These days, Bruce Woodrow gets most of his groceries at one of two places: Costco and a small grocery co-operative nestled in an alley in the heart of Toronto.
The retired lawyer — along with many Canadians over the past couple of years — had been growing more concerned with the grocery industry and the profits it was turning as food prices climbed.
Woodrow joined Karma Co-op as a member last spring and now volunteers on the store's finance committee.
"The money, I know, is going to make an operation that I believe in better," said Woodrow.
Co-operatives are found in many forms, from agricultural co-ops to grocery stores, gas stations and car-shares. Their exact business models vary, but what they have in common is that they are owned by their members, who have a share in the organization and a say in how it runs.
I think we all could use community help these days, and I hope more of these keep popping up. I wish one was even remotely close to me, but I think the closest one is in Abbotsford.
That's definitely a surprising place for one in TO, too.
I must admit I'm not very knowledgeable about co-ops, but Karma Co-op struck me as more about community than community help. My sense is that it's like a community-run non-profit. I'm sure they have charitable endeavours, but that didn't seem to be a main component of the co-op. (Shopping there feels worlds away from going into a loblaws; it'd be like if you could get at least 90% of your groceries from a farmer's market, which you can shop at whether or not you're a member [membership comes with an appreciable discount].) Both more community and community help is good though :)