The Co-op Q&A with Renée Renata Bergan
By Patrick Pauley
Member-owner Renée Renata Bergan is a social justice documentary filmmaker and a freelance performer. She’s a stilt walker, belly dancer, fire dancer, singer and percussionist. Her latest film project, At Your Cervix, is a documentary that exposes the unethical ways of teaching pelvic exams, and will be wrapping up in the fall.
Renée says she loves “warm nights by the fire, candlelit dinners and walks on the beach.” Seriously though, she is a true nature lover: she loves biking, hiking, kayaking, traveling and tending to her backyard garden (which is currently providing tons of tomatoes, peppers and basil for homemade pesto!).
Q: How long have you been a member of the Co-op, and what motivated you to join?
A: Wow, a long time — since 2010 in the buying club days! I’m a firm believer in the member-owner model, where we all have a say and create our business’s reality, and not subscribing to the corporate consumer model.
We (board member Matthew Talmage and I) had just moved to Brooklyn in early 2008. Coming from California and having been involved in food co-ops there, fresh produce was super important to us, so we immediately joined the Park Slope Food Co-op. At the time PSFC was promoting that one could do their Future Time Off Program work by helping to get the Greene Hill Food Co-op up and running. Since we lived in Clinton Hill, I thought it would not only be easier and more convenient to do my FTOP hours closer to home, but I really liked the idea of contributing towards something beneficial for our community, something that would (hopefully!) last much longer than my time here in Brooklyn.
Q: Can you describe your work at the Co-op? Have your roles and responsibilities changed in the last couple of months with the COVID-19 outbreak and the protests?
A: Ha! Overworked is the first word that comes to mind! Over dedicated!? Currently, I’m the Membership chair and I oversee all membership and work-tracking responsibilities. I basically do the work of two chairs (shameless plug, I need a co-chair if anyone is interested!).
As a member-run co-op, COVID-19 certainly threw a wrench in our work systems, and I and my work-tracking team were putting in TONS of hours that first month of COVID-19 (constantly adjusting to things in a careful but quick manner, or making sure we had enough labor to run the store while also respecting all of our members’ different personal health concerns). I have to thank my work-tracking team for gracefully putting in the extra time that first month. They are superheroes! Things have now calmed down, thankfully, but it’s still challenging and we don’t know what lays ahead for us. For that reason, we created more socially distant shifts so that members could still work, but in a safe and healthy way.
I was also the Outreach chair (2011), the vice president and president on the board (consecutively) about five or six years back.
Q: How has membership been affected, if at all, since the opening of the new store?
A: We were on a good track until COVID-19 hit, and then we lost about 75 members for COVID-related reasons. This took us back to our membership numbers of March 2019. Hence we created the Summer Squash Special. Being open to the larger community during COVID, we are hoping that some of the public will appreciate not only what we have to offer, but our model and will decide to join. So far it’s working – we’ve been getting five-ten new members a week! Pretty good for the summer.
Q: What are your goals for membership in the coming year?
A: I’m working with IT (Internet Technology) to get our work-tracking system to be more efficient and streamlined: as in ALL member work hours will be put into a sort of “banking system,” so we all can much more easily see if members are in surplus or behind in hours with one simple click. This will, I think, make everyone’s life a lot easier. Fingers crossed! And if this kind of project interests you, feel free to reach out to the IT team to help out!
I’d love to hit 400 members by Summer 2021. We were well on our way there this year, but then the pandemic hit.
Q: Can you offer some insights about the Co-op’s membership that might be surprising to people or that they might not be aware of?
A: I am, at times, surprised and simultaneously impressed with the dedication that our member-owners have, and how many folks will show up when needed. It’s a beautiful thing to see such community support.
Q: What’s your favorite thing to shop for at the Co-op?
A: I’m a huge fan of bulk, in fact former Membership chair Russ Ross and I took a drive down to Pennsylvania to grab a lot of bulk bins years from another store who was giving them away!
Also, of course, the kombucha. It’s great to have different flavors on hand.
And lastly, my good friend Manolo’s Mama Margarita’s salsa (my favorite is the smoked flavor). Being from California, I’m very particular about my salsa. This is seriously some of the best salsa I’ve ever had out of a jar — and I’m not being biased because I know him! Manny and I went to high school together and it was so wonderful to get him connected with our Co-op so he could sell his product with us! Now that feels like community to me! If you know anyone that is a vendor whose items would be a great fit for the Co-op, introduce them to Merchandising!
Q: Anything you’d like to see more of at the Co-op, whether it’s a product or practice?
A: Membership wise:
I’d love to see some new faces in the leadership. Those of us doing it for so long are tired people! Joking aside, it’s always great to have fresh faces and new ideas and, sometimes, there just needs to be a changing of the guard.
I would love to see our Co-op have more diversity and be more representative of the neighborhood. And, in that vein, I would love more people of color in leadership in our Co-op.
Food wise:
I’d love for us to be a one-stop shop. Getting more members allows us to work towards that.
And I would love a more varied and affordable cheese selection. :)