Mathey starts Co-op

Last Friday afternoon, Damaris Miller ’15 walked to the basement of Edwards Hall to prepare dinner with three other members of a new co-op in Mathey College.

Two hours later, the other members of the 13-member co-op joined the cooks for a meal of lentils, curry with vegetables, grilled cheese and peanut butter with chocolate chip cookies.

Miller said this was a typical dinner at the new Real Food Co-Op of Mathey College, a pilot co-op program started two weeks ago. The co-op serves members and guests four meals a week: dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and brunch on Sundays.

Real Food is dedicated to locally produced and sustainable food, though it does not serve just vegetarian food. Real Food is also the only co-op that exists within a residential college, and unlike the Brown Co-op, the 2 Dickinson St. Co-op and the International Food Co-op, the three other co-ops, its members are mostly freshmen and sophomores. Three members of Real Food are upperclassmen.

Divya Farias ’15, a member of the co-op, said the idea for a co-op within a residential college came from Eleanor Meegoda ’12, a member of the 2D vegetarian co-op.

Farias said she found out about the co-op through mutual friends shared with Meegoda.

“I was really interested because I think it is really important to spend time with your food because sometimes, as Princeton students, we tend to be OK with not knowing a lot about our food, not caring where it comes from and not having enough time to eat with people,” Farias said.

After expressing interest, Farias was asked to join a planning committee, along with Miller, Sean Coffers ’15 and another member who decided to leave the co-op before its official launch.

“By the time I came on, Eleanor had gotten Mathey to give us space in Edwards and support us,” Miller said.

According to Farias, the planning committee spent winter break talking to existing co-ops — especially IFC and 2D — for advice on how to run its operation efficiently.

“IFC was especially helpful in sharing vendors and ideas on how to foster community, and we are inspired by 2D’s idea of communal responsibilities,” Farias said.

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After creating a plan, the committee met with Mathey College Administrator Pat Byrne and Mathey’s Director of Student Life Matt Frawley.

“[Byrne and Frawley] gave us their specific expectations for us,” Miller said. “Because we are a pilot program, they wanted us to keep track of what works and what does not, as well as keeping track of membership.”

Byrne said in an email that her role in the process was simply to help the students with getting the co-op up and running.

“With some funding from Mathey College, I was able to sit with the co-op members to purchase some cooking supplies,” Byrne said in email. “I worked with the members of the co-op in the planning and organizing stages and in setting up accounts with vendors.”

The co-op leadership was also charged with determining the logistics of how a co-op could serve underclassmen, who are required to have a residential college dining plan.

Katie Horvath ’15, a member of Real Food, said she dropped to the lowest possible meal plan in order to take some of her meals at the co-op. The $200 she saved by switching her meal plan became the dues that she, in turn, paid back to the co-op at the beginning of the semester.

Because the cost of running the four-meal co-op is slightly higher than was initially anticipated, the co-op is considering requiring another set of dues. Horvath said that if this were to happen, she did not think that all the revenue would actually be spent. She noted that she is not sure if the leftover, unspent money would be returned to the members or instead invested in the co-op.

According to Miller, the co-op was aiming for 20 members this semester, seven more than currently take meals there. She said that Real Food mainly recruited students using listservs and through word of mouth but noted that she wished the co-op had done more extensive recruiting.

“We started off with 20 members, then people had other commitments or left because of the price,” Miller said. “Thirteen is certainly smaller than we expected, so we are definitely still open to new members.”

IFC co-president Raphael Murillo '12 said he does not think Real Food will negatively affect the membership of IFC.

"In fact, I think this is a great step toward what I envision for the future of co-ops," Murillo said. "One day, perhaps there will be enough interest in and unity between the co-ops so that we can have a sign-in process like the eating clubs."

Farias also said she thinks the addition of a fourth co-op is a good sign for the future of University dining options.

"Cooking and eating are strong sources of building community,” Farias said. “I like the idea of cooking for people. For me, co-ops are actual eating clubs, as they create communities based on food. That is my hope for Real Food, that it's more than a place to eat but a way to learn about sustainability and each other.”