Monday, 21. July 2008

Today the whole heat + humidity combo has gotten down to acceptable levels. I check my mail most of the morning and then head out to check Academy records that Briton suggested to me the night before. To my surprise, it really is a good store. I find quite a few records for quite cheap and head back home.

I meet Peter later on in Brooklyn and we go to the biggest US food coop together. He is a member and I need a pass to go in. A pass to go into a food store??? Well, we go upstairs to the office and I get a pass.

This is the story: the Flatbush Food Coop (that's the full name) was established in 1976 and has about 3,000 members. To become a member you pay a $ 200 fee (or $ 25 a year, until you've reached $ 200 total) that is returned to you once you decide to cease being a member. This money helps the coop to run and it invests this money in equipment, food or else. Besides your investment, you are also asked to volunteer a certain amount of hours in a certain amount of time (for more info on the coop go to  www.flatbushfoodcoop.com).

Only members and their guests (I guess I qualify for a guest) can shop at the coop and the food they buy costs much less then elsewhere. Just for the record, a South American dark chocolate that in Rome goes for about 3 euros ($ 4.50) there costs about $ 1.50 or basically three times less. Now, that same chocolate wouldn't cost $ 4.50 in a store in the US, but still at $ 1.50 it's a steal. 

We get tons of veggies, chocolates and some other stuff and I invade his kitchen to cook us pasta and broccoli for dinner. I think there's enough for him to take to work for lunch.