(Photo courtesy Parie Hines)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Saturday’s “groundbreaking” for the Delridge Grocery Co-op‘s long-awaited store isn’t intended as simply a spectator event.

It’s also meant to be an invitation and a welcome for you to come into the organization and help shape the store.

The space on the ground floor of Cottage Grove Commons (5444 Delridge Way SW) has awaited the store since the supportive-housing building’s completion six years ago. But that building likely wouldn’t have a commercial space at all, if not for community clamor before CGC was built. At a meeting in June 2011 (WSB coverage here), someone suggested the building should have a ground-floor commercial space, perhaps for what was then the Delridge Produce Cooperative.

The suggestion took root.

The co-op itself had sprouted two years before that. In early 2009, we published a brief mention that founder Galena White was looking for people to help fulfill a longtime wish – making inexpensive fresh organic produce available in Delridge, long a “food desert.”

Over the ensuing decade, many people have moved on, including founder Galena, but one of the first volunteers to join the effort – mentioned in this February 2009 report – is still involved. Ranette Iding sat down with us earlier this week to talk about the next phase of store development; we were joined by Zoe Kritzer of Youngstown Coffee Company, who’s just jumped into the Delridge Grocery Co-op and is joining its board.

Her two-shop company’s original location is just a block from the Delridge Grocery space. She is a Delridge booster, declaring that the area has a “bad rap” from some mistakenly thinking it’s “something it’s not … I think it deserves to have people know how wonderful it is.” She’s certain the co-op’s store will intensiy that. “Co-ops are like, by the people, for the people.”

That’s where you come in – tomorrow and beyond. Many volunteers have been part of the project over the years and there’s a space for more. Ranette says the prospect of starting work on building out th store is “very exciting and also surreal, humbling. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about everybody who’s been involved through the years … We have a lot of new people involved, building on the work everybody else did along the way.”

There’ve been pilot projects – a “mobile market” that gave away produce that first year, to a farmstand selling it during the summer.

The decade-long history is part of what will be celebrated at Saturday’s groundbreaking, with photos, Ranette explains. Also: “we will celebrate getting closer to food access, celebrate West Seattle and the homegrown spirit – specifically Delridge. We’ll be symbolically planting something in the ground outside,” for the actual “groundbreaking.”

“And then we have work to do.” After the celebration, the event will move indoors for the co-op’s annual meeting – “our big ‘ask’ to the community, to help us open in the spring.” (Build-out of the store, designed by architect Parie Hines of LD Arch Design [WSB sponsor], is expected to take about three months.)

Besides building a store, they’re “building trust,” she explains, after so many years of the store always seeming to be on the horizon yet out of reach, until word of their lease-signing twp months ago. They need volunteers, for brainpower as much as anything else, as they work on “creative solutions to small-store space problems.” They welcome more new board members (like Zoe).

And they are mindful that being a co-op is no guarantee of success without the community embracing it – as shoppers (the store will be open to all, not just members) as well as volunteers.

And members. “We need everyone involved that wants to have some kind of say in how things go. To be a member-owner of the co-op, owning a share, is a way to pay toward creating food access. An owner will be able to vote, to serve on the board …”

Details still being planned include what the store will stock. Produce and bulk staples are high on the list, Ranette says. They also want to talk with “small food producers, cooking instructors” about involvement. They’ll be consulting member-owners – look for surveys – about what hours the store should be open. “True member-owner support is the only way that co-ops succeed.”

So while it’s the “final stretch” toward opening, it’s also a great time to jump in, “get involved and work with us.”

Before concluding our chat, she brought in a few familiar voices from the co-op’s past. Ariana Taylor-Stanley was involved for many years, before moving away. “It’s so exciting to hear (about the groundbreaking); I’m so happy and proud that the organization kept at it and is nearing this important milestone.”

We also spoke for a moment with founder Galena, who also voiced excitement and hope “that this will lead to a successful store. … Of course the most important thing is that people shop” and suppor it.

Tomorrow you can take a step toward strengthening the community by attending the DGC groundbreaking. Music and conversation are planned. You’ll be able to make art for tiles that will be part of the store, and take home a yard sign to show neighbors you’re in. And you’ll hear about resiliency – not just for the store-to-be, but what it will enable in the community, more self-reliance, one less thing to have to leave to get.

Adds Zoe, “This specifically is to improve and increase our community through the people it affects.”

It’s been a long road – Ranette recalls that she had a two-year-old when she showed up for that 2009 meeting, “and now he’s turning 13.”

And yet, the next turn is a new beginning.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Become a member-owner. And/or be there Saturday, 11 am, 5444 Delridge Way SW