Last week, the Co-op and the Pageant Theater partnered to present a free screening of Food for Change, a documentary which focuses on the food cooperatives as a force for social and economic change in the United States. The film traced the history of cooperatives, starting with the England’s Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, one of the very first modern consumer cooperatives. The movie then explores the history of American consumer cooperatives: from the movement’s first flourishing in reaction to the excesses and catastrophe of the Great Depression, through the counter-cultural flowering of the sixties and seventies, all the way to the current day. The details and historical tidbits unearthed along the way are educational, insightful, funny, and occasionally infuriating.
Co-ops on the big screen!
The whole evening was preceded by the Board of Directors candidates in attendance introducing themselves to their constituents. The audience of roughly thirty curious cooperative cinephiles enjoyed free snacks and kombucha provided by the Co-op. Afterwards, people hung around, enjoying the last bits of food over discussion of the documentary they just watched. It was a lovely Co-op night, a subdued counterpoint to the more convivial and boisterous Owner Meeting from earlier in the month.
If you couldn’t make it to last week’s Co-op movie night, would you be interested in attending a screening of Food for Change in the future? Let us know in the comments to this post (or on Facebook!).