Tonight at work was pretty crazy: a very intoxicated older man came in and was being quite lewd and discusting when Lindsay and I were working. Joel stopped by and for a few minutes Joel and Lindsay hid in the cooler while I stayed in the front area with the cooloer door open, talking to them. It felt like an extremely scary hide-and-go-seek game. Finally Joel gave the guy some mandarines and told him he needed to leave. Thank you Joel!
Oh, and yes, the Canon is the Rebel Xti EOS … very nice.
A grieving grocery: Whole Earth keeps evolving
Bruce Smith of River Falls checks out the fresh fruit while staff member (they got it wrong in the paper) Beck Forsland restocks greens at the Whole Earth Grocery late Friday afternoon. Volunteers and staff intend to maintain the momentum built up largely by the extremely dedicated, former general manager Tom Parent, who died unexpectedly last month. Bob Burrows photo.
About a month after the untimely death of Whole Earth Grocery General Manager Tom Parent, the growing grocery co-op continues to advance the plan and vision he supported and helped formulate.
The sting of its loss still fresh, Whole Earth continues its mission.
Former Produce Manager Erynn Delahousaye and Managerial Assistant Lisa Starrett agreed to temporarily co-manage the store. If it works the two may take on the duties permanently.
“We want to do this for an interim period of about six months,” Delahousaye said last week.
She said after that time, they’ll evaluate things and decide whether to continue or recruit and hire someone. Volunteers operate Whole Earth, but the general manager and a few others get a modest salary, according to Delahousaye.
“We have wonderful volunteers,” she said. “We have really dedicated employees who’ve taken on more duties.”
The co-manager said the community gave an amazing outpouring of support and help after Parent’s death last month.
People offered to run the store, to donate woodworking skills for new shelves and to contribute to a newly established memorial fund.
Delahousaye said other co-ops in the region have offered help and advice, and the coffee distributor said it would come and train people if needed. She said the outreach renewed her new faith in people’s will to have a co-op grocery.
“It made me realize how important this co-op is,” said Delahousaye. “It’s proof that people value the co-op…”
Coffee buzz
Whole Earth’s co-manager assures: The coffee that everyone knows and loves will continue.
“His big vision was the coffee,” say Delahousaye about Parent. “He’s really the one who got it off the ground.”
The grocery roasts beans in house, right in the store’s front window. It gets huge bags of green coffee beans then pours them into one of four roasters. Whole Earth offers a wide selection of fresh-roasted coffees, including flavored ones.
“That was Tom’s baby,” she said about the coffee. “He was an aficionado.”
She said he loved to roast it, drink it and talk about it, “His timer and apron are still hanging up there. That’s a fixture now.”
Delahousaye said the freshly roasted coffee really took off and become a niche item for the store. Customers can grind beans in the store if they want.
She said people come to get their favorite flavor plus often buy the beans as a gift.
The new co-manager said one of Whole Earth’s goals is to bring into River Falls items that people normally only see in the Twin Cities — like freshly roasted coffee.
Co-op continues
Delahousaye said she and Starrett don’t plan any major changes in operations. She mentioned a few things happening now that Parent supported and helped plan.
# Liquor license: The store got its liquor license and now sells wine, much of which is organic.
# Expansion: Whole Earth moved its office into an adjacent space that used to be the “democratic office” in order to make room for the wine.
# Cheese: Customers can now choose from an expanded selection of “artisan cheeses.”
# Meats: Shoppers will find fresh meats available at the store — all sustainably grown, which means that while the meat producers aren’t certified organic, they use similar practices to raise and process the meat.
Delahousaye said all of Whole Earth’s produce is organic and that nearly all of it comes from local growers. Locals provide many products: Milk, honey, maple syrup, salmon.
She said the store gets produce from local growers for as long a season as they possibly can — from about April until November. Otherwise, the store gets its produce from an organic warehouse named Roots and Fruits.
Delahousaye said, “It’s our practice to buy from small suppliers.”
Membership privileges
Shoppers don’t need to be a member to buy from Whole Earth, but the store offers daily and weekly specials for members.
How does one become a member?
Delahousaye said they only need to fill out a form and pay a one-time fee of $65 to become a lifetime member (includes a $5 processing fee). Members get a Whole Earth stock certificate, as well as a 10% discount on their first day of shopping.
Students can get a discounted membership for $10 a year. After all, Delahousaye adds, students need healthy food choices, too. She said members can pay the $65 in installments if they want.
Many may not realize that Whole Earth and the River Market coop near downtown Stillwater, Minn., extend reciprocal memberships. Shoppers there can come here and get membership privileges, and vice versa.
She estimates that Whole Earth’s coop has about 1,000 members now.
Members and other shoppers can find a natural or organic alternative to just about every product found in other grocery stores: Produce; meat; cheese; cleaning products; pet supplies; lotion; lip balm; health and beauty items like shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste; 16 kinds of tea; frozen vegetarian meals; vitamins and supplements; natural chewing gum; ice cream; a big selection of organic, high-cocoa-content chocolate bars; bulk supplies of nuts, grains, seeds, spices and granola; environmentally friendly toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags and cleaning products; packaged pastas; canned foods; baking supplies; jarred jellies and jams; cookies, crackers and chips; and now wines.
Then, now
According to long-time co-op member and former board member Thomas Smith, Whole Earth started in the early 1970s after a back-porch meeting in 1972.
He remembers working there in 1975 in one of the first paid staff positions. Smith said back then, some employees took their pay in discounts or food.
The private owner of a natural foods store on the corner of Main and Elm was looking to sell.
He ended up selling to one of his employees who was keyed in to the growing coop movement happening in the upper Midwest at that time.
From there it moved to a building in what is now the M&I Bank parking lot. Smith said the location was perfect — a big walnut tree for shade plus good alley access.
After the alley, it was back to Main Street in 1979 to the space between Lund’s hardware store and what is now EconoFoods’ parking lot. Smith said during that period, the coop grew and expanded product selection.
After a 1983 move to a smaller space on East Walnut Street (used to be the KinniCroix vet clinic), Whole Earth struggled for several years before moving to its current Main Street location in the early 1990s.
Smith said, “Tom was largely responsible for bringing the coop out of the red and making a viable, vibrant business…Tom was really the right man at the right time — no doubt about it.”
Delahousaye said Whole Earth began based on an ideal: Natural foods and having access to them. She said Parent worked hard to further that ideal and the grocery coop.
She said, “It’s been apparent since he died that his energy is still very much here.”
I have a limited time to write, but I wanted to write something happy. Well, of course! Write a top 10 something list. Hmmm what to write …well, Top 10 Pet Peeves is not happy. That’s called “complaining” in parent terms. Top 10 Thing Elav Does To/For Me isn’t always appropriate for public blogs so here are my…
Top 10 Reasons to Live in River Falls, Wisconsin
*sometimes just referring to my situation*
1. There is a university in town.
2. With a clock that chimes at every hour for a few seconds and much longer if it happens to be a Sunday afternoon and you are taking a nap… or trying at that point.
3. There is a river that goes through the town (River Falls people…).
4. The Whole Earth Grocery, commonly known in my blogs as the Coop, is half a block away and I have the key so I can midnight shop!!!
5. It is considered big enough to be a city.
6. The city-center consists of an actual Main Street.
7. The city-center is thirty miles away from St. Paul.
8. It is thirty miles away from the majority of my friends.
9. It is thirty-three miles away from where I used to live: Patagonia, the Tea Garden, the Art store, Whole Foods Grocery, the Thai Restaurant, Starbucks…
…and lastly…
10. where I live is on Main Street and and I can get around without driving!
It is so weird and kind of trippy to think that just a few days ago we were all at the Coop and Tom was telling people where to move things and we were all joking and excited about the new space. He had a broken leg so he couldn’t do much. I’m sure it was very frustrating to him to be somewhat limited in his actions. He is one of the people who is full of life and jokes.
I still can’t believe he’s gone. I think about it –really I just try imagine what it is like– and I can’t. It’s nearly impossible. Whole Earth Grocery without Tom Parent is like …I don’t know. An apple without seeds.
I can’t believe he’s gone! He was such a visionary for the Coop; I told him about a few plans he sounded interested in if only we had gotten them set in motion.
It’s so hard to imagine things without Tom. It’s hard to imagine and yet here we all are: without Tom.
Here are some random thoughts I’ve been having through this day…
______________________________________________
There is an unspoken understanding between people who are involved in the death of a mutual friend… a common knowledge between coworkers, the knowledge that we don’t need to speak but there is a comfort in looking at each others swollen eyes… we are in it together. Even if I have yet to say hi and hug you.
It’s like I need to run through each situation in history over again… remember everything because now that status of being alive has changed for one of us.
Someone needs to take over where he left off. Someone will. When one life goes… another takes over. It’s the morbid circle of life.
He was just talking about making art with the produce.
I am exhausted from today’s work –I was at work for the better part of 12 hours with a little hour nap in the middle of all the work. Part of it was paid and part was volunteer. The volunteer part was when we started moving the office, back-stock and bulk further back into the store. It really opened up a lot of space.
But I realize being in the florescent environment of commercial building that my eyes were looking at my apartment from the same viewpoint. No longer did my cute apartment feel homey, it felt cold and white. Commercial.
 | chris forsland on it just came to me |
| chris forsland on DSC02668 |
 | Kent Forsland (Beck'… on After a day of painting |
| Kent Forsland (Beck'… on Darkroom Equipment |
 | caracine on …from the past |
