  Arab Street Corner Bakery Challenges Inequality with Cooperation.  Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO).  https://geo.coop/articles/arab-street-corner-bakery-challenges-inequality-cooperation

January 9, 2025

Arab Street Corner Bakery Challenges Inequality with Cooperation

Reem’s California is a worker-owned restaurant. It is democratically run by local workers. Using worker-ownership, the restaurant challenges the long-standing inequality and violence prevalent in the restaurant industry, and provides an empowering and transforming workplace for those who have faced the most barriers–people of color, queer, formerly incarcerated folks, and undocumented individuals.

August 12, 2024

Introduction to DES: Solidarity Economy Districts

In today's video, we bring you an in-depth interview with representatives from the Verona Solidarity Economy District (DES). We will discover how the movement started, its roots in the Lilliput network in Varese, and how it has grown over the years to become an established reality in the field of solidarity economy.

August 5, 2024

Insights into GAS: Solidarity Purchasing Groups

Discover what it means to be part of a Solidarity Purchase Group (GAS) through the interview with Vincenzo Vizioli, president of Aiab Umbria. With a journey that began in the late 1980s, Vincenzo explains how his choice for organic and biodynamic farming has evolved into a model of sustainability, cooperation, and mutualism.

July 25, 2024

The Rise & Fall of Black Cat Cafe Workers Cooperative

In this episode Nacho speaks candidly about the highs & the lows of his & Carla's 10 year journey with Black Cat Cafe. Even though from the outside Black Cat Cafe seems to be extremely successful Nacho shares about the constant challenges they faced - the difficulties paying members & staff fairly, and the set backs when trying to attract & retain worker members.

July 15, 2024

The Transformative Power of Urban Recipe’s Atlanta Food Co-op Model

“Urban Recipe started in 1991 out of one church’s efforts to be in relationship with their community differently beyond the traditional food pantry relationship,” executive director Jeremy Lewis says. Urban Recipe has moved out of that church and now operates and facilitates six food co-ops similar to Co-op 1 and helps operationally support and source food for four additional co-ops in Atlanta that have been through their cooperative pathways training program.

July 4, 2024

Preserving Legacy Businesses Through Worker Cooperative Buyouts

This is a "nuts & bolts" session on transitioning existing businesses to worker-owned cooperatives. Attendees learn about the option and process of worker buyouts and hear a wide variety of company transition stories, from initial exploration through deal structuring, financing and post-transaction support. Business owners considering a sale to employees as well as current workers exploring or engaged in a buyout will find value in the session.

March 4, 2024

Other Avenues Grocery Cooperative

Celia LoBuono Gonzalez joins us on the show this episode to share her story and that of Other Avenues Grocery Cooperative.

February 26, 2024

Danish Creamery Co-ops in the Late Nineteenth Century

We consider the relative contributions of changing technology and institutions for economic growth through the investigation of a natural experiment in history: the almost simultaneous introduction of the automatic cream separator and the cooperative ownership form in the Danish dairy industry from around 1880. Using a new database of statistics from creameries and the tool of stochastic frontier analysis, we find that both institutions and technology were important for the success of the Danish dairy industry and, by implication, the growth and early development of the Danish economy.