An interesting article about Rainbow Groceries from 1997. The Clarion-Ledger's Sherry Lucas. #foodcoop #mississippihistory #counterculture #alternativefood
"Its growth is a story of small steps and spurts, not leaps and bounds. Until, perhaps now.
Rainbow Whole Foods Co-op in Jackson is pursuing a move from its cramped Northview home, colorfully tucked behind the Dutch Bar, into the old Mississippi Blood Services building, Old Canton Road at Lakeland Drive.
whopping boost in visibility.
The co-ops board of directors put the idea for a move before a specially called meeting of members this week. A voice vote in support of the move—or contributing to a building fund if this location doesn’t work out—was loud in favor. Those opposed? Silence.
“Make a note of that,” board president Danny Whitehead said, smiling.
A sketch by architect Bob Canizaro showed the prospective building as Rainbow Grocery, jaunty flags flying.
Capital is needed to finance the expansion. But instead of a telethon thermometer to measure fund-raising progress, there’s a hand-drawn poster of a carrot, with just the bottom tip an optimistic orange. The goal: raise $150,000 from the membership of 1,200. About $22,000 has already been collected and pledged. “I’ll take pocket change—whatever,” Whitehead quipped.
Rainbow’s roots, actual and spiritual, are in natural food buying clubs in Jackson in the 1970s. One buying club operated in the old YWCA building on North State Street for six months. The entire ceiling was covered with pipes that couldn’t be covered except with paint in a spectrum of colors. Under the Rainbow Food Co-op, they called it.
When several buying clubs joined forces to open a storefront, they needed to form a corporation. Blue King, Rainbow manager, recalled going to the attorney general’s office. “They laughed. I can see now why they did. 150 families starting a grocery store? Not for profit? The whole concept was foreign to them. It didn’t compute.”
After research, the co-op was able to form under the agricultural association law.
The store, a North West Street building destined to later become the alternative music dive W.C. Don’s, opened May 1980. “It was a ramshackle, little bitty wooden building, but had the character we needed at the time,” King said, chuckling. “It was pretty natural.”
They outgrew it in a year and moved to the current location, occupying just part of the building at first. In 3 1/2, that had it all. Later they added on—a deck, a stockroom, an expanded kitchen and café area.
“We just grew as we grew,” King said. Over the past decade, that’s been about 10 percent a year in members and sales—19 percent in the last year. It’s a tight fit now. The stockroom that seemed like a warehouse when first built “is a closet again.”
In the meantime, in the mainstream, minds have opened, attitudes have grown. Rainbow was feeding vegetarians before vegetarians were cool. Now, nutrition, wellness and healthy food are common topics. Tofu and miso get more respect. It’s prime time for a higher profile—at a corner that sees 26,000 cares a day.
The funky, folksy spirit that’s characterized Rainbow Whole Foods from the start was evident at this week’s meeting, where 88 people tossed around their ideas, concerns and hopes.
The Mississippi Blood Services building was a grocery, an A & P, years ago. Imaginations worked to outfit it again, the Rainbow way—expanded café service, a deli section, longer store hours, a juice bar open all day, a reading room, a place for a computer with online nutritional information.
“There’s an important message for us here,” Whitehead said, speaking as a biologist and physician as well as a member. “Cooperation is as fundamental to life as reproduction.”
Survival of the fittest? Short-term. Over a period of time, “The cooperative man gets along.”"
Lucas, Sherry, “Co-op grocery sprouts big plans for new growth,” The Clarion-Ledger, January 10, 1997), p. 37.
Pic is from May 30, 1988 Clarion-Ledger article by Rebecca Hood-Adams.
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