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File photo. <\/em><\/p>\n Eight years ago, Damon Lawrence was walking through the streets of Portland, Oregon with his wife, and he was hungry.<\/p>\n They turned the corner and walked into a store to get something to eat.<\/p>\n \u201cWe grabbed a snack and a sandwich,\u201d Lawrence said, before proceeding to the checkout where the man behind the register asked if the two were \u201cowners.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawrence said the question puzzled himself and his wife.<\/p>\n \u201cThe guy said, \u2018You can still make a purchase,\u2019 but this is a co-op,\u201d said Lawrence. Lawrence and his wife realized they had never explored a co-op before, as the man explained the organization\u2019s intricacies.<\/p>\n At the time, Lawrence said he thought the system was intriguing, but that it was \u201cjust something that happened in Portland.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, Lawrence serves as one of the co-founders of the Long Beach Grocery Co-op<\/a>, which was incorporated earlier this year. Lawrence sits on the Board of Directors for the Co-op, the members of whom banded together to start an Indiegogo Seed funding campaign<\/a> to pay for a professional market study, a membership drive and professional legal services.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of the Long Beach Grocery Co-op Facebook page. <\/em><\/p>\n The goal is to raise at least $30,000 to pay for such measures in order to find a location and open doors to the co-op by 2017. The fundraiser is set to run through next week\u2014Thursday, November 19.<\/p>\n According to the Long Beach Grocery Co-op\u2019s website, a grocery co-op is a consumer-owned cooperative\u2014meaning that anyone who joins owns part of the organization, so that you invest in ownership along with \u201cyour neighbors and friends.\u201d Additionally, many co-ops provide shelf space to local farmers, whose sale outlets are often limited to farmer\u2019s markets.<\/p>\n The seed of the co-op idea took root in Lawrence\u2019s mind a few years ago, when, as part of the Rose Park Neighborhood Association, he began to look for a new grocery store to replace an empty Albertson\u2019s lot a few years ago. While searching, he discovered co-ops existed across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018They can\u2019t have these in Texas,\u2019\u201d said Lawrence. \u201cI thought, \u2018They\u2019ll have them up North, I\u2019ll give them that.\u2019 But they have these beautiful stores in small towns.\u201d He decided to take the co-op theory to Long Beach, and build the organization from the ground-up.<\/p>\n According to an online co-op directory, the nearest co-op to Long Beach is in Santa Monica<\/a>, titled the Co-opportunity Consumers Co-op<\/a>. Other California co-op locations include San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Mendocino and Santa Cruz. When Long Beach joins these locations, it will likely place the city on local food movement\u2019s map.<\/p>\n Currently, the Long Beach Grocery Co-op has around 13,000 followers on Facebook<\/a>.<\/a> In order to open, the organization needs to recruit 1,000 members, something it plans to do in the next 2-3 months.<\/p>\n Those who donate to the campaign will receive a dollar-for-dollar coupon match to be used at the co-op once it opens, in addition to other perks that include a year\u2019s supply of coffee, upcycled burlap grocery bags and co-op founder recognition.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking at this, it\u2019s only fair to look at the city as a whole,\u201d said Lawrence. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason we can\u2019t get this accomplished, and no reason we shouldn\u2019t get this accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"LongBeachGroceryCoop\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/LongBeachGroceryCoop.jpg\")
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