The Giving Garden® Podcast Season 2 Episode 14 with Nina Gordon

Full Transcript of Season 2 Episode 14

Martina Halloran: Today's conversation takes us to Ocean Beach, San Diego and into the heart of a place that has been nourishing people and community for more than fifty years, OB People's Food Co-op. This co-op was born from a belief that food can be more than sustenance, that it can be an expression of values, connection, and collective care. From its early days as a grassroots alternative to conventional grocery stores to its role today as a community owned fully vegetarian organic market, OB People's Food Co-op continues to show what is possible when access, equity, and sustainability are placed at the center. Joining us for this conversation is someone who embodies that commitment every day. Nina Gordon is the marketing director at OB People's Food Co-op.

Originally from the East Coast, Nina proudly describes herself as a co-op kid, having grown up with both parents serving on their local coop board of directors. With nearly a decade of experience in marketing and growth strategy for small businesses and mission driven organizations, Nina brings a deep passion for food justice, small business, and strengthening community initiatives. For more than three years, she has worked to grow the coop community and help people thrive once again. In this episode, we talk about the power of cooperative ownership and what it means to build a food system rooted in dignity and inclusion, and how initiatives like OB people's low income food access program help make fresh local organic food more accessible for everyone. This is a conversation about food, yes, but it's also a conversation about belonging, shared responsibility, and what we can grow when we choose to nourish one another.

Nina, welcome to the Giving Garden podcast.

Nina Gordon: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Martina Halloran: It is our pleasure. I have heard so many incredible things from different people as we've been partners with the co-op for a really long time. So it's such a privilege to really talk with you today and get a little bit of insight to the bigger picture of the co-op and its mission and its history. So I'm gonna jump right in. OB People's Food Co-op has been part of Ocean Beach for over fifty years, which is incredible.

When you look back at its beginnings and you were thinking about joining the organization, what do you think the founders understood then about community and food that still feels deeply relevant today?

Nina Gordon: Yeah. So many things. And our mission, vision, and values really hasn't changed since our founding in 1971. Basically, we were started by a group of neighbors who just saw a need. There wasn't at the time in the early seventies the way there is now.

There wasn't access to bulk foods, to vegetarian and vegan foods, to healthy foods, and there wasn't that connection to local farmers the way that we see more often today, which is so great. And so they really got started at a time when it felt like there was a missing link between healthy food and everyday people, and they were like, we're an OB. We're a group of neighborhood activists, essentially, and they started a buying club. And their goals were to have it be for the community, by the community, you know, a very democratic way of running a business so that they could meet the community's needs in what they saw was lacking. And that's what we do today.

I mean, we obviously have grown and we've been around for a long time, but we still just do what we've always done and what the founders saw was was missing by providing healthy food to everyone. And one of the things that was really important to them right off the bat, and it's actually in our bylaws and our mission and vision and values, is affordability, is making that food accessible to everyone. So it was it was having all this healthy food but also making it at fair and reasonable prices. And so that's something that we just continue to focus on, especially with inflation rising and cost of living rising. It's really more important than ever now to remain true to our founders' beliefs.

Martina Halloran: I love that. You've said so many things that are important, but accessibility is probably one of the most important things that we can talk about today, whether it's food, housing, clothing, access to health care, accessibility to healthy food sources continues to be a challenge across the country. And I love the fact that your wider organization understands that at the forefront of what you're doing, accessibility is key to that. Because if people are not in a position, whether it's financial access or geographic access, we hear that often when I'm having conversations. It's both financial and its geographic that create barriers for people to really access healthy food sources and make the food choices that they wanna make for themselves and their families.

So the fact that fast forward from 1971 all the way to 2026, that still leads in your mission, and it's part of your bylaws, which is pretty powerful. You don't often hear that in the grocery arena, whether it's co-op or not. I think a lot of people don't understand that accessibility is such a barrier for some people. And if you really want to be an inclusive organization, you have to address accessibility as a key factor. OB Peoples is entirely vegetarian with a 100% certified organic produce.

Why was it important to commit so fully to this aspect of your value chain? Even when it may not be the easiest path. I know people often are looking and searching for the best tasting, the freshest, especially if you're leading a vegetarian lifestyle. So why has it been so important for you as an organization to lean into this aspect?

Nina Gordon: Going back to, you know, your first question, being vegetarian was... That was what was really written into our bylaws right from the start. And what's cool about being a community owned business, which I'm sure we'll get to a little bit later as well, is that everyone has a say. So if our community came and started showing up to board meetings and said, we don't wanna be vegetarian anymore, then we would we would change. I mean, this is something that our community has consistently voted to continue to support as part of our bylaws for the past fifty plus years.

This is what our community ask... Is asking for, and so this is who we are. But I will touch on the vegetarianism thing specifically. Our goal in being vegetarian as a food coop is not to force that ideology down on anyone. It's really just to provide a choice in the same way that folks can come shop here and they know that they're getting high quality food and products that go through our rigorous quality standards that are cruelty free, that are fair trade, all of these sort of categories that we ensure that all of our products and food are going through, that's the same way that we believe in vegetarianism and organic as well.

Not all of our owners and not all of our staff members are vegetarian, and they may not all only buy organic food. But at the coop, you know that if you make the choice to shop here, you know right as soon as you walk in our doors that you're making a choice to have a better impact on the planet and on people, and that's what's important to us is just to provide that choice, and that's what's been important to our community. So we do have people that shop, like, at the co-op for all of their organic produce, and maybe they shop somewhere else as well. That's a choice that, you know, we all make day to day, but by just knowing that you can walk in our doors and you're making a better choice for the environment and for the health of the farm workers too. I mean, touching on organic specifically, the reason that our produce department is a 100% organic is really for the health and safety of the farm workers.

At this point, I can talk to you about nourishing, and I can talk to you about taste. I can't eat produce from anywhere else but people's anymore because especially during peak seasons like apple seasons, it's like we have 40 different varieties of local organic apples. How can you compare that with conventional grocery stores? So there is all of that, but really it's the choice that you're making when you're eating organic food is for the health and safety of our farm workers because there aren't synthetic and harmful chemicals going through the soil and going through the air to the farm workers.

Martina Halloran: That's an incredible aspect of the why in terms of, you know, health and safety of farm workers. I think a lot of people don't think about that. You know, you go into whether it's your local grocery or your local co-op, and you're presented with just such incredible, beautiful, healthy food, and you're not thinking about the impact to your point to the environment and then take it a step further to the people in the hands that are touching that. And the fact that a big part of this is you want to be organic as a way to protect and have a health mechanism in place for the people that are picking. Because that is hard work.

It's laborious work. Farm workers, especially the pickers, are often forgotten in this formula. And I think that is such a testament to the organization, Nina, that you're thinking beyond food. You're thinking about food and sourcing food and the value chain all the way back to the human being that's actually planting and picking and managing the farms and working on the farms daily. We talk a lot about community, especially in coops.

And community ownership is central to your model. With over 12,000 owner households, What does democratic ownership look like in practice? I know that may seem like a loaded question, but it's not. And how does it change the relationship between the store and the people it serves?

Nina Gordon: Absolutely. So I'll start just by saying it means our cashiers have to say a lot more at the register than they would if they were at a conventional grocery store. I mean, we do staff trainings all the time about what is cooperative so that our cashiers and our employees that are talking to customers every day really understand what it is that we do and why is it different. So, you know, sometimes in practice, we are just a grocery store, and people show up and they get their groceries and they leave and that's that. But for the most part, there is this sense of investment.

I don't mean financial investment. I mean a people investment, a social investment in what it is that we're doing here. So we're not a corporation. We're not a conventional grocery store. We are community owned, and that's actually how our business is structured.

One thing I'll highlight that I am so proud of and think is really cool is that our pay ratio at the coop is 2.6 to one. So that's the difference between our highest paid person and our lowest paid person. Instead of money that you're spending at the co-op going towards some shareholders or toward some CEO, like, is going to this community because we all spend $15 a year to have an ownership. And then in theory, if the co-op is profitable, which we are not currently profitable, but if the co-op was profitable, that money would actually come back right into people's pockets in the form of dividends, which some other co-ops definitely do. And so in our case, it comes back into the community through our support of local farmers and local producers and also through all of the ways that we support our community through you know, our roundup at the register program and offering community events and workshops and donations to local organizations.

And so it comes back to our community, but I also wanna touch on the fact that I think cooperatives have, and especially today, it feels very like a radical choice to be part of a cooperative. You're basically saying, I care so much about where my food is coming from and who it's impacting that I'm actually going to be a part owner in this business, and I'm going to show up. And you can feel that energy in the coop. It is this community living, breathing living room, basically, where people are connecting. They're collaborating.

Martina Halloran: Well, I love it. It's social investment. It's pretty powerful because food is powerful. Right? Food is at the heart of so much of what we do in our daily lives as human beings.

And to bring people around in the sense of community investing in that. And I think years ago that it sounded very radical, co-ops. And now today, it feels and it sounds social to many people. It's a social adventure where I can participate, I can be informed, I can gain expertise, I can share knowledge, and I can see my social investment in action. For people today with so many of the things that disconnect us, you know, whether it's, you know, social media, it's the internet, the fact that you have a space every day where people can come, they can come like you said, and it can be just a grocery stop, or they can come and have a moment in time where they're really invested in this social engagement.

And I think that feeds the soul just like food does. So that is a very cool space to work, I would say. One of the programs that I was so excited to talk with you about is called FLOWR, which I think is such a beautiful name. And FLOWR stands for fresh local organic within everyone's reach. I wanna say that again, fresh local organic within everyone's reach.

How does this program work and what has been the community's response since it launched?

Nina Gordon: So this program, we started probably a couple years before the pandemic or somewhere around that era. It was actually before I started working at the co-op, but it was modeled after very similar programs that other food co-ops have throughout the country, which is another thing I just wanna highlight, which is so cool that even though we're a small independent business, we're really part of this network of other food coops across the country, and we're able to bounce ideas off of each other and say, oh, wow. That's a great idea. I'm gonna go ahead and do that in my community if we think it's gonna work in our community. So we saw that, and we saw that it was working well in other communities.

At the time, we had a senior discount, and we felt like we were missing a way to support our community because there's so many more people in our community than seniors who had financial assistance needs. And we... You know, it's part of our bylaws and our mission, vision, values, as I mentioned before, is equitability and food access and affordability. So this just seemed like an obvious program. So, basically, it's our regular ownership costs $15 a year, and our flower ownership costs $5 a year, and folks get a 5 percent off discount every single time that they shop.

And the ownership... Regular ownership covers your entire household. And I will also say, like, when we started it off, we had a criterion for what would allow people to apply for Flower. But over the years, we've just really loosened that because we recognize that financial assistance needs look like so much more than being eligible for SNAP or being on Social Security benefits. Like, it really...

You know, San Diego County is extremely expensive. The poverty line is high. Like, it's a challenge, so we don't really... We're not strict about what requirements you need to have for signing up to be a flower. Basically, you just come in, you fill out the application to be a flower.

It's really no questions asked. Like, we make it happen for folks who feel that they that they need this support, and it's been just perceived really well, obviously. I am the marketing manager, so I'll say, like, in the shallowest of ways, we were able to unlock a whole other community of people who are now able to shop at the coop that might not have been able to before. So that feels really important both for the health of the business and also, again, for the food access. So it's a collaborative...

It's helpful for everyone, has really benefited everyone. And then I'll also just touch on last year at the end of twenty five, there was a lot of uncertainty about whether SNAP benefits would continue. We just went ahead and increased our flower program to a higher percentage during that time. So that was just an easy way to be like, okay. Well, if the federal government isn't gonna take care of folks who need this food assistance program, then how can we support folks who rely on eating healthy food at the coop?

It's just been a really beautiful program. You just come in, you sign up, and then you get the 5% off every time you shop. Two years ago, we expanded it to cover college students. I just felt like when I was in college, I didn't have any money, and I wanted to eat well. And there's a lot of small and large colleges all around our area in San Diego, so we did expand the flower program to college students.

They don't really know that they're part of the flower program. They just think it's a college student discount, but it is part of our big bucket of our food assistance program. So we also go to local campuses and let college students know, like, hey. There's a food co-op ten minutes away. You can join and be invested in this community for $5 a year and get 5% off every time you shop.

So that's been impactful as well.

Martina Halloran: I love the image that flower just conjures up. I imagine beautiful flowers in full bloom. I often think of food as medicine. So when people are really able to nourish themselves well, they're really coming into their own. They're flourishing.

They're blooming. So the idea of a flower is such a great visual, and it's such a great name for the program because what I hear is that you've married it to a level of dignity. Like, you're taking away the barriers. You're not asking people to roll up with w twos and financial information. You're like, if you need help, we're here, and this is what we can provide you.

That is powerful because food insecurity comes with so many different stigmas and barriers, and people often shy away from reaching out for help because the barriers are often so high. And it sounds like your community has created a space where people can just step in with a level of dignity, with a level of confidence to say, I need help, but you're gonna make it really easy for me. I wish more organizations made it as easy. Your organization partners closely with local farmers and produce, and I know that you emphasize eating within the seasons. Why is supporting local food systems and why is eating within the seasons so important?

A lot of people have never heard that term and it's one that I love. It's very powerful and I'm sure many of our listeners would love to understand what it really means.

Nina Gordon: Absolutely. I'll call out right off the bat. It's just... It tastes better. Like I mentioned earlier, during apple season, we have over 40 varieties of different apples.

And when you go to a conventional grocery store, like, for example, apples, you are eating Granny Smiths and Fuji's, and they have been in storage for, like, six months, and they're not fresh, and most of us don't realize that. But as soon as you bite into a local apple at the peak of apple season, your world will explode. Like, it is it is really so different. So it's... The first and easiest way I can highlight eating with the seasons is it tastes so good.

And in San Diego, we are obviously extremely lucky to have a very long growing season for all sorts of things. So, yeah, I'm from New Hampshire. We had strawberries for, like, one week in the summertime, and it was like, go, go, go. In San Diego, we have delicious, juicy local strawberries for weeks and weeks and weeks. And it's just like a really abundant, beautiful, bountiful place to live.

So why would we not eat locally and eat fresh? One of the other clear impacts of eating locally is the environmental impact. So we do source from all sorts of different places for our products, but we do try to source locally whenever possible, especially in our produce department, Because, you know, at a at a bare minimum, the environmental impact of trucking in watermelons from super far away is way higher than JR Organic Farm, which is one of our favorite local farmers that we work with, coming from a couple miles up the road, and they're so good. And one of the other things that's fantastic about local, a lot of conventional agriculture is to create food that... Especially produce that will ship well.

So it's like you get one variety or one or two varieties of bananas and of melons. We're forgetting that actually we have all these different... I mean, there's, like, how many different varieties of corn and grains and beans that we're not even eating. And so at the coop, that's what we do by bringing it back locally. We're getting citrus and citrus season.

We're getting, like, these types of citrus you've never even heard of because it's coming from right there. The environmental impact is just really clear. It's the taste, and then it's also the social impact of eating locally. So when you do eat with the seasons and you're only eating what's... You know, or trying to eat more of what's coming just from up the road or down the way, you are also keeping dollars invested in our local food economy, which feels really important.

It's like if we're all eating the same Granny Smith's apple that's being shipped from super far away, it's kind of like, where did the magic go? Why don't we wanna know what's growing in our community, and why don't we wanna invest in the local organic farmers in our community so that they can keep growing, keep providing? We have a ton of staff members who have been at the co-op for, like, twenty five, thirty years. We've been working with a lot of these vendors since the start. So it's also that magic local connection.

Like, it's just a really beautiful, interlocked relationship that we have with all of these vendors where we are supporting our local small businesses, and they're supporting us. And it's just... It's really special.

Martina Halloran: Sounds very special. You touched on a few things about education, and it takes me to the next question because I think some of the things you just shared, a lot of people don't either think about or they may not be aware of when you're talking about conventional grocery stores and the sourcing and the limited variety and that there's a reason for that and the food economy and how we can better support local. And OB Peoples also invest deeply in education and gathering through workshops, events, your community room. What role do these shared spaces play in building connection beyond food?

Nina Gordon: I mean, so it goes back to, like, the magic and the feeling that you get when you walk in the co-op as if that it's more than a grocery store. But concern for community is actually one of the eight cooperative principles that, you know, make us cooperative. So that is, like, the root of who we are. Care for community, concern for community, and that's part of, you know, what makes us coop. It's also something, you know, I'm deeply passionate about.

So when I started at the co-op, we were coming out of the pandemic and had had to shut down our community room just for safety, and we're sort of, like, coming back to providing a community space where people can just, like, have something to do and have a place to come and connect with their neighbors. It's hard to measure. It's not tangible, but there's something so beautiful about just having and offering these community events where, you know, we've seen people, like, fall in love at the coop. We've seen people start businesses that are now thriving because they sat down in the deli and had an idea, and now they're... They've created a local business that's thriving.

It's like we've seen people have babies and, like, become best friends, and it's just like it's a community space that feels we gotta have it, especially now, like you talked about with social media and news and all these things coming at us from all directions, it can be very isolating in some ways. So to have a space where you can show up even if, you know, you're not shopping today, maybe you just are looking to have your kids meet some other kids in the neighborhood or you just wanna get into a conversation with a staff member about the weather, like, whatever it is, just having a space where we can provide that. One of the community events that we that we host to that I think is so great is that we have two craft fairs in the spring and in the fall every year. So we've been doing that for a really long time. And that is a great example of...

There are no barriers to entry for folks who want to sell their crafts at our craft fairs. Like, it's free. They just have to bring a table and sign up. And that's a great opportunity of... Like, I've had people come to me who were not artists before or were timid about selling their art and didn't know if this was gonna be an option.

And now they're, like, selling their art at the co-op’s craft fair and seeing belief in them from the community, and it's making them think, you know, maybe this is something that I can do, and it was born out of this community event at the co-op. So I just love that. I'm really passionate about that, and I've been just excited to breathe new life back into our community spaces in the post pandemic era. And I'm proud to say that in 2025, we had some of our biggest events that we've ever had. Like, our birthday party was...

I mean, we had, like, a line of people wrapped around the building. We had all of this free stuff given to us by vendors, and there was so much excitement for having this community event that we had all these people being like, do this every month. Like, have this happen more. And it's... It was exciting, and it was also just, wow.

There's really a desire from the community to have these community connections and these community events because it's fun and it's beautiful. So that's a part of who we are, and I'm really happy to be part of that.

Martina Halloran: I can tell you're happy to be part of it. You are so passionate, and I can only imagine when you put your finger to something that it turns to a little bit of that magic that you're talking about. And you said it's not necessarily tangible, but when you take a step back, you guys have been around for over fifty years. I think that's pretty tangible. And I think that is very, very uncommon.

So many people have the desire and the mission. Obi is very similar to Doctor. Hauschka. You know, we're almost a 100 years old. We've been doing it our way for a hundred years unapologetically.

And I love the fact that you are so passionate and it clearly is a driver in so much of what you're doing. Which brings me to the next question is that you've helped support and mentor other cooperative efforts, including work in Imperial Beach. So it sounds like you've got a little bit of that magic in you, Nina. So why is it important to help other co-ops take root even beyond your own neighborhood and taking that magic somewhere else?

Nina Gordon: Yeah. So, again, this is one of our eight cooperative principles is cooperation among cooperatives, which is just such a beautiful principle, I feel. We've been supported by other coops. So we're part of a cooperation of cooperatives, which is called the NCG, stands for National Co-op Grocers. They basically are like an umbrella of networking with other coops that have allowed us to have, you know, more buying power.

But, also, it gives us a chance... Like, I go to a marketing conference every two years with the NCG, and I connect with people doing my role but in South Dakota or people doing my role but in Tennessee. I can call other marketing people at other coops anytime and ask for help. And our, you know, our general manager is part of a forum of general managers at coops across the country. They all put their heads together.

We have conferences. We we call each other. We ask for help, and it could not be done without help. There's grant programs. There's support from individuals.

There's just so many resources that I don't think that all of these different fragmented small businesses would be able to have survived as long as we all have without that support. So that's why, you know, when it has come time in the last couple years... Actually, think they've been working on opening up the co-op in Imperial Beach for, like, a decade. But some members of that community in IB had heard our GM at the time, Nancy, speaking about, you know, the importance of food coops in community. And a community in in Imperial Beach, which is essentially a food desert, had been so inspired to create a food co-op that our GM at the time, Nancy, started supporting them.

And Sarela, our current GM, and myself and our whole team, we just continued that support because it's like the golden rule. Right? It's like pass it on. We've been supported by so many others. So, of course, we're gonna cheer on this community in having their own food co-op as well.

Martina Halloran: It's actually pretty cool to watch to take a step back and put over fifty years of experience and pour that into another community. It's a testament to who you are and the organization. And what I keep hearing throughout this whole conversation are these incredible examples of how you have stayed so true to the initial in the original mission. And it is about people. It is about humanity.

It is about community and dignity. So after fifty years, OB Peoples is still evolving even though they're holding true to the tenants of how they started. What are you most proud of when you think about the coops impact on individual lives, not just the community as a whole?

Nina Gordon: I touched on some of those stories of, like, people falling in love and becoming best friends and starting small businesses and having big ideas. And I would say fostering connections is just, like, such a big impact on individual lives that me over the time that I've been at the co-op, but also just the folks who have been at the co-op for a lot longer have seen over the last fifty years is, like, this impact on individual lives and on, you know, personal successes and on their families, also on our staff. The co-op is integrated with their entire life.

They've been through trials and tribulations at the co-op, but at the end of the day, like, the co-op is the constant, the grounding force in their life. And it is in mind too.

It's like you come you come to the co-op and you're like, okay, the co-op is gonna be here for me. We have staff who worked at the co-op and then they left for a little while and then they came back And we were, you know, here for them in in some ways. The impact on staff individual lives as well. And then I would say health. I mean, that one's a little bit more intangible.

I'm not... I have... I do have a couple of specific stories of people being, like, juices at the... In the deli saved my life. Like, we definitely have people coming and saying that.

But I think it's more it's more than that. It's just having access to healthy food, having a place that's open every single day for fifty years that's there through thick and thin. No matter what's going on in your individual life, you know, you're going through this or that or the world is going through this and that or the news is overwhelming, and we are at the... We are always there just doing what we're doing. And it's like, it makes me wanna take a big deep breath as I'm saying it because it's like, oh,

Martina Halloran: like love that. Paid god. I love that. And you're there with a level of consistency. You know, that's different.

I really think to give you and your organization, you know, the proper credit. It's there with consistency and they're grounded in community because there's grocery stores everywhere, right? There's grocery stores and you go in, you ring the register, You've created something so special. I think even special being very familiar with food co-ops, because just the nature of the business that we're in here at Doctor. Hauschka, I think OB is really special.

It's such a special place for so many different reasons because the heart of the community feels like home in many ways for people. And I love that. What are your hopes for the future of OB People's Food Co-op? And what would you love listeners to understand about the power of community owned food systems?

Nina Gordon: My hope for the future is that we have a future. It's hard. Like, I haven't touched a lot on that, but we've been here for fifty plus years, but we haven't been profitable for the last several years. And it's a challenge, like, as the industry changes and you have these huge box stores merging and people shopping for groceries online and AI and technology penetrating our grocery industry and every other industry. It's like, how do we compete?

Especially... And San Diego is a complicated place. I mean, it's a beautiful city, but it's very fragmented by neighborhood. 86% of our sales come from our owners. People are deeply invested in the co-op that shop here in Ocean Beach and Point Loma and around our area, but, like, how do we compete when, you know, there's health food stores and big box stores all over the city?

It's definitely a challenge. So, yeah, I hope we can continue to prove that cooperatives are a sustainable business model. I mean, it just feels so important now more than ever to not get swept up in consumerism, like you said, just being the sort of, like, fate of America. And it's like, yes, we are a grocery store, and we're a consumer cooperative, but we also are a beautiful magic place where you can find community and you can find safety and you can find hope in this different outcome for humanity, I think. I know that's like a big idea, but it really feels like so much rapid change going on, and I hope that people can find the food coop sphere as like a return, not to go backwards, but as like a return to the basic needs, which is like healthy, nourishing food, supporting local farmers.

Like, it's simple stuff. And I think we've gone and painted this picture that, like, maybe it's complicated, but it's actually not. Organic food just means there's not chemicals. You know, local food just means it's not coming from far away and, you know, having a huge impact on the environment for all of the shipping. Vegetarian food and vegan food just means that it's not having impact because we know that meat industry has a huge environmental impact.

I mean, it's like basic stuff. So I do hope that we can reach more people, and I hope that other people feel empowered to start more cooperatives so that this can be like a beacon of light into the future as sometimes it feels hard to find that, and I hope that we can just continue to thrive and take care of our community.

Martina Halloran: What a beautiful place to end. As we close this conversation, I keep returning to the reminder that food is never just food. It is care. It is choice. It is a way we show up for one another.

OB People's Food Co-op stands as a living example of what can happen when a community decides to center dignity, access, and shared responsibility. Through cooperative ownership, thoughtful leadership, and programs designed to meet people where they are, OB People's Food Coop continues to nourish not only bodies, but connection and belonging. Our conversation with Nina reminds us that lasting change is built slowly through trust, commitment, and the belief that everyone deserves access to good, nourishing food. It is a powerful reflection of what is possible when values guide decisions and community leads the way. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Giving Garden podcast.

Wherever you are listening from, may this conversation inspire you to look at how you nourish yourself, your neighbors, and the communities you are part of. Until next time, take care and keep gathering for good. Thank you for listening to The Giving Garden Podcast. I hope you're leaving inspired because even the smallest act can spark positive change. If you've enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share.

The Giving Garden Podcast is produced by Edwin Batista and edited by Steven West. A special thanks to Helen Polisi for her guidance and generosity. The Giving Garden podcast is brought to you by Dr. Hauschka Skin Care USA, pioneers of natural skincare for over fifty years in home to the Giving Garden loyalty program. Visit drhauschka.com to learn more.