One advantage of the non-professional and non-hierarchical nature of the early natural food co-ops was that young women were able to gain skills and practice leadership in ways that may have not been open to them at the time in other, more conventional settings. In this interview for Radical Roots, we talk about this to Lori Zuidema and Eve MacLeish, former members of The Cheese Rustlers, a collective of women who distributed cheese to co-ops.
Lori is now a manager at Co-op Partners Warehouse, the distributor that is part of Twin Cities Co-op Partners, which serves co-ops throughout the Upper Midwest. Eve was a long-time Riverside Cafe collective member before joining the Cheese Rustlers, and now can be heard co-hosting Corazon Latino on KFAI Community Radio.