Time is a resource that we don’t quite know what to do with. The imbalance of time is a curiosity. Entire groups of people-retired, unemployed, disabled, underemployed, seasonally employed-have too much of it. Other groups-working class people holding down two jobs to make ends meet, households where business travel schedules collide with child care, households where everyone works full time-have too little of it. We often yield to the demands of jobs, families, and life and shelve hobbies and passions for that elusive later-when time permits. The chasm, between too much and too little, presents an opportunity for communities to get more of what they want by discovering resources and considering how to make the best use of them.

Talent is another under utilized resource. Thousands of people are unemployed or work in jobs that are neither well paying nor satisfying. Take food service for example. Experienced food service workers number in tens of thousands, along with thousands of shuttered restaurants and acres of used equipment. Let’s consider a diner in the context of a member member owned, operated and governed cooperative. “The economic forces on a cooperative tend to drive the business to operate at a zero profit. Since the owners are also the customers who shop at the cooperative, they want to pay as little for their food as possible and tend to discount their share of any business profit. As long as the business can maintain a healthy cash flow, a low profit cooperative is viable.”¹

This quote is from Cathy A. Smith, Ph.D., Executive Director of Keystone Development Center, Inc. It referenced a grocery co-op, but the principle applies to cooperatives generally. The food service industry, well known for the unappealing combination of long hours and low pay, serves the important function of quickly filling the hunger urge. In my home town, Stockton, Illinois, local farmers finished their morning milk and gathered at The Lantern, a rickety diner run mostly by teenage girls, serving mediocre food and coffee. Nevertheless, as a gathering spot, it served to knit the community together. I believe that every community needs a diner where people gather to connect with each other casually and predictably.

By operating community diners as cooperatives, the potential exists to employ enough people so that the burden is shared and the hours are not grueling. In the diner of my dreams a quiet area is set aside for children to do their homework after school, tutored by seniors, teenagers, or older children, while they are alert enough to absorb the material. When their parents pick them up after work, they could enjoy a simple, affordable meal and go home with dinner, dishes and homework out of the way. A cooperative diner could anchor a neighborhood by providing a safe and friendly place for people to gather.

The imbalance of time and talent continues to gnaw at me to look for solutions that I am convinced lie within each community. Sign up for the newsletter and look for more in future posts.

¹ Cooperation Works! Training Session, Fall 2008