A History of Hampden Park Co-op

—by Rachel Fang

Hampden Park Co-op is finally expanding into the long-awaited space formerly occupied by the Parkview Café, and it seems timely to provide a brief history of cooperation and of HPC from its founding in the early 1970s to the newly expanded store in 2008.

Cooperative Beginnings

The first consumer cooperative was founded in England in 1844 by a group of textile workers who combined their resources to rent a store and stock it with products, calling themselves the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers. The Rochdale Society established a code cooperative principles that is still used by cooperatives today:

1. Open membership;
2. One member, one vote;
3. Limited return on investment;
4. Return of surplus;
5. Continuing education;
6. Cooperation among cooperatives;
7. Concern for community*

*added in 1995 by the International Co-operative Alliance

Minnesota has long been known as a state where cooperatives of many kinds have flourished. Early immigrants from Finland and other European countries brought the tradition of cooperation with them when they settled in the area. Farmers' cooperatives were established in Minnesota in the early 20th century as farmers worked together to get fair prices for the necessities they produced. Other early types of cooperatives in Minnesota included gas, oil, and electric power cooperatives.

Consumer co-ops have served communities in the Twin Cities since the early 1970s when the People’s Pantry opened, the first food co-op in Minneapolis. North Country, Seward, Mill City, and Selby co-ops opened soon after. These early co-ops were founded by people with a vision molded by the '60s ideals of social, political, and economic change powered by affordable whole foods.

St. Anthony Park Foods

Hampden Park Co-op (HPC) began in 1972 as St. Anthony Park Foods (formally incorporated in 1974), located at Cleveland and Buford Avenues, in the space that Mim’s Café occupies today. It was a busy co-op in a small space serving neighborhood residents and students from the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota across the street, selling high quality food in bulk at fair prices.

In 1979, St. Anthony Park Foods (SAP) took over the nearby Green Grass Grocery on Raymond Avenue (where HPC is now) and renamed it SAP Too. Green Grass had been founded as a community-based store that sold products such as whole grains and produce along with more conventional items such as Campbell’s soup, Wonder bread, and pop. Though it took a few years to get these products off the shelves, the store maintained its customer base after its transition to a more traditional co-op.

Changing Times

During the 1980s interest in the cooperative movement waned and several co-ops in the area closed. With fewer people interested in volunteering, fewer students shopping at SAP Foods, and new parking restrictions in front of the store, sales began to decline. The two stores (SAP Foods and SAP Too) operated as one store governed by the same board with two locations. Because of declining sales at SAP Foods and the debt incurred from the merging of the two stores, they struggled to make payroll and purchase products.

While SAP Foods' sales had slowed, SAP Too’s sales remained steady and even began to increase. When the two stores’ books began to be managed separately, it became clear that one store—SAP Too—was vastly more successful than the other. However, there were strong allegiances among board members to the original store, and board meetings became acrimonious. Perhaps inevitably, the two stores separated, and SAP Too was renamed Hampden Park Foods in 1990.

The original store, SAP Foods, had been founded as a non-profit, as most the time. While some board members wanted the new store (HPC) to be organized as a cooperative, the concept was controversial; and it took several years before HPC was able to do so. Through the perseverance of its newly established board, HPC was finally established formally as a cooperative in 1993. Meanwhile, as its sales continued to decline, SAP Foods finally closed in 1995.

Corporate Competition

In the mid-1990s, as consumers began to be more aware of food quality and the dangers of pesticides and growth hormones, natural and organic foods became more and more popular. Stores such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats began to expand throughout the United States.

When Whole Foods (based in Austin, TX) opened a store in St. Paul in 1996, several co-ops in the Twin Cities banded together to combat what they feared would be substantial competition from Whole Foods. They formed Twin Cities Natural Food Co-ops (TCNFC) as a trade organization for local consumer cooperatives, charging members dues and establishing rules for member stores that included TCNFC input on management decision and product choices. In part because it would require giving up the store’s autonomy, the board and staff of HPC decided not to join TCNFC. Operating independently, HPC could continue to use volunteers to perform needed tasks at the store and make its own choices about management, products, advertising, and growth.

To the Future

HPC believes that the values and relationships that evolve among people are the lifeblood of the community; and therefore it is the role of the co-op to provide all members with a sense of acceptance that is not based on their involvement in the store. The co-op operates on the principle that the collective efforts of the store’s board, members, and staff can make a difference through the products it sells and the store’s role in the larger community. HPC’s goals include providing enough variety in products to meet the needs of most members and making careful choices about the products the store sells. These decisions affect the larger goal of working collectively in our community to make the world a better place. The newly expanded store will continue to operate as a socially conscious, dynamic retail store that will follow the current mission and provide more room for high quality products as well as space for shoppers to move around. HPC continues to be an asset to St. Anthony Park and the larger community by offering a balance of products and volunteer opportunities, and modeling good business practices.

[Rachel Fang is a long-time co-op volunteer. She lives in South Minneapolis with her family and enjoys cooking, gardening and eating ice cream with her son Oscar.]

References

Cox, Craig (1994). Storefront Revolution: Food Co-ops and the Counterculture. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Hampden Park Co-op Member Handbook
International Co-operative Alliance
Web site: www.ica.coop>
Interview with Kathy Vaughan (10/08)