Co-op Resources

National Cooperative Listings:

• Coop Directory Service
• GreenPeople Health Food Store Directory

National Cooperative Information:

• National Cooperative Business Association
• North American Students of Cooperation
• US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and Democratic Workplaces
• Canadian Worker Co-op Federation

Regional Cooperative Organizations:

• Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives
• Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives
• Madison Worker Cooperatives
• New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives
• Federation of Southern Cooperatives
• Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy

Financial Resources for Cooperative Development:

• Worker Ownership Fund (for more information visit the US Federation of Worker Owned Cooperatives)
• The Working World
• Shared Capital Cooperative
• Local Enterprise Assistance Fund (LEAF)
• Richmond Worker Cooperative Revolving Loan Fund
• Northern California Community Loan Fund
• Beneficial State Bank
• National Cooperative Bank

Cooperative Development and Technical Assistance Organizations:

• Democracy At Work Network (DAWN)
• Green Collar Community (GC3)
• Ohio Employee Ownership Center
• Vermont Employee Ownership Center
• WAGES (Women’s Actions to Gain Economic Security)
• Evergreen Cooperatives
• Green Worker Cooperatives
• United Steel Workers/Mondragon
• Grassroots Economic Organizing
• Ownership Associates
• University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives
• Cooperation Works! Cooperative Development Network
• Canadian Center for Cooperatives

Below is a list of cooperatives and collectives in the Bay Area. If you are part of a cooperative that is not included on this list, please let us know!

924 Gilman Street Collective – Punk rock collective and venue.

Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative – Bookstore /art gallery that has community events. In Mission for 27 years/ 2 years as coop.

AK Press – Distributor of radical and independent books, pamphlets, magazines, CDs tapes, t-shirts, stickers, and other merchandise.

Alvarado Street Bakery – Certified supplier of whole grain breads, bagels and more.

Arizmendi Bakery – Located in the Inner Sunset District of San Francisco. Bakery and pizzeria specializing in bread, pizza and pastries.

Arizmendi Bakery – Located in Oakland. Bakery and pizzeria specializing in bread, pizza and pastries.

Arizmendi Bakery – Located in Emeryville. Bakery and pizzeria specializing in bread, pizza and pastries.

Arizmendi Bakery – Located in the Mission District of San Francisco. Bakery and pizzeria specializing in bread, pizza and pastries.

Arizmendi Bakery – Located in San Rafael. Bakery and pizzeria specializing in bread, pizza and pastries.

Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives – Cooperative made up of seven member businesses: six cooperative bakeries and a development and support collective.

Artist’s Television Access (ATA) – Non-profit, artist-managed collective media art center that offers instruction and access to film, computer and video editing facilities.

Berkeley Free Clinic – Follows a client-centered philosophy and offers: basic dental care, acute primary medical care, HIV testing and counseling, sexually-transmitted disease treatment, men’s sexually-transmitted disease screening, peer counseling and information & referral services.

Berkeley Massage and Self-Healing Center – Professional bodywork since 1969

BioFuel Oasis – Women-owned and specializing in bio-diesel from waste oil purchased from California plants. With an urban farming supply store on site.

Bound Together Bookstore – Anarchist bookstore featuring radical literature and events.

Box Dog Bikes – Bicycles and bike repairs in the Mission District.

Cheese Board Collective – Cheese store and pizzeria as well as a bakery serving morning coffee and pastries.

City Art Cooperative Gallery – Art gallery run and maintained by 200 local artists.

Community Printers, Inc – Established in 1977, Community Printers serves a wide range of business, educational, governmental and nonprofit organizations with high quality commercial printing.

Cooperative Digital – Information Design.

Copwatch – Grassroots all-volunteer organization which works to defend the right of victims and survivors of police brutality to fair treatment under the law; provides legal referrals and assistance with filing Police Review Commission complaints.

Crestmont School – K-5 collectively-run elementary school in Richmond.

Cupid Courier – Green courier service for the greater Bay Area.

Design Action Collective – Provides graphics and communication services to social justice organizations.

DIG Cooperative – Ecological community development firm based in Oakland.

Eco Care House Cleaning c/o WAGES – Women-owned, environmentally sound house cleaning from South San Jose to Gilroy.

Ecology Center of San Francisco – Non-profit cooperative that provides resources and education to create sustainable and regenerative communities in San Francisco.

Electric Embers – Internet hosting for progressive non-profits, activists, artists and cooperatives.

Emma’s Eco-clean c/o WAGES – Environmentally sound house cleaning based in

Hasta Muerte Coffee – Is a new, POC collectively-run, worker-owned coffee shop. We are committed to nurturing community while serving the best coffee, hasta la muerte. Offering drinks and snacks and hosting a specialty bookstore, we hope to provide a warm and inclusive atmosphere for friends and neighbors to gather. We believe in non-hierarchical work spaces, quality coffee, and community building.

Heartwood Cooperative Woodshop – Artisan cooperative providing shop space and use of woodworking machinery to woodworkers.

Home Green Home c/o WAGES – Natural cleaning cooperative founded in partnership with WAGES and Seventh Generation.

Local Flavor Catering – Serving delicious, locally sourced food to the Bay Area since 2003, converting to a worker-owned cooperative in 2013.

Long Haul/Infoshop – An activist resource center, political reading room/storefront, and community space.

Mandela Foods Cooperative – Grocery store and nutrition education center located in West Oakland.

Maybeck High School – Staff-run high school in Berkeley.

Missing Link Bicycle Cooperative – Sells new and used bicycles, repairs bikes and bike rentals since 1973.

Modern Times Bookstore – Neighborhood bookstore and progressive resource for the Bay Area.

Nabolom Bakery – Worker-owned collective bakery and cafe established in 1976.

Natural Home Cleaning c/o WAGES – Green home cleaning for Berkeley, Oakland and the East Bay.

Other Avenues – Food store since 1974 in the Outer Sunset specializing in bulk foods, organic foods and environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Pedal Express – Non-motorized cargo delivery service in the Bay Area providing regularly scheduled route service.

Quilted – Strategic consulting, graphic design, web development to progressive arts, education and non-profit organizations.

Radical Designs – Websites and custom software.

Rhizome Urban Gardens – Installs and maintains organic permaculture-based gardens and landscapes.

San Francisco Mime Troupe – Creating and producing socially relevant theater of the highest professional quality and performing it before the widest possible audience.

Suigetsukan Martial Arts School – Collectively run martial arts school specializing in Jujitsu, Aikido and Japanese swordsmanship.

TechCollective – Information Technology firm specializing in open-source, affordable IT support for non-profits, small businesses and low-income individuals.

The Girl Army – Women’s self-defense collective established in 1994 at the Suigetsukan Dojo.

Up and Up Moving & Storage — Formerly Students With Muscle, this worker-owned moving company has been in business for almost 10 years.

Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security/WAGES – Provides training for low-income women.

The purpose of our Cooperative Grant Program is to foster the growth of existing or start-up worker-owned cooperatives and collectives.

Through our Cooperative Grant Program, we are working to make sustained, positive change in our community. Together, we will be creating living wage, democratic jobs in the Bay Area and a workforce that will have the time, interest and resources to put back into our local community. Rainbow is particularly invested in funding cooperatives that are striving to:

• Function democratically and non-hierarchically at all levels of their business/organization.
• Establish a cooperative as part of a community that is underserved by their type of business and/or by businesses that have a cooperative structure.
• Reflect the community in which they are located and maintain an inclusive and just work environment.
• Become a participant in the larger cooperative movement, especially within the Bay Area and Northern California.
• Maintain or expand an existing cooperative that has made a demonstrable contribution to their local community.

If you are interested in finding out more about our Cooperative Grant Program, please contact us.

Rainbow Grocery is proud to support the development of worker-owned cooperatives in the Bay Area through our Cooperative Grant Program. By supporting these groups, we are supporting the movement to create democratic worker-ownership and living-wage jobs in our community.

Cooperative Grant Recipients:

Hasta Muerte Coffee is a POC collectively-run, worker-owned coffee shop. We are committed to nurturing community while serving the best coffee, hasta la muerte. Offering drinks and snacks and hosting a specialty bookstore, we hope to provide a warm and inclusive atmosphere for friends and neighbors to gather. We believe in non-hierarchical work spaces, quality coffee, and community building.

SCRUF Pet Care Collective is graduate from the 2016 Worker Coop Academy (recipient of a Rainbow Coop Grant in 2014!). SCRUF is short for “Your Special Creature’s Responsible Urban Friend – Pet Care Collective.” SCRUF’s mission is to create an accessible educational environment that supports worker-owners in providing excellent pet care.

Ubuntu Coffee Cooperative is a small coffee roaster located in Emeryville California. They buy all of their coffee beans exclusively from Cooperative Coffees Inc. a green bean importing cooperative that represents partner farming cooperatives in coffee growing regions around the world and member coffee roasters in North America and Canada.

The Worker Coop Academy assists worker cooperatives that provide good jobs for low- to moderate-income workers. The second Academy will be held in the East Bay beginning in September 2015. If you would like to be on their email list when applications become available, contact them here.

Prospera is launching its 6th cooperative which will produce and sell sustainably sourced paletas (Mexican popsicles). For 15 years, WAGES has worked with low-income immigrant Latinas to launch green business cooperatives. Currently, WAGES supports five thriving cooperatives of more than 95 women, all of whom are worker-owners. Learn more about the new Pepito’s Paletas Cooperative here.

Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative is a multidisciplinary hub for local arts and culture in the Mission for over 25 years and began the process of converting to a worker-cooperative in 2012. As a new cooperative, Adobe strives to provide valuable literature, engaging art exhibits, local music and literary performance, as well as be a gathering space for the Mission community.

East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative facilitates BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, taking them permanently off the speculative market, creating community controlled assets, and empowering our communities to cooperatively lead a just transition from an extractive capitalist system into one where communities are ecologically, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and economically restorative and regenerative.