Question: How are things?

[Guest guest]

I was reading the advice given in this link:

http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/preparing-for-a-raid.htm

It made me think about the raid of the trad foods MN club. I live in St. Cloud,

and never got a chance to shop there, but I was planning on becoming a member

anyway. Then it was shut down... So much time has passed, and I really want to

know why the warehouse hasn't opened again. I'm sure there are plenty of

reasons, probably involving money. Are there plans to reopen soon?

Have a happy day,

Roxanne

www.5degreesofweirdness.blogspot.com

[Guest guest]

Thank you for sending that link! We had so much fun celebrating the bravery and

perseverance of JOHN MOODY at the WAPF conference, he has always been one of my

role models for this kind of local activism. He and his loyal crew have a buying

club that actually works for his community!

You are absolutely right about the inevitable demise of our sweet old WAREHOUSE,

we started on a shoestring with a quite naive model (based on it being a larger

version of my garage distribution site!). That left us wide open to the vagaries

of corrupt investors who were not foodies, not community, not kind people.

That's why all that hard work by so many and so much investment was grabbed and

squandered. Our lovely idea died a death from within, before the actual raid.

As you know, that illegal raid had nothing to do with our warehouse, there had

been no complaints, and certainly no search warrant could have been attained.

The food police were allowed to wander in, search the place (illegally) and then

do their nasty work, all because we weren't there to stop them at the door.

Obviously, JOHN MOODY is right, a private buying club is OFF LIMITS to anyone

except members, and, of course, those with a legal search warrant. Had we been

there, we would have #1 not allowed the search, then #2, had it occurred beyond

our control, we would have reopened to our members the very next day.

AS IT TURNS OUT.... Our current models of distributing food " under the radar " ,

through our drop sites and all the other ways may be the best of all options.

After all, who would pay the cost of maintaining a large warehouse? Our

rock-bottom, shoe string, volunteer crew overhead was close to $5K/month (and

climbing)! That means, if we added our 20% to every sale, we'd need to sell over

$25K a month just to pay the bills! I don't think that model is sustainable, it

wasn't then, it wouldn't be now.

The old building was a dinosaur. The new model is what works. SEVERAL OF US ARE

CRAZY-MAD ABOUT BRINGING GOOD FOOD TO THE CITY!!! That's what really counts. I'm

so excited about the dual routes we have with Alvin Schlangen's Freedom Farm

Coop, and now Castle Rock Creamery (COMING SOON). Combined with the various

other routes of good food into town, I think we will soon have a complicated,

but even better system, one that will give every single person here who wants

good farm-fresh traditional food everything they need! And best of all, there is

no expensive, demanding building to feed!

Damn the government! Damn the bringers of darkness! Stay tuned! It's going to

be fun!

Will Winter,

Reformed, Renewed, Regenerating