Lodestar Grassroots Mini Co-Op
Creating a Year-Round Food Producing Source for 5 Families
The immediate purpose for a mini co-op at Lodestar Gardens is to utilize existing space, facilities and human resources (labor) for the purpose of producing food for the grower-participants. Not money, but time and energy is the currency of exchange in this endeavor to create a source of year-round local food. Our coop is self-organize utilizing a democratic process, wherein all the participants have a voice in decisions concerning: what produce will be grown, how the food will be harvested, processed, and distributed, developing value added features to our activities, defining growing bed responsibilities, garden contact time commitments, and items of participant accountability.
Our larger purpose is that the Lodestar Co-Op will serve as a collaborative model for strengthening our regional food shed and nutritional self-reliance one green house and one village at a time. We are not actively seeking grants, loans or financial donations to support this project. The primary goal is increase our capacity to grow local, non-chemical, nutritionally-dense food with existing resources. The LSG Mini Co-Op was formed in August of 2012 and members began reaping harvests in October 2013 from the high tunnel they helped to build. The tunnel furnishes food year round thanks to their hard work.