User:Rcr5090/The Whole Foods Co-op Natural Foods and Café (Erie)

The Whole Foods Co-op is a natural and organic food cooperative founded in 1975 and located in Erie, Pennsylvania. The co-op currently has ___ active members and is a member of the National Cooperative Growers Association.

History
In 1975, Barb and Doug Dailey, along with a group of friends, set out to obtain healthy, whole, organic foods for a lower price and of a greater variety than was previously available to the Erie area. They opened their first store, Rainbow Foods, at the corner of West 4th and Myrtle Streets in downtown Erie. The small corner store offered foods that required weekly trips to Buffalo, NY by the owners to obtain. As business grew, Rainbow Foods eventually gained the privilege of a regular delivery from Clear Eye Foods.

Somewhere between 1976 and 1978, The pioneers of the Erie co-op set their sights on a new location at East 14th and Ash Streets. After signing a lease, they began renovations on the new store. However, in the same year, several of the pioneers had moved on from the natural foods business, and a venture called Minority Health Education Delivery System (MHEDS) took interest in the property. MHEDS was a social service agency in Erie created to serve the area Hispanic community by providing ethnic foods at affordable prices that had been unavailable or hard to find in the area. The owners of Rainbow Foods transferred ownership of the new location to MHEDS and became members (and still are to this day).

The purpose of MHEDS was ethnic food; however, they also ordered and sold natural foods through what they called a “buying club.” Once a week, a truck from Cleveland, Ohio would bring natural foods that members of the MHEDS buying club would order, and the members themselves would unload the truck.

By 1980, MHEDS had very few ethnic foods customers remaining, but boasted three different buying clubs. Faced with increased operating costs, they were forced to withdraw funding from the program, hoping that the three buying clubs would become self-sufficient. The former owners of Rainbow Foods received the East 14th and Ash Streets property again and on June 30, 1981, the three clubs merged and became the Whole Foods Cooperative Association.

In 1990, the Whole Foods Co-op had outgrown their space at the current location. They moved to the former Medicenter Pharmacy building on East 6th Street between German Street and Parade Street. The store was four times the size of their original location and it proved to be a difficult size to fill.

By 2000, the Whole Foods Co-op ran out of room once again and began searching for a bigger venue with off-street parking. They relocated to a store at the intersection of West 26th Street and Brown Avenue, which is where the store remains to this day.