Do you know what goes into the food you buy every week at the grocery store? What about how it is grown? What about those who own their own restaurants and use large quantities of food every day to go into their menu items?
These questions and more are discussed and contemplated in the Tacoma Food Co-op’s next offering in their Food In Film Series: “Deconstructing Supper,” which will screen Sept. 15 at 6 p.m. at University of Puget Sound.
Corinne Henderson, a board member of the Tacoma Food Co-op, affirmed that each film chosen in the series is to be screened for a reason.
“When we first started the series, we all came up with a list of food-related movies that would be interesting to the people who might attend,” Henderson said. “‘Deconstructing Supper’ was a title that was recommended to us, and highlights the personal story of a restauranteur and his personal and business responsibilities to what he was serving.”
The Food in Film Series has been going on for a year, and was created both by the Co-op and UPS’ Sustainability Club. The Co-op has seen a positive response with the film series and aims for it to continue as long as possible. Other films that have screened as part of the series include “Food Inc.,” “Ingredients” and the popular Morgan Spurlock film tracking his quest to eat only McDonald’s food for a month to gauge its health effects, “Super Size Me.”
In addition to showing films as often as possible, the Tacoma Food Co-op also tries to reach out to the community and gain new members in order to get their soon-to-be storefront off the ground by attending local farmers markets.
The Tacoma Food Co-op is currently in full-speed fundraising mode, and at their next membership meeting (to take place in October or November), the board of directors will present a member loan program to its membership, which will need votes in order to come to fruition.
“This would be a step toward raising major funding,” Henderson stated. “Basically certain members will choose to loan the co-op money in order to make the physical co-op a reality. We’re gauging interest in the member loan program.”
The co-op has roughly around 300 members currently, and is aiming at a spring 2011 goal of opening the storefront to the public. “We’re getting close!” Henderson said. “Our goal is to open by next spring, and will be open to adding more members at the time of the opening. But we are still encouraging everyone to join now since we need capital to open. It’s a catch-22, trying to convince people to invest in something they can’t yet see.”
During this summer, Tacoma Food Co-op organizers contemplated opening a partial store but inevitably decided it was not feasible. Now the group is focused on opening a retail store of roughly 3,000-5,000 square feet.
The Tacoma Food Co-op will show “Deconstructing Supper” Sept. 15 at 6 p.m. in Rausch Auditorium’s McIntyre Hall Room on the UPS campus, located at 1500 N. Warner St. Admission is free, but donations are gladly accepted on behalf of the co-op. The next film in the series will be “King Corn,” screening on Nov. 10 at 6 p.m., also at UPS. For more information or to get involved, visit the co-op’s website at www.tacomafoodcoop.com.
Contact the writer at dquinn@tacomaweekly.com.
