People's Food Cooperative, SE Portland (Vancouver Food Network)

People's is the oldest surviving food co-op in Portland, just north of Powell boulevard on SE 21st Avenue. Founded in 1970, People's operated with about a thousand square feet of retail space for over thirty years in a 1918 house that for decades had been a neighborhood store. A three-year renovation completed in March of 2003 expanded the store to almost 2,500 square feet of retail space, in a "green building" project that also created a 600-square-foot community room for neighborhood meetings and classes of all kinds. Except for pet foods, members voted not to stock products directly obtained by killing an animal (no meat). With approximately 3,000 members at $180 per share, People's grossed over $3 million in 2007.

Cooperative Structure with Policy Governance, Collective Management

People's is organized as a cooperative under ORS 62 and operates with a board of 5-9 elected directors, which operates under "policy governance." This means that the board focuses on broad, strategic policy, delegating operations to management, who reports back to the board monthly through thorough, highly structured reports. People's employees are all part of the "collective management" or CM team, which has its own democratic structures. A staff of two to three dozen works in combination with over two hundred volunteer "hands on owners," with its own policies and decision-making process.

Major Innovations: Mid-Week Organic Market, Point of Sale System

In 1990 People's also sponsored the first organic farmer's market in Portland and popularized the idea of a mid-week market that operated all twelve months of the year. Technology coordinator Joel Brock was instrumental in the creation and development of a special, open-source "point of sale" system, a tool that has since saved many co-operatives tens of thousands of dollars in software licensing costs.

Contact Information for People's Co-Op