In Our Own Words: Member Testimonial (Cynthia S.)

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

“Imagine” by John Lennon

I admit being an idealist and a dreamer, and I now know I am not the only one! Since joining the Richmond Food Cooperative, I have met and continue to meet others who are willing to commit to and invest in a shared dream. We are a diverse group, a collection of ages, races, ethnicities, yet we share a common vision of a new possibility. We envision a business centered not on maximizing profit, but on maximizing the benefits to the community in which we live. The Richmond Food Cooperative promises a new way of “doing business,” empowering and enriching our entire community both individually and communally. 

Shortly after joining the Richmond co-op, I visited the Weaver Street Market Cooperative in Carrboro, NC (thank you, Tracy Citeroni, for telling me to do so!) Weaver Street Market (WSM) is over twenty-five years old and has more than 14,000 members with three locations. It is a model of what we might dream of being one day. While exploring the produce department, I found myself in conversation with Charles, a member/employee of WSM. He knew all about our nascent effort to create the Richmond Food Cooperative. He shared with me his passion about the power of cooperatives to change our economy. After a career in the Massachusetts legislature, Charles became convinced that cooperatives have the potential to bring greater positive change to our economic structure than any legislative efforts. 

Marjorie Kelly, Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute, voices a similar view of the power of cooperatives. She describes cooperatives as a piece of an emerging “generative economy.” An economy where “economic activity is no longer about squeezing every penny from something we imagine that we own. It’s about being interwoven with the world around us. It’s about a shift from dominion to community.” * 

If you are not yet part of our Richmond Food Cooperative community of five hundred dreamers, please come dream with us! If you are one who has already invested in the dream, keep spreading the word of what we can do together! 

-Cynthia Schmitz, Member/Owner

* “The Economy Under New Ownership: How Cooperatives are Leading the Way to Empowered Workers and Healthy Communities”, Yes! Magazine, Spring 2013