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Kevin Riordan: Next on Collingswood wish list: A co-op

A tasty array of restaurants, a bountiful farmers market, and a fresh crop of food-related businesses on Haddon Avenue make Collingswood a great town for people who like to eat.

Lisa Murphy (left) and Alicia DeMarco are two organizers of an effort to create a retail food co-op in Collingswood. Photo by Kevin Riordan
Lisa Murphy (left) and Alicia DeMarco are two organizers of an effort to create a retail food co-op in Collingswood. Photo by Kevin RiordanRead more

A tasty array of restaurants, a bountiful farmers market, and a fresh crop of food-related businesses on Haddon Avenue make Collingswood a great town for people who like to eat.

Now borough boosters hope to add another ingredient: a retail co-op offering local produce and products.

"We need this," says Lisa Murphy, who started to stir the pot by posting an online query - "Is anyone out there interested in starting a food co-op?" - in July.

The response was immediate, connections were made, and a Facebook page set up; supporters also solicited input from patrons of the Collingswood Farmers Market.

That's where I encountered Murphy and her enthusiastic band of co-op fans Saturday, as they chatted up shoppers, gathered contact information from about 200 people, and distributed promotional materials.

"When people hear that we're talking about a bricks-and-mortar store, the response is overwhelmingly positive," says Murphy, 41, who has worked in retail food for 20 years.

The store's size and location are yet to be determined, and opening day could be two or even three years away. Organizing volunteer committees and raising money for a feasibility study come first.

"A co-op is a business," Murphy says. "It has to succeed" as a business.

Nationally, about 330 such enterprises are operating, says Stuart Reid, executive director of the Food Co-op Initiative. Fifty have opened in the last eight years.

By phone from his farm in Denniston, Minn., Reid credits growing consumer appetite for fresh and organic food, as well as customer desire for locally made goods that often can't get shelf space from big chains, with inspiring communities to start co-ops.

Several have recently opened or are in development in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs, including Elkins Park, West Philadelphia, Ambler, South Philadelphia, and Kensington.

"But there's nothing like a co-op here," says Dean Stefano, who lives in Collingswood and manages the Weavers Way Co-op in Chestnut Hil. Weavers Way has expanded dramatically in recent years and is assisting the Collingswood group, he says.

A typical co-op store is 4,000 to 10,000 square feet. Development costs generally run $275 per square foot, meaning that a 10,000-square-foot store would require a $2.7 million investment, says Reid.

People who buy memberships - essentially, ownership shares - can purchase goods at a discount. Nonmembers pay the posted price.

"Collingswood is the place for this," says Alicia DeMarco, 41, a Cherry Hill High School East teacher who lives in the borough.

"The community wants another option," adds Denise Lewis, 51, a Voorhees elementary school art teacher who also lives in Collingswood.

Says Brian Hislip, 53, a project manager from Collingswood: "I've had a long interest in issues of food instability, and I see a co-op as a place to make food more broadly available."

Supporters also say they are excited by the chance to build a community institution from scratch.

They envision the co-op as a place to connect buyers with sellers and customers with each other, a place for cooking classes and community gatherings.

"There's going to be a growing groundswell for this," Hislip declares. "It's going to happen."