Rejoicing in HWFC’s 50th Anniversary
by Melanie Pores
As the Honest Weight Food Co-op celebrates its 50th anniversary, I feel a tremendous sense of gratitude. Our co-op has held a very special space in my heart for close to 5 decades. In the fall of 1978, during my sophomore year at UAlbany, I moved off campus over the summer and formally joined the HWFC at the co-op’s first store at 112 Quail Street, as a member-owner. Prior to that I had served a brief stint as a food co-op manager at the “SUNY Albany Barbershop Food Co-op.”
Over the years, Honest Weight has enriched my life in many ways. In addition to serving as a wonderful source of healthy, wholesome food for me, my husband Fred Pfeiffer (who joined the co-op sometime in 1978), and then my stepson and our twins, the co-op has provided a solid foundation of community. For example, in those early years, I remember making new friends and getting some healthy exercise when the co-op organized volleyball games.
The Coop Scoop has always been a supportive platform for me as well. For the past 10 years, I have enjoyed the opportunity to contribute recipes, book reviews, and articles centered around health, wellness, and culture. The Coop Scoop has served as an effective vehicle for promoting social justice, environmental activism, healthy lifestyle practices, and so much more.
For example, when my husband and I bought our first home in the West Hill neighborhood, a few blocks away from the co-op, I got involved in helping to clean up Tivoli Lakes Urban Wildlife Preserve around the corner. The Coop Scoop provided a great platform to “advocate, educate and organize” community members about the struggles around Tivoli.
I also want to shout out in support of the co-op’s outreach and educational service programs. These help support our broader community; it truly brings a sense of warmth to my heart. In the past few years, I have witnessed how these efforts have positively helped diversify our co-op community.
The co-op’s evolving role in my own life has also centered around learning and teaching in the co-op’s Educational and Practitioners’ programming. I began attending workshops to learn how to create healthy recipes using essential oils and other products from the Wellness Department, and enriched and expanded upon my knowledge of Ayurvedic Medicine.
When I retired in 2015, after 3+ decades as a bilingual educator and resource specialist, I was blessed to be able to parlay my passion into earning my member-owner hours. I’ve been facilitating a weekly Spanish Conversation Group for the co-op for the past decade. I have also enjoyed opportunities to co-present a Spanish Immersion cooking class and facilitate a Spanish Sing Along Tertulia. At the beginning of the pandemic, I also enjoyed the opportunity to assist the co-op by serving as a Spanish/English interpreter at a community-based event.
The co-op has always been a special place for me. Every time I shop, I run into longtime friends, many of whom I have known for over four decades. I feel like I have grown with the co-op community and am always happy to run into former and current co-op managers in the store.
In so many ways, I have personally grown up and now entered my senior years with the Honest Weight Food Coop as an integral part of my life!
Melanie Pores is a retired bilingual educator, an HWFC member since 1978, and has facilitated HWFC’s Spanish Conversation Group since 2015, currently on Zoom, Fridays 10am to noon.
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