2010 Crawl

Sydney is blessed with many food co-ops, so one fine Spring day we set off on bikes, buses and rollerblades to explore them all

Circular Quay to Chippendale bike path

Chippendale Food Co-op

Chippendale Food Co-op

Chippendale Food Co-op

Ally and Marcus feeling the love at USyd Food co-op

Time to get out the rollerblades! Usyd co-op to Alfalfa House via city road

Alfalfa House Tour

Alfalfa House Tour

Food Co-op Crawl 2009

By Ben the tag-along vagabond

A few weeks back, Monika conjured up a brilliant idea- living in a city blessed with six food co-ops, why should we confine ourselves to the one or two we frequent? With great new things to see, we set off on a co-op crawl.

Although every other day that week had been gloriously sunny, Friday started off rainy and stayed grey all day. But the hard-core few were not deterred; Sev and Mel from Pedal Australia for Clean Energy, Rodney from both of the Newcastle co-ops, Monika from Thoughtful Foods, and myself the tag-along vagabond put on our rain coats and headed out in search of adventure, knowledge, chocolate, and foods our home co-ops didn’t have.

The excursion started at the University of New South Wales’ Thoughtful Foods with tea and yummy snacks. From there, our biking crew five strong set off for Sydney Uni, and then down the road to Alfalfa House in Newtown. We soaked up the atmosphere of Sydney’s oldest food co-op and provisioned for lunch, which we enjoyed in a nearby park. After lunch, we lost two cyclists, and picked up Shanu, seeking helpful knowledge for starting up a food co-op at the University of Western Sydney. We enjoyed the snacks Amy (who we just missed) left for us at the UTS co-op, and headed down to catch a ferry out to our fifth and final stop of the day- the Manly Food Co-op. The ferry ride over was a great part of the trip, and Billy at Manly was able to explain how their co-op functioned and provided answers to our barrage of questions.

It was good to see the variety of university co-ops as well as two of Sydney’s community co-ops, and although they all stocked brown rice and most stocked spelt flour, I was intrigued to learn about the differences in operation, layout, location, feel, and stock (especially Alfalfa’s chocolate covered macadamia nuts). By the time we made it back to Sydney, we were all exhausted after a satisfying day of cycling, learning, exploring, and snacking.

Besides being the first of a kind, weather, assignments and exams left the attendance somewhat low, but we had a great time regardless. Keep your ear to the ground for murmurings of next semester’s crawl- it’s bound to be a blast. Or contact the ASEN food co-op working group

2008 Crawl

Lunch at the park opposite Stuco

On the wall of the UTS co-op

More UTS co-op

UTS co-op food barrels

Outside Manly co-op