6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS YPSILANTI MAY 16, 2025 Ypsilanti Food Co-op celebrates 50 years serving the community There is an old saying, you are what you eat. In other words, if you choose to eat healthy, more than likely you will be a healthier person. Since April 11, 1975, the Ypsilanti Food Co-op has been providing the community with fresh organic food and ingredients, leading to a healthy community. We who live in Washtenaw County are fortunate to have a variety of establishments to go to and purchase healthy food products in order to sustain life. And we who live in Ypsilanti are especially lucky to have the Ypsilanti Food Co-op. The thirteen hundred members and people who work and shop at Ypsilanti Food Co-op are mindful of a healthy community through the means of local food products and ingredients. I got a chance to sit and talk with Corinne Sikorski, the general manager of the Ypsi Food Co-op. She moved to Ypsilanti from Rochester Hills to attend Eastern Michigan University in 1974, and began volunteering and working at the Ypsilanti Food Co-op in 1975. She explained why she got into the food co-op business. In the 1970s there were few healthy food options. She was a vegetarian at MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 the time and interested in healthy eating. Food like that was not available in the dorms. She would eat salads and yogurt. She explained that the yogurt was really bad back then because it had gelatin and sugar in it. So, she went looking for other food options and she learned about the Ypsilanti Food Co-op. Shortly after, Corinne started volunteering at the food co-op. Every Sunday she would volunteer as a cashier because back then they had no paid staff; everybody volunteered and pooled their resources to make things work. According to Google, a cooperative (or co-op) is a business owned and controlled by its members, who collectively benefit from its services and profits. These businesses are democratically managed, with each member Corinne Sikorski, general manager of the Ypsilanti Food Co-op, started as a volunteer in 1975. having a vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives aim to meet the common economic, social and cultural needs of their members. Corinne told me how the people before her would work together to get healthy food for numerous years before opening a store. People would put in their orders and leave their money in a trash can chained to a pole outside someone's house. They would travel to Ann Arbor and the Eastern Market in Detroit to get food like cider, cheese and produce that were not readily available at that time in local grocery stores in the Ypsilanti area. These young, health-conscious entrepreneurs finally opened their own food co-op that had bulk food. It was located by the Ypsilanti water tower at 955 Sheridan. In February 1984, the Ypsilanti Food Co-op found a new home at 312 North River Street in Depot Town. This location is where this community based cooperative would make its mark in the Ypsilanti area by providing a variety of food choices like organic produce in Ypsi’s most cherished space. It is also Michigan’s only solar powered grocery store! According to Google, organic, in the JUNE 1–7, 2025 A2ZERO WEEK A week-long celebration of climate action and community with family-friendly events, prizes, resources, food, & more! context of food, means a product that is grown or raised using natural substances and practices, with a focus on soil health, biodiversity and ecological balance. Specifically, it involves avoiding synthetic pesticides and fertilizers for produce, and for animal products it means avoiding the use of growth hormones and antibiotics. Corinne went on to explain that in the 70s, food stores like Kroger, Farmers Jacks and Meijer didn’t have many fresh vegetables, they only carried canned or frozen vegetables. The only time one could get fresh vegetables was in the summertime at local farmers markets. One also couldn't buy brown rice in regular grocery stores, only in nutrition supplement stores; but now you can find these items in all grocery stores nationwide. I asked Corinne if the healthy organic See the full schedule at osi.a2gov.org/a2zeroweek food option took off quickly back in the 70s. She answered that it didn't because people were not that knowledgeable about organic food, and people looked at us as crazy hippie kids that didn’t know what they were talking about. Plus, there were no Whole Foods stores or Trader Joe’s at the time; these stores would ultimately popularize organic food products. see CO-OP page 11
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