Small but significant: Isla Vista Food Co-op keeping community fed
ISLA VISTA, Calif. - Even with most college students now finishing the school year away from Isla Vista, the I.V. Food Co-op is still making a big impact.
The building itself is modest, but meaningful. The South Coast's only consumer-owned grocery store has only a few aisles, but employees keep them well-stocked.
General manager Melissa Cohen admits that when many UC Santa Barbara students moved out of the area in mid-March, the store lost a valuable customer base. But it also saw plenty of support.
"We have our resilient network of core shoppers that we hoped would come and support us," Cohen said. "But we didn't totally expect was how we would be widely received by a shopper base that maybe hadn't come here before."
The store, Cohen says, has seen only a slight overall decline in business since the pandemic began. It's become even more vital for many locals who are staying at home and avoiding larger stores.
“The Co-op is not just like a cute, off-to-the-side resource of food,” Cohen said. “There’s a lot of people right here in Isla Vista that, like, this is where they’re shopping. They’re sheltering in, they haven’t left Isla Vista in two months.”
COVID-19 safety precautions are also top of mind at the store: customers are required to sanitize their hands when entering and to wear a mask inside. Only 10 customers are allowed in to shop at a time.
“I feel like everybody was really grateful that we were enforcing all these rules right away,” floor manager Leslie Alonzo said, noting that the store's consumer-owned structure allowed the staff to make quick decisions.
“Having everybody that’s in charge just be like, a couple steps away, we were able to just kind of voice our thoughts on everything, and just get moving to a plan that worked for everybody," she said. "And just act, and not wait until [the pandemic] got worse to do something."
The Food Co-op is also feeding the community beyond the store's walls. It works with UCSB and others local partners in distributing large volumes of food to students and families who need it.
“All of these programs already existed in a way,” Cohen said. “And now we’ve just turned the key to make sure that we’re operating them in the best possible way.”
Many of the store's items are locally-sourced, supporting farmers and producers in the area. Some customers have chosen the Co-op for that reason.
“Before the virus, I was also going to Sprouts,” UCSB student Taylor Roe said. “But now I’ve only been coming here. It just feels a lot safer. It’s all local. All the produce is really fresh and you know where it’s coming from, so that makes me feel really good about my purchasing.”
For those that don't feel comfortable shopping in-store, curbside pickup is an option at the Co-op as well. More information about the Co-op and its efforts to feed the community is available here.