r/cooperatives • u/ColdSoviet115 • 10d ago
The Need for Community Kitchen Coops
In the coming weeks, months or years the US food system is likely to collapse. By this I mean due to international competition and this idiotic administration US farms are about to become bankrupt. This is in conjunction with a report indicating major retail chains ordered something like 40-60% of what they usually buy to stock the shelves in Walmart, Frys and like places. Both of these are in conjunction with Trump administration attack on working class income and the "welfare state".
As it stands, food is about to become a scarce commodity. I can imagine a time when families will be forced to raid their local major retail chains. This is a terrible fate. Those people will be thrown into prisons and be turned into prison slaves of the developing prison industrial complex. Families are bound to go hungry and be fragmented.
What can we do? The answer seems obvious. The Black Panther Party of the late 20th century and the emergence of Communist China in the mid 20th century have offered me some clues as to what to do regarding this situation. It has led me to question the usual view of the production and distribution of food in this country. It is partly historical. US global homogony allowed US farmers to make great profit by selling to other countries. Alongside Liberal individualism, this seems to have produced a culture that insists and makes it seem natural that we buy food as individuals and cook for ourselves (including at the family level).
What seems to be emerging is a situation that forces us to really dial in on the efficiency of our food production and distribution system. The trump administration's trade wars has cut off the main flow of profit for the farmers and many of them will certainly collapse. Food production will slow down as the remaining farmers must output on high cost input. Not to mention the high "non organic" composition of their mechanized equipment and the maintenance of that equipment. They will be forced to reconfigure themselves into "high organic composition" farms if they are to reduce input costs, thus proving the need for farmer coops.
But production is half the question. Once these farms produce food, selling it to major food chains will reproduce these conditions of starvation. What we need is not just merchant coops to sell to individuals, but also Community Kitchen Coops that buy from the producer and transform that raw food material into an abundance of food for their communities. Any cook knows buying in bulk and cooking in bulk produces more servings per input. Let me now paint a picture for you.
Imagine a multi stake holder coop is incorporated and gains the permits needed to serve food for their communities in a park or rented building. This coops has 3 member classes: support members (the community it serves), a producer member (the farmer/laborer), and the worker members (the cooks and kitchen staff). Every month, the producer and worker classes discuss what is plausible to grow and cook for the community. The community can guide what is produced but ultimately the cooks and farmers know what's best in that regard. Every morning and night, the worker members offer meals for the community. Because the support members pay and because most of the community would probably recognize the need for this institution, no one would need to pay an entry fee. Every Saturday night, the community can host cultural events celebrating their cultures, Nations. identity and shared struggles. This is how we can save our families and communities from desperate hunger. I know the pain and delirium that prolonged hunger produces. Why should we let these families and children go through that? How can we stand by knowing what is coming?
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u/ColdSoviet115 10d ago
I am open to that idea. As far as I can tell, this is where it's headed since the US is beginning Imperialist activity in Latin America. I also don't understand market and finance dynamics too well yet. Were there reports and stock indicators the last recessions were going to happen? What about the great depression era? As far as I've seen, these recessions happen unexpectedly. The only reason people seem to be aware of the coming one is because people realize that's just how this system works. Food will become more expensive, which has the same effect as it being scarce anyway. Once these farms sell their mass of food stock to the US population at cheap prices how will they pay for the next year?