local
THE BATTALION Page 3
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1980
Brazos Valley Food Co-op offers
students alternative to high prices
aw
ARES
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By JANA SIMS
City Reporter
| On Tuesday and Saturday after
noon, vegetarians, “whole-wheat
thinkers,” and sometimes even a
junk food lover can be seen traipsing
across the yard of the home at 308
Ash St.
pTheir destination is a small back
yard shed, complete with prices on a
chalkbord, a tackle box to hold
money and buckets and bottles of
food The reason? The former para
keet house is now the home of the
Brazos Valley Food Co-op.
KThe cooperative (a store owned
/kty collectively by members who share
^ injits benefits) has a vague history. It
was started in the fall of 1974 when
vegetarian and former Texas A&M
University student Dwight Tomkins
anti a handful of friends began stor
ing food and holding meetings.
K-Dwight’s father, David Tomkins,
said the group’s purpose was to
establish an organization that had
enough volume and demand to deal
directly with food growers. The food
would then be distributed nonprofit-
abb by co-op members.
Besides being inexpensive, the
food is organic (grown with only
animal or vegetable fertilizers and no
pesticides). But when Dwight gradu
ated in 1976, the organization strug
gled to keep going.
p,"“It kind of died down, ” said Gari
Strawn, who lives at 308 Ash St.
“Now we re trying to build it up
again because it could be a good ser
vice. Lord knows college students
aren’t always rich.
»‘A lot of people who are into this
arc vegetarians, but you don’t have
t() be a vegetarian to like to get your
food a little cheaper.”
I And, indeed, when comparing co
op and local grocery prices on grains,
flours, beans, nuts, seeds, dried
•^fruit, spices, honey, juices, oils,
(^cheese, tea and whatever else hap
pens to be under the co-op’s roof, the
co-op is almost always cheaper.
■The average price of popcorn, a
popular student snack, at three local
groceries is 43 cents a pound. At the
co-op it’s 23 cents a pound — almost
half the cost.
Biweet potatoes, which sell for 37
cents a pound in stores, cost 18 cents
for the same amount at the co-op.
IpYellow onions that sell for 16 cents
Bound at the co-op are 28 cents a
Bund in the stores.
iiout this olai i AU co -°P s P ices > such as cayenne,
■grading as' curr >’ powder and mustard seed, av-
ing for the <?ra K ( ‘ two-thirds less than the prices
ition for higti 0 T n ^ groceries.
* c w it • Jpln addition, when compared with
stedtoknor |> a ! health . food store that ad ^ er -
rria bv whickBP the same organic-ness of their
I | products that is found in co-op food,
’ nnnsihle trl^P prices are sometimes drastical-
benefit coulif y pheaper. An example: Co-op orga-
posing youne#
disturbed lo:
>art of the U
jn
nic pinto beans sell for 36 cents a
pound, compared to 49 cents a
pound in local groceries and $1.15 a
pound in the health food store.
On Saturdays the co-op has cheese
and fresh produce. The cheese is
purchased wholesale from a local
meat market and it’s the only pro
duct that co-op members cannot
claim is organic. Sometimes inorga
nic produce was purchased from a
vegetable market but the members
found it difficult to keep the prices
low. So in the future, co-op will rely
on local organic gardeners for fresh
produce. Mary Alice Pisani said
more produce will be provide as peo
ple’s organic gardens get going.
The rest of the food comes from
the Yellow Rose Cooperative Ware
house and Sweethardt Herbs in Au
stin. The organic food is ordered by
John and Julie Ambler and is picked
up by any co-op member making a
trip to Austin. Strawn said the co-op
then has a work day when everyone
puts the food into jars, buckets
(which are obtained from the Memo
rial Student Center by a co-op mem
ber) and jugs.
The food, which Mr. Ambler pre
fers to refer to as “whole” food (no
thing has been removed from it by
processing), is marked up by 20 per
cent so the co-op can have some
working capital. Anyone who “regu
larly puts energy into the co-op” re
ceives a 10 percent discount.
Shoppers are advised to bring
their own sacks and jars and to be
prepared to weigh their own purch
ases.
The Amblers rely on their experi
ence with a large co-op in Oregon in
determining what to order. Ambler
said it just takes a combination of
common sense and knowing what
people like to buy.
Most everyone has uses for the
basic food times such as beans. But
for those who don’t know whether to
brew, boil or bury such things as
yerba mate, the co-op workers can
provide cooking hints and some
times recipes.
Ambler said the co-op in Oregon
did between $1,000 to $2,000 worth
of business every day. The Brazos
Valley Co-op turns about $100 worth
of business per week, with a lot de
pending on the weather.
Ambler said he wants to see the
co-op became a “thriving little busi
ness” and his present goal is for the
co-op to do a minimum of $300 to
$500 business per week. With this
amount, he said the co-op could
move into a heated and air-
conditioned building and order food
every one of two weeks. Ordering
once a month, he said, makes it hard
to plan.
Aven Witthaus said she’d like to
see the co-op “big enough to where
be aj
the
? of Englisl
N.K.'
i’ exist
and let you I®
is; done by 6'*
u see fewer]#!
ng out of diet
“Rock”
Leslie'
g
Gd
Ya Mighta Known It.
Just look like you’re gonna get ahead of the game
a bit and someone’ll find a way to zap ya.
Now, it’s that doggone phone company. They
want a raise. So I don’t mind if they get one every
once in a while. I tell ya, mine had better come
through on time or someone’s gonna be sorry.
So, anyway, I found this guy I know who works
there and I asked him just what they’re tryin’ to
pull on me now.
Sheesh, I couldn’t shut him up. He jawed for half
an hour and I don’t understand half what he says
anyway.
But one thing kinda stuck with me. They ain’t had
a raise since 1976. That’s four years!
Well, I don’t know who looks after phone com
panies but someone’d better start. Next time I see
that fella, maybe I’ll listen a little closer. Four
years...hey, they might even be able to tell me how
to stretch a buck.
C3B
GERERAL TELEPHORE
—we stretch bucks!
it’s fresh all the time.” With more
workers and more business, the tur
nover is faster, thus causing food to
be brought more often.
The original co-op purpose has
broadened into three: To provide
natural and organically grown foods
to the Brazos Valley at low cost, to
help people interested in natural
foods meet other, and to provide
nutritional education and informa
tion on uses of natural foods.
The co-op’s only formal meetings
are held every Tuesday evening in
the form of potluck dinners for any
one interested. People attending are
asked to bring a dish or $ 1 and eating
utensils.
Most of the people involved in the
co-op are Texas A&M students.
Strawn said she wishes the co-op also
had more of a community interest.
“Every four years we have a com
plete turnover,” Strawn said, “and
that’s the problem. We don’t have
any really permanent workers.
There might be one really strong stu
dent who gets ‘gung-ho’ and, in spite
of his studies, he stays over here and
works and works and works. When
he graduates, everything crumbles. ”
As additional people get in
terested and volunteer their time,
the co-op can be open more hours.
Ambler said the co-op can be a
good community service. It’s helpful
to low-income people and provides
foods that aren’t normally available
except in health food stores, he said.
Now that the co-op is being re
vived, he said he’s sure it will grow
into his goal of a small business. The
only question now is when.
EXPERIENCE
PERFECTION
SEE
Henry Dunn
At
Guys ’tz Gals
Suite208, 4103 Texas Ave., South
846-5018
Jbr(wpMy..jQrei/&yM//yr... MNTADS
drive
Texas Office of Traffic
LAKEVIEW CLUB
12th YEAR APPRECIATION DANCE
THURSDAY-MARCH 6th
8 p.m. til 12 p.m.
MUSIC BY DEMMIS IVEY & THE WAYMEN
Admission only s l. 00
Get your first favorite brand of
beer for only 12d
After the first one-beer is 60C
the remainder of the night.
SATORDAY-MARCH 8th
TEXAS FEVER
Admission $ 3 00 per person
| SAT. MARCH 15 |
a ■
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SAT. MARCH 22
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SAT. MARCH 29 [
UtUe David Wilkins
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GOOD
1
1
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Show
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VIBRATIONS
1
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DENNIS IVEY j
Featuring: Tina &
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&THEWAYMAN i
Koko the Clown
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9 til 1
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Admission $ 4. 00
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Admission $ 3. 00
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Admission $ 3. 00 j
1 J
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THESE COUPONS GOOD FOR $ 1 00 OFF ADMISSION.
ONE COUPON PER PERSON
THE LAKEVIEW CLUB
3 MILES NORTH ON TABOR ROAD OFF THE EAST BYPASS