Parker's Food Connection 

The Seven Questions You've Had about Parker's New Food Co- op, and their Answers.

1) Why is this such a fabulous idea?

Parker’s food cooperative—called the Food Connection—will give kids a way to connect with the nutrition unit taught every other year in Wellness by offering a way to buy organic, healthy food for less money and less hassle. We also think it will be a great way to continue to build our Parker community. Through documentation of the process, we hope to leave not only a functional business but also a guide for future students.

2)So, like, what is a food co-op anyway?

A food co-op is a way for a group of people to buy food and other goods directly from the distributor, thus skipping the supermarket step.

3) How will Parker’s food coop work?

Once a month, families can order food, beauty-without-cruelty products, organic cotton t-shirts, paper goods and more from our supplier’s catalog. The order will be delivered to Parker, sorted by students (with maybe a parent or two to help) and ready for pickup with Friday afternoon carpool. Because the products will be wholesale and purchased in bulk, prices will be lower than what you’d pay at a supermarket.

4) How did this idea get started?

We were guarding the flag during a Wellness Capture the Flag game, and started to talk. How could we have an impact on our community, the Parker community? How could we make a difference? We decided to start a food cooperative.

5) And then what happened?

We brought our ideas to Teri and gave her a brief PowerPoint presentation that captured our ideas for the cooperative. Teri encouraged us, so we set up an info table at last May’s Parker Classic Road Race. We were hoping that maybe one person would sign up to learn more. Surprisingly the response was overwhelming. As one of us kept order at the table, the other was running to make more copies of the sheet.

6) And then what happened?

We spent our "lazy summer afternoons" researching general business plans, and then we began our own. Two months of revisions later, with the help of Martha McLure, Mary-Ann Gapinski, Teri Schrader, Pat Tuzzolo, and Sharon Briggs, we finished our business plan and decided the logistics of the cooperative.

7) And THEN what happened?

Lots of talking—to the Board of Trustees, the Health Advisory Council, and to four Wellness classes. And now we’re at the point where we can say what we’ve been working towards since that Capture the Flag Game last April: The Parker Food Co-op is going to happen. And it’s going to be cool.