The Next Generation of Cooperators
Ty Patillo, Board President of the start-up Aliquippa Food Co-op, reached out to East End Food Co-op in early 2025 to organize a “field trip” for his fellow board members, to tour the co-op and see first-hand the day-to-day retail operations of Pittsburgh’s only food co-op. Hoping to share that experience with more stakeholders in the Aliquippa community, the fledgling cooperative partnered with Ympact, a youth participatory action research project: meaning a project generated from the students - while having structure and guidance from adults to help them along.
Jeff Guerreo, the Co-op’s Marketing Manager, and I led the students and board members on tours of the retail floor of the co-op. They spent time in the bulk department discussing reducing plastic, and other packaging waste. Our produce department was another highlight of the tour, especially the back-of-house area. Our store has no loading dock to receive deliveries. So like most coops, we have to find creative ways to get the work done in a smaller space. This got the students thinking about innovation, and how you don’t need to be a 40,000 square foot Giant Eagle to feed lots of people. Seeing all of the produce, including plenty of locally grown items, sparked great questions about farmers/growers, food producers, and the other ways that coops prioritize supporting the local food system.
One of the tour highlights from the co-op’s perspective was hearing directly from the students about what foods they like to eat, and their household’s varying approaches to grocery shopping. Throughout the tour, the students were listening, engaged, and having a great time seeing the different brands our coop features. And making all of us very hungry!
After the tour concluded, the group relocated to the Co-op’s Conference room for a lunch prepared by our Co-ops café department. While everyone was enjoying house-made wraps, Waterloo seltzers, and Route 11 Potato Chips, I gave a presentation on the role of cooperatives in the food system, followed by more dialogue with the students, and the Aliquippa Board. Discussion topics included the 7 Cooperative Principles, and the co-op’s triple bottom line of people, planet, profits. Cooperative businesses keep significantly more dollars in their local economies, compared to national chains like Wal-Mart, or Aldi’s. This is not only a function of our business model but also a conscious choice. We invest in higher wages and benefits for staff members and prioritizing local businesses. Co-ops steward the environment through composting, and reducing waste. Through our cooperative principles, we help other co-ops by sharing knowledge and resources to foster communities that we want to live in, work in, shop in.
Corporations have no ethics, only profit to pursue. We at the East End Food Co-op are so fortunate to have a 45+ year foundation on which to continue to build upon. We have a reputation, formed over decades, as being a quality source of natural, organic foods, and for solid, rewarding retail jobs in Pittsburgh. I take the responsibility seriously to share knowledge with the next generation of cooperators, the Ympact students. We strive to assist the Aliquippa Food Co-op Board in anyway possible so they can realize their community’s vision of a cooperative business. We hope to once again welcome the next cohort of the Ympact Academy, and any other Pennsylvania, or regional start-up coops.
Thank you to Ty Patillo, Aliquippa Food Co-op Board President, and Betsy Van Noy, Penn State University Dept. of Nutritional Sciences, for making this day very special, and memorable for everyone at East End Food Co-op.
