Marcelo Mainzer, Nederland. On Sunday, August 25, 2019, more than 150 supporters of the Mountain People’s Food Co-op gathered at Chipeta Park, in Nederland, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Mountain People’s Co-op. On hand to rock the park were High Waters, members of Flash Mountain Flood the No Go Gillbillies as well as Big Daddy Lion Chandel, from the Meditations. Delicious food was served up by Woody Woodward, flipping GrassFed burgers and the Vegetable Express truck for those non-carnivores among us. 

From its very beginning in 1979, the Co-op has been all about bringing healthy natural food to Nederland. Starting with its humble, but ambitious, beginnings in 1979 when a small group of ten people, including Jan Bishop, David Hall and Laura Vega decided that they wanted to bring healthy food to Nederland and created a food buying club. They would take orders and go as far as Denver, the Denver Central Market, to get the freshest and best food available.

David Hall was unable to attend the party but sent a message, read by Laura Vega, with some of his Co-op reminiscence: “Removing the front store glass to lift in the huge 4-foot x 10-foot wooden cooler made out of cypress. We had to enlist help from patrons at the Pioneer Inn across the street. We also lifted a compressor up the side of the building using a rope, and three-quarters of the way up, the building the refrigeration unit got stuck on a nail protruding from the wood siding. What to do? We got more help from the bar patrons.  

“We had the honey and molasses bulk station in the back of the store, and one day the molasses spigot was left open and about four gallons flowed across the floor. 

“One day a dog out in a pick-up parked out on First Street drove ‘his’ truck down the road and up onto the sidewalk crashing it into the front door of the store. Apparently, the puppy got so excited seeing another dog outside he jumped and dislodged the gear shift and the truck began to roll. Luckily nobody was hurt.” 

David also shared stories of the many trucks used to bring food to the Co-op: the Old Blue Dodge, which burned on its way back home, The Big Yellow Truck, which burned up in Boulder and the Isuzu diesel, and that too was a great truck with dancing veggies painted on the rear door.

At first, they distributed the food orders at the Mountain Community Center, but by 1981 the demand for healthy food was so great they needed a storefront to serve all the people who supported the Co-op, so they moved to 26 E. First Street. In the independent spirit of Nederland, they built their first walk-in freezer themselves. The Co-op has been as much a thread of Nederland history as the Caribou Ranch recording studio and often supplied food for the many musical artists who practiced their art there, including Michael Jackson, Joe Walsh, Billy Joel and John Lennon.

Demand for healthy food continued to grow, and in 1993, with generous member support, the Co-op bought the 26 E. First Street building. In 1995, with another tremendous amount of work and cooperation from their membership and the community, the Co-op purchased and renovated their present home at 30 E. First Street.

Over the years, hundreds of volunteers and paid workers have carried on the tradition of bringing healthy natural foods to Nederland with impeccable service and a smile. In fact, according to Jan Bishop, “Happiness is a requirement to work at the Co-Op.” Boulder is often considered the birthplace of the natural food industry with such names as Alfalfas and Whole Foods Market, in 1997 as early industry leaders. What many people don’t know is that the Mountain People’s Co-Op is featured in the Boulder Museums local food history section.

The paradigm that people involved with the Co-Op live by according to Jan Bishop is, “I left this place better than I found it.”

Come by the Mountain People’s Co-Op, seven days a week and be part of the continuing success of providing community supported healthy natural food to Nederland and the Peak to Peak region. 

(A shorter version of this story was published in the September 26, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)