11-28-13 p 1-16_Layout 1 11/27/13 4:03 PM Page 1 OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE PARK SLOPE FOOD COOP Established 1973 Volume HH, Number 24 November 28, 2013 Reflecting On 40 Years Of Coop History ILLUSTRATION BY CATHY WASSYLENKO Is It Safe to Eat Rice Crackers and Seaweed Snax? The State of Science on the PHOTO COURTESY OF PARK SLOPE FOOD COOP ARCHIVES Aftereffects of Fukushima The Park Slope Food Coop before its expansion into the Cline’s carpet store space. By Allison Pennell debris is making its way to By Taigi Smith us, it is hard to imagine a Park idea of the Park Slope Food t’s been two and a half years California and the Pacific t has been 40 years since Slope devoid of gourmet gro- Coop was hatched by a grass- Isince a devastating earth- Northwest, and South Korea the PSFC first opened its cery stores or trendy restau- roots group called “The Mon- quake and tsunami severely announced last month it had doors on a chilly February rants, but Felicia Glucksman, goose.” Members of the damaged the Fukushima Dai- banned all imports of Japan- day, and while we’ve grown who joined way back in 1979, Mongoose would meet at ichi nuclear power plant on ese seafood from a large area to more than 16,000 mem- says today’s trendy Park Slope 782 Union St., the location the coast of Japan. News around Fukushima. bers, one must fully recog- is nothing like it used to be. that eventually became the reports have since recounted Making heads or tails of it nize our humble beginnings PSFC’s first home. the calamitous environmen- all is a daunting proposition. to fully appreciate how far The year was 1973 and “The opening day was in tal effects. Three hundred Am I endangering my kid by we’ve really come. Park Slope was an entirely the third week of February,” tons of radioactive water are feeding her all those seaweed The year was 1973 and Park different community. recalls Joe Holtz. “We invited leaking daily into the Pacific snacks? Can we still eat rice Slope was an entirely different everybody to come and par- from the damaged power crackers? Can lox be saved? community. “There were still ticipate in the shopping, and plant’s holding tanks. A giant Should all of California move families with lots of kids. Ital- “We were still in the pio- everybody who came, we floating island of radioactive CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 ian-American, Irish-American, neer phase of Park Slope. You asked them to sign up for Puerto Ricans and African- really had to travel out of the work. Anybody who came Next General Meeting on December 17 Americans,” recalls founding neighborhood for good food. through the door was a mem- The General Meeting of the Park Slope Food Coop is held on the member Joe Holtz. “But it was There was one Key Food, but ber, we thought.” last Tuesday of each month. The December General Meeting is hard to buy in Park Slope that was basically it. It didn’t Holtz, along with several an exception, as it will take place on Tuesday, December 17, at because the neighborhood look anything like it looks other founding members, 7:00 p.m. at Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School, 500 19th was redlined and the banks now.” It was within the con- posted signs all over Park St., between 10th Ave. and Prospect Park West. (This exception wouldn’t lend to people trying text of a rapidly changing Slope and Prospect Heights, is due to the Christmas holiday.) to purchase homes in the neighborhood, devoid of urging people to join their For more information about the GM and about Coop gover- neighborhood.” For some of fresh food options, that the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 nance, please see the center of this issue. IN THIS ISSUE The December 17 General Meeting A Coop Filmmaker Chronicles Brooklyn Gentrification. 3 Is One Week Earlier Than Usual, Plow-to-Plate Movie Series . 4 Puzzle . 7 At a Special December Location: Welcome . 9 Coop Calendar, Governance Information, Mission Statement . 9 Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School, Calendar of Events . 10 500 19th St., Letters to the Editor . 12 Classifieds . 14 between 10th Ave. and Prospect Park West Community Calendar . 14 Exciting Workslot Opportunities . 15 11-28-13 p 1-16_Layout 1 11/27/13 4:03 PM Page 2 2 November 28, 2013 Park Slope Food Coop, Brooklyn, NY Reflecting week. “I don’t think anybody Coop also sold cheese. “Jarls- for you. I think bulk tofu lasted nobody wanted to do it,” says thought of that as a big mile- berg was pretty new in Ameri- into the ’80s. I’m thrilled that Glucksman, who recalls large CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 stone,” says Holtz. “We added ca and it was extremely we no longer get bulk deliver- distributors refusing to deliver fledgling food cooperative. one day a week every year or popular. It was so much better ies of tofu at the Coop. How to a “store” as small as the “We put up signs all over the so in the 1980s.” than domestically made Swiss do we know no dirt dropped Coop. “Joe Holtz and the other neighborhood—on trees, on “Young people in the Coop cheese,” says Holtz. But unlike into the bucket? They weighed founders ran the place. They’re electrical poles —that basical- have no idea how it started. today, the cheese was cut by a lot, and we really had to such bright men and women. ly said, ‘Come be a part of the They look at the Coop like a members in the store while worry about the ergonomics.” They fought to get the build- Coop. There’s all this food that supermarket. They have no the shoppers watched. And as The ergonomics? As I write ings, they took and paid off we need to sell’ and we listed idea that it started in one you can imagine, shoppers this piece, it’s hard to imagine mortgages. This was the result the prices,” says Holtz. After room and that we pre-ordered could sometimes be tough our Coop without an elevator, of a lot of hard work by a lot of plastering the neighborhood our food every week,” says customers. “You were in the with a shopping space limited people,” says Glucksman. with signs, Holtz and the other Finer. Finer, who joined the store area and someone to 900 square feet, but that’s “In those days we didn’t founders crossed their fingers PSFC 40 years ago, remembers would have to cut the cheese,” exactly the way it was, says even have cards. We just gave and hoped for the best. And those days. At 78 years old, says Glucksman, who vividly Holtz. “It could be argued that our names when we walked in. guess what? People showed the “Coop retiree” has earned remembers shoppers com- there’s no longer the fear of All you were doing was work- up. In droves. the right not to work a shift. plaining about the way the carrying your groceries down ing a shift and doing the pre- cheese was cut. “We had to tell people, ‘We’re not profession- al cheese cutters.’ We always had people who were a little bit too serious.” “Anybody who came through the door was a member, we thought.” —Joe Holtz There was also a time, says Glucksman, when the Coop only sold “healthy” foods. PHOTO COURTESY OF PARK SLOPE FOOD COOP ARCHIVES “The Coop didn’t sell choco- PHOTO BY KEVIN RYAN Coop shelves in the old days on the second floor of 782 late, coffee, beer. It was a Coop shelves in 2013. Union St. vegan beginning.” Well, almost vegan. The Coop, the stairs—that was scary. order thing. We kind of had to “We were leftist hippies,” Back in the old days, recalls according to Holtz, sold Member workers had to carry believe it was gonna get bet- remembers June Finer, a Finer, all shopping, receiving bacon. “It wasn’t from envi- all the food up the stairs,” says ter,” remembers Glucksman. member of the Mongoose and storing was confined to ronmentally raised pigs and it Joe. “The elevator wasn’t “The first lines I remember who joined PSFC in 1974. The one room in the upstairs area faded away for a long while. To installed until 2001.” were people waiting to be Mongoose was “a wonderful of the current Coop. “There get bacon back, it had to be But experiences like having admitted inside,” recalls institution,” says Finer, of the was no elevator and members voted in,” remembers Holtz. to schlep vegetables up and Holtz, who now realizes that Mongoose’s support of had to walk up and down the But bringing in meat, as a down stairs forced members the founders took a big risk demonstrations against the stairs,” says Finer. Back in whole, to the Coop caused to really appreciate their food, opening their doors in the Vietnam War and “whatever those days, she says, mem- controversy. Finer also argues Felicia Glucksman. If middle of winter. “What if it else was going on during the bers had to place orders for remembers those days. “There more members knew the true had snowed?” asks Holtz. “No were huge, huge discussions whether or not to have meat and beer,” says Finer, who would prefer the Coop not sell what she calls “rubbish foods.” The high-priced chips? “I really, really don’t appreci- ate that type of stuff.” And things could get seri- ous, says Holtz, who remem- bered the time two members got into a fistfight during a General Meeting.