CITYWATCH Providence makes do without a food co-op BY JOHN ZORABEDIAN

For conscientious consumers, food cooperatives offer a healthy and community-based alternative to buying mass-produced victuals from mega-chain supermarkets. Yet Providence, despite its seemingly ideal mix of health-minded activists and proximity to organic growers, lacks a food co-op.

Urban Greens, a collective buying club formed by a group of West Side artists and activists in 2000, helps to take up some of the slack, procuring organic food from local producers biweekly for an active membership of about 40 people. Without a permanent storefront location, however, its impact and community presence is limited.

"Membership in the co-op can be complex," says Cristina Di Chiera, a founding member and coordinating volunteer. "It requires commitment and is, therefore, not readily helpful to poor families who may not have the time or resources to contribute to the project. One of our major goals is to provide affordable, nutritious . . . food to everyone in our community."

After a stint at another location, Urban Greens operates from the office of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association. Di Chiera says the nominal rent for the space and Urban Greens’ recent addition of a full-time staff member through AmeriCorp’s VISTA program have improved operations and are building blocks to growth. Urban Greens members support the collective either by agreeing to volunteer a few hours per month, or by paying a seven percent mark-up on their purchases.

The collective places orders with local producers every other week, buying vegetables from growers such as the Southside Community Land Trust, fruit and cider from Hill Orchards, coffee from New Harvest Roasters, and milk from Rhody Fresh. Once per month, the collective also places a bulk order — an average buy is about $4000 — for other groceries and household products from Associated Buyers, a wholesale distributor based in Barrington, New Hampshire.

"We have been successfully growing our membership, we have been successfully growing our visibility, [and] we have successfully created a lot of partnerships with local growers, which is huge," Di Chiera says. "But obtaining a storefront, and a permanent base within the community, could take "years, unless someone miraculously comes along and says, ‘You know what, we have space we don’t use, and we believe in this project.’ "

Short of such an unexpected windfall, the collective needs more revenue to reach its goals. Although a successful co-op in Cambridge is open to non-members, Di Chiera says Urban Greens is wary of higher food prices or increased membership fees. "In my mind, that’s not the Providence way," she says. "I came to Providence because it’s about making things feel real, and communal and acceptable."

Until such a time when the collective can afford to grow, it relies on the dedication of its volunteers. In that respect, Urban Greens must "depend on like-minded people who are going to give us what we need," Di Chiera says. "And that is sadly hard to come by."