October is National Co-op month, and Fourth Friday is joining other communities across the country to show Food for Change, an acclaimed documentary about food co-ops.

Food for Change tracks the ups and downs of cooperatives since the Great Depression through rare archival footage, animation, graphics, and interviews with co-op leaders. You’ll learn about the nation’s longest surviving alternative economic system, which is also a social movement based on principles of cooperation. Food co-ops introduced whole and organic foods to the American diet in the 1970s; today they are the champions of local food systems.

Filmmaker Steve Alves, who narrates the film, sees the story’s theme of cooperation as particularly relevant to today’s political climate. “It’s American history, from the Great Depression to the present, with co-ops as the protagonist,” says Alves.

“Across the U.S. we’re experiencing both a renaissance and a challenge to food co-ops,” says Sean Doyle, General Manager of the Seward Co-op. “As food co-ops have grown to be successful businesses with annual sales of over $2 billion, they are facing fierce competition from corporate chain stores in the natural foods market they created. We want the public to know our story and what we stand for.”  See the trailer…

Friday October 26, 7:30-9:30pm 
Fireside Room, Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, 505 E. Charleston, Palo Alto
FREE, Donations appreciated.

Co-sponsored by Transition Palo Alto and the Green Sanctuary Committee of UUPCA.