Windsor Terrace Food Co-op Signs Five-Year Lease To Operate At 825 Caton Avenue

After years of discussion and planning, it looks like our neighborhood is on the brink of getting a food co-op.

The Windsor Terrace Food Cooperative Board announced it signed a five-year lease this morning to operate the co-op at 825 Caton Avenue (between E. 8th Street and Coney Island Avenue).

“Plans are now being made and implemented to make the co-op operational in the immediate future,” wrote neighbor Jack O’Connell, who has been spearheading efforts to open the co-op.

The lease is one of the final steps in what has been a multi-year push to open a co-op for residents of Kensington and Windsor Terrace. Following the closure of Key Food in August 2012, a group of Windsor Terrace residents met with leaders from the Park Slope Food Co-op to discuss how to create their own successful co-op in the neighborhood. The neighbors went on to hold numerous meetings, gathering with hundreds of area residents, to discuss the feasibility of the coop, as well as held fundraisers and other initiatives to generate interest. The word spread quickly and hundreds of people have so far signed up to be members, the board said.

The Windsor Terrace Food Co-op is being modeled on the Park Slope Food Co-op – which means you must be a member to shop, and all members must work at the co-op for a defined period each month.

While its location is well suited for Windsor Terrace and Kensington neighbors, anyone is welcome to join – there are no regional boundaries. So, for anyone in, say, Prospect Park South or Ditmas Park who’d like to join, you’re more than welcome to do so.

To learn more about the coop, you can visit the coop’s website. Additionally, anyone who is a coop member is welcome to attend the board’s meeting at 7pm on January 14 in the Knights of Columbus Hall (1511 10th Avenue, between Prospect Park Southwest and 16th Street).