a recipe 35 years in the making
Community-Led Food Co-Ops Since 1991
At Urban Recipe, food security and community go hand in hand. Through our free Food Co-ops, families receive healthy groceries, build meaningful relationships, and share in the dignity of helping one another.
“I never imagined I would be receiving like this, but it’s a much easier way to receive. It doesn’t feel like charity.” – Paula, Co-Op Member
The security and stability of co-ops, held every two weeks, provide real financial breathing room for our neighbors in Atlanta. Members save an average of $8,000 to $12,000 per year on groceries, giving them more freedom to redirect their funds to housing, healthcare, education, transportation, and even activities for their kids.
“It’s been life-changing for me and my family. It helps supplement what you would pay at the grocery store, and the food is really nutritious and good and healthy.” – Jayda, Co-op Member
Today, we have 11 Food Co-ops across Atlanta, but we started as one co-op in a church basement in Grant Park. In celebration of 35 years of service, our Executive Director Jeremy Lewis sat down with our founder, Rev. Chad Hale to talk about our early years. Take a look as he describes what happened at the very first food co-op meeting on February 28, 1991.
35 Years of Impact
Celebrate with us!
If you’d like to celebrate our 35th anniversary with us and help more people get access to healthy groceries and a caring community every two weeks, here are a few things you can do:
Join our Recipe Club
Give a monthly gift of $35, in honor of 35 years of impact.
Volunteer
Help fill boxes for our Mobile Pantry or prep pallets for our Food Co-ops.
Engage with Us
Follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter to get exclusive anniversary content and notifications about upcoming events.
Spread the Word
Tell your friends and family about Urban Recipe, and why you support Urban Recipe’s mission.
Become a monthly donor!
Be part of our Recipe Club of recurring donors by giving a monthly gift. Your gift of $35 a month, in honor of 35 years, helps feed families all year long.
Recurring gifts are reliable, helping us to:
- plan ahead with confidence
- purchase high-quality foods in bulk, including proteins and produce
- expand into new communities with intention and stability
Food and Community
Co-op members don’t just put food on their own tables. Their generosity extends to others in their community. Meet Yolanda, Decatur Co-op member, who discusses her co-op community and food:
Did you know
In addition to our Food Co-ops, we also have a Mobile Pantry. It began as a response to the pandemic in 2020 when co-ops couldn’t meet in person. We packed food in boxes and dedicated co-op members and volunteers delivered them.
The pandemic ended, but the increased need for food remained, so we permanently adopted the Mobile Pantry program in 2022. Every year, more than 1,500 volunteers help us pack Mobile Pantry food boxes for partner community organizations to distribute across Atlanta. The free food boxes are available to anyone who needs them.
Looking Ahead to the Next 35 Years
One of our goals for the future is to bring our model to more communities, in Atlanta and beyond. To fulfill that goal, we created the Cooperative Pathway Program (CPP) equip partner organizations to create and run their own Food Co-ops with our operational and logistical support. We’re making strides. Five of our 11 co-ops are currently run by CPP partners. We are seeking to increase the number of CPP co-ops each year.
Our Executive Director, Jeremy Lewis, says the program is probably the most important thing we do:
“[CPP] works to make sure that people have enough food, but equally as important, have a sense of community and connection that we desperately need. In every part of society that I can think of, it’s something that’s missing.
You see the co-op members who have a chance to share [what’s going on in their lives], they leave oftentimes feeling so much better. They got some food, which is great, and that’s important, and they definitely need it. But they leave with their hearts filled a little bit more because they had a chance to share a burden with somebody else, or a joy, good news too, and somebody else gets to rejoice with them. That’s what we need. We need more of that.”
Volunteer
Join our team of dedicated volunteers and help us in our mission to provide food support to those in need.
Donate
Your contribution helps provide regular, sustained support through food co-ops and emergency food support through free mobile food pantries.