The Village, a new lower Charles Village co-op, sits on the somewhat sleepy section of St. Paul between 24th and 25th Streets. It’s next to the Yabba Pot and the brand-new and eclectic Peace on Earth General Store, all across from the 25th Street Safeway. It is the only food co-op in the entire Baltimore Metro Area, says Gretchen Heilman, acting store manager and fulltime volunteer. The co-op offers a selection of beans and rices, fresh locally-grown produce, locally-grown African vegetables, teas, and staples such as pasta and pasta sauce. It lacks dairy.

I say the street is somewhat sleepy because, except for the rush hour traffic barreling through from North Baltimore toward Mt. Vernon and downtown, this sunny summer street and sometimes grittier winter scene keeps its own rather pedestrian pace. People often can be seen wandering from store to store on various errands, whether pingponging from Safeway to the Yabba Pot, or from one of the two St. Paul liquor stores over the Charles Street CVS. The foot traffic at The Village remains leisurely also—people are still learning its there—but what is sprouting up on St. Paul between 24th and 25th is noticeable.

Store Hours

Traffic is “off and on” and “we are still growing,” says co-op volunteer Luke Scipp-Williams, who is finishing his year with AmeriCorps-Vista as an assistant for local after-school programs through the Greater Homewood Community Corporation. He says the recently expanded hours have boosted traffic at The Village. Current hours are noon to 8 p.m. on Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Before it was only open weekday evenings.

Support and Events

The Village does have a bedrock of support to expand outward from. Currently it has between 250-260 members, according to Heilman, as well as 30 regular volunteers taking shifts in the store and over 100 helping out with various knick-knacks. It also has a full calendar of nightly events, including a weekly Monday night food talk and demonstration. For instance Monday, Aug. 15 featured “Rawsome Food Prep with Skai” and Monday, Aug. 29 features “Practical Ideas for Packing Your Child’s School Lunch Box”—both at 7:15 p.m.

Background

The Village emerged out of a two-year-plus-old cooperative purchasing group called Baltimore Families for Natural Living and opened on March 23, 2005. Heilman says The Village is looking for more volunteers and encourages local venders to contact The Village about opportunities to sell their food and wares. The store has a Web site at www.baltimorevillage.org

One middle-age, vivacious customer who preferred to remain anonymous noted that two years ago Forbes magazine named Baltimore one of the East Coast’s most bohemian and livable cities. Now, she says, it can live up to that reputation by having an co-op along with the new café Red Emma’s. A bohemian city has to have a co-op, she quipped and laughed.

Future

The Village plans to be not just a place for food, but a community center for environmentally-minded people, say both Heilman and Scipp-Williams. Gretchen Heilman recently moved to the area in order to be the acting volunteer store manager while continuing her work as a wholelistic health counselor and herbalist. It has enabled the co-op to expands its hours. In addition, since its March opening the co-op has added a freezer and fridge donated by co-op members, an herbal selection, and a credit-debit card machine. The co-op stocks all-natural, almost all organic products and 99% locally
grown produce. In August it approved the possibility of free-range, organic dairy products, which can be ordered through the store. Recently one co-op member volunteered to be in charge of alerting Web sites and media outlets about their weekly events.



A synergy is brewing on St. Paul Street. In addition to The Village and the Yabba Pot, right next door is a new Peace on Earth General Store. Having opened its doors this July, this eclectic store carries a variety of incense and oils, African-American and spiritual literature, natural cookies and bars, and bottled water called “Life 2-0” fortified with electrolytes and minerals. Michelle of the General Store says her purpose is “to get the message out to the community that, like with the Yabba Pot, you can feed your soul and mind.”


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