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A Little History
Co-ops
Buying food cooperatively is more than a century old; human cooperation itself is older than civilization.Before consumer co-ops developed in the last century, cooperative producing and fire insurance societies had been formed. In the late 1700s, flour was being milled and baked cooperatively in England. In the United States, the first cooperative venture was a mutual fire-fighting society, formed in Philadelphia in 1836.
The first consumer cooperative as we know it was founded 150 years ago, in 1844 on Toad Lane in Rochdale, England. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers had enough capital ($140) to rent a small store and stock it with a few staples. In a day and age where there was much less regulation of businesses, this group of 28 pioneers established a code of six cooperative principles they planned to follow, and which most co-ops still recognize and today:
- Open membership
- One member, one vote
- Limited return on investment
- Return of surplus
- Continuing education
- Cooperation among cooperatives.
Twin Cities and Hampden Park
In the early 1970s, Twin Cities food co-ops were starting to open in neighborhoods. The initial effort was People's Pantry on Riverside Avenue in Minneapolis, which is now known as North Country Co-op. People's Company Bakery started operating in 1971 as both a retail bakery and wholesaler to the co-ops. Our co-op sells their bread to this day. Various kinds of co-ops still exist in the area.St. Anthony Park Foods (across from the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota) organized as a non-profit store in 1972. In 1979, SAP branched out and acquired Green Grass Grocery, in what is now the Hampden Park Co-op location. Green Grass was renamed SAP TOO, then became Hampden Park Foods in 1990 when the two stores became separate corporations. In July 1993, Hampden Park Co-op was legally formed.