Homegrown Food Cooperative celebrates five years

Fresh eggs, fresh vegetables, fresh meat, homemade vegan chili, goat and cow cheese line the shelves and walls of Homegrown Local Food Cooperative, the colorful menagerie adding to the bright gold paint scheme, lending it the air of a permanent farmers’ market.

Founded in 2007 by the Florida School of Holistic Living, Homegrown started as an online market, connecting farmers directly to buyers so that the buyers knew where their food came from, and so that the money stayed within the local community. At that time there were only 10 members, with five farms, said Josh Archer, the assistant market director.

Now, the co-op has grown to more than 50 producers and more than 1,000 members. And not only does it run the online marketplace, but also it has the brick-and-mortar farm store on North Orange Avenue in College Park that is open seven days a week. But, rather than make it harder to run, the bump in size has actually helped make it run more smoothly, Archer said.

The size is what allowed them to move from a single room at the holistic learning center into the Orange Avenue site earlier this year. Originally, the store was only open five days a week, until they realized that this created a lot of spoiled food from the days they were closed. Preventing waste is a major goal of the co-op, which is focused on sustainable and local agriculture, he said, so they expanded into seven days a week.

The 10 permanent staff members are kept busy, with two shifts a day at the store, and online market delivery days on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but they do rely on volunteers to help with the labor.

“It’s tight,” Archer said. “We don’t have room for missing people.”

Most of the labor goes into the market delivery days. As explained on the website, members go to the co-op’s online marketplace and order directly from the producer or farm. Then the item is prepared or picked on the delivery day, when drivers from Homegrown pick-up the order and take it either to the farm store, or to the member’s door.

To join the cooperative, members buy-in for life with $200, and are given one vote in choosing the board. Non-members can still shop at the farm store, but with a 10 percent addition to the cost. A board elected once a year manages the co-op, deciding on the direction and policies for that year, as well as raising funds for the non-profit.

For more information, visit homegrowncoop.org

“It’s picked that morning, or the day before,” Archer said. “It’s as fresh as it gets.”

The members get fresh quality food whose source they know, while the producers get somewhere to sell their products.

Carol Peters of Slow Turtle Farm has been producing for the cooperative for more than a year. Her specialty is goat cheese for “pet” consumption, but she still prepares it to USDA standards for humans. It’s so popular she regularly sells out her entire production for the week.

Justin Venezia, the chef and owner of Venetian Gourmet Foods, has been selling through the co-op for three years. His vegan sausage, chili and energy bars are a popular seller in the store, he said. Without the co-op he would have to sell entirely through his own website, making it harder to get the word out and more expensive to produce.

“I’m a big fan because they sell a lot of my food,” he said, as he ladled serving after serving of his vegan chili during the co-op’s fifth anniversary celebration on Nov. 18.

The anniversary celebration brought together co-op members, producers and locals who merely drove by, and saw the band or tents set up.

One of the most crowded set-ups at the celebration was for Winter Park Dairy. Pedro Alicea, a friend of dairy owner David Green, , pulled people in, greeting them all and offering them a sample of the artisan cheese. The cheese is a popular seller at the co-op, he said.

“David’s been happy with the returns,” Alicea said between explanations of the cheeses. “He’s been very happy.”