Ocean Beach’s largest local employer began in 1971 with a handful of residents gathering at picnic tables at the foot of Saratoga Street to pool money and buy local, organic, pesticide-free produce in bulk.
Thirty-five years and two buildings later, that Buyer’s Club is now People’s Organic Food Co-op, 4765 Voltaire St., San Diego’s only food cooperative. People’s now employs 100 individuals, rakes in $8.5 million in annual sales and incorporates approximately 8,500 members. The store’s newsletter circulates to 11,000 readers, plus bulk drop.
People’s returned to its picnic table roots to celebrate its 35th birthday on Saturday, Aug. 19. More than 300 members crowded Robb Field to toast the business, which has come a long way from the days at Saratoga Street but has remained true to its original mission.

THE HISTORY
By July of 1971, the picnic tables had grown crowded enough that the Buyer’s Club decided to open a storefront. They converted a small house on Voltaire Street into People’s Food store and began selling organic, vegetarian goods out of a single refrigerator.
Amber Forest was 10 years old at the time. She amusedly recalls the hand-cranked calculator and how employees weighed all the food by hand. There was a lot of trust in that system, said Forest, who is now the marketing director for People’s.
Demand grew and three years later People’s moved up the street to a larger venue. In the early eighties, more of the mainstream shopper began to trickle in. In 1986, People’s transitioned into a cooperative that offers membership and voting rights and churns its profits back into the community.
Customers steadily increased and, at the turn of the century, People’s hired Architects Hanna Gabriel Wells on Niagara Avenue to design a “green” building that would use recycled building materials, harness energy from the sun and insulate itself. The old building was torn down and People’s opened its current home in 2002.
“I think the day that we got our new building “” that really changed everything,” Forest said. “The structure itself is really bright and light with all the windows. It’s really inviting.”
People’s propped photovoltaic cells on the roof to generate its own energy. It skipped the air-conditioning and instead faced the windows northeast to avoid direct solar heat and installed eight operable skylights to draw in crosswinds. The photovoltaic cells generate one-third of the co-op’s energy needs and Forest calculates that it saves the co-op $2,000 monthly.
“We were able to design a building that supports our needs with less impact on the environment,” Forest said.

TODAY
With a vision of helping people live ecologically sustainable lives, People’s planned its interior accordingly. Organic tomatoes, potatoes and sunflower sprouts are the first sight once inside the building, a tribute to their importance, Forest said.
Bulk items line the next isle: grains, nuts, legumes, flour, granola and interesting finds “” raw cacao nibs, all-natural shampoos, liquid soaps and degreasers, plus machines to grind almonds and peanuts into butters. The bulk system cuts down on packaging waste and Forest hopes that customers will also be encouraged to bring their own containers.
Cage-free eggs and antibiotic-free milk chills in the fridges. No meat is found in the store. Only cruelty-free cosmetics, lotions and sunscreens are stocked.
People’s merchandise policy governs its shelves: no meat, artificial colors, preservatives or additives. It strives for mostly organic “”some existing products may not be “” and no genetically engineered produce, although it can’t control cross-pollination. The store aims to carry the least refined products, so maple syrup, brown rice syrup and unrefined cane sugar are the preferred sweeteners.
Members do have some say about what appears on the shelves. In the 1980s, one manager decided that he wanted the Co-op to sell meat. The public flooded the board meeting with a resounding “no.”
“It’s not just one group of people that have to make the final decision,” Forest said. “That’s what makes us and sets us apart from a store that is not a cooperative.”
Democracy is integral to the co-op philosophy. A board of elected trustees “” six consumers and two employees “” govern the store. Managers run eight of the departments, and all of them have been promoted from within, with the exception of the general manager.
“That’s not the rule of thumb, it’s just the way it’s been,” Forest said.
While the store is open to everyone, members pay an annual $15 fee and receive 10 percent off the marked price. Profits are used to support local, organic farms, the newsletter and to educate the next generation about organic agriculture. More than 3,000 children from Dana Middle School have visited the farms, some of them for the first time. Their faces lit up when they saw carrots being pulled from the ground, Forest said.

ADVOCACY
Four years into their new building, People’s has new obstacles ahead. With the onset of genetically engineered foods in 1996, People’s fears for the organic farms that can’t protect themselves from cross-pollination. When organic farms are infected with genetically modified seeds, they lose their certification, Forest said.
The Co-op is currently lobbying against Senate Bill 1056 that would prohibit local jurisdictions from regulating field crops. Some communities in California have decided they don’t want genetically modified crops in their locale, but this bill would prevent them from taking any control, Forest said.
“Pollen drift is an environmental pollutant that cannot be recalled,” Forest said. “You cannot bring it back.”
The co-op is also fighting to get genetically engineered foods labeled as such. It’s estimated that 75 percent of processed food in America contains genetically modified ingredients.
Organic farms are also continuously being eaten up by development, Forest said. People’s financed equipment and provided seed for Good Faith Organic Farm in Jamul before it was sold to developers in 2003. Mini-mansions and a polo field now cover the land. The co-op currently purchases local produce from Tierra Miguel in North County, Be Wise Ranch in Santa Fe Valley, Stehly Organic Farms, as well as from some of the members.
Back in Ocean Beach, People’s is considering expansion. The planning committee is looking into opening a satellite store somewhere in East County.
Meanwhile, brown rice is restocked in bulk, rainbow kale unloaded and daily business carries on as usual. The full deli upstairs awaits deliveries before deciding what savory dish to prepare. The deli is all-vegan, meaning that no animal ingredients are used. Customers chow on mock chicken curry salads and vegan Caesar Salads with homemade croutons, or slurp on hot, vegetable-laden soups. Chocolate chip cookies are made with whole-wheat pastry flour, sweetened with maple syrup and stuffed with organic chocolate chips, and vegan donuts are the latest culinary creation.
Forest likens the whole process to the life of a potato. Each part of the potato’s journey “” from the farm to the truck to the handler to the customer “” is important. Sustainable farming, local produce, empowered employees and educated customers are all part of the chain at People’s.