Coffee With the President
An OG Cooperator and our Board President, Tiffany Knight, reflects on 25 years over coffee with Veda Gavle
A lot of shoppers and Member-Owners, including myself, only know Breadroot Co-op for what it is today. A natural and organic grocery store with colorful fruits and veggies on the front windows, locally produced products in all departments, coupons and deals on every shelf, and a friendly and inviting staff. Some remember Breadroot when it was a small selection of produce and bulk foods available in a living room of a house located on Columbus Street. One of those Member-Owners is our Board President, Tiffany Knight. Since I started working at Breadroot, I’ve heard that Tiffany has been around since the beginning. I had been eager to get to know our Board President better, hear about Breadroot’s history, and learn about her experience as one of the Co-op’s OG (original) cooperators. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Tiffany over a cup of coffee and hear about her journey with the Co-op.
Tiffany grew up in a household where healthy eating was the norm. In high school, she became a vegetarian to support animal rights. After high school, she got a job working at Herbs, a natural alternative center, and that’s when she decided to become an herbalist. As her interest in herbs, energy work, and alternative healing grew, so did her belief that good health begins with good food. Tiffany emphasizes the importance of maintaining a “good foundation”, which starts with how you eat.
Years later, after moving back home to Rapid City, Tiffany and her husband “Butch”, were on the hunt to find a place to buy food that met their needs. “I was vegan, so I had to find a place. We were always looking for little health food stores, but really, there was nothing. You could barely find tofu back then,” Tiffany explained, “so when Breadroot Co-op popped up on Columbus Street in 2001, we supported it immediately. The Co-op was just the living room area of a house. It had a couple of shelves, and some regular home refrigerators that you had to open to see what was inside. It was actually pretty cool.” Breadroot Co-op was unlike anything else in Rapid City. After connecting with Michael Melius, one of the Co-op founding Members who was always around volunteering, Tiffany and Butch became regular volunteers as well. Soon after that, Butch and another friend hung up the Co-op’s first sign outside.
Breadroot Cooperative’s first store-front (2001).
Before long, the Co-op had to move, and they ended up in another house just one street over, on South Street. “That house was pretty much the same thing. You walked in, and there were a couple of shelves and things, but we were starting to get better and a little bigger,” Tiffany said, “and that’s when MJ Adams, a local chef who had the Corn Exchange, started to order from us. MJ and the Corn Exchange helped our orders increase in size, which was very helpful.” Slowly but surely, the Co-op was carrying more produce, a lot of bulk products, and some grocery items. “Everything was super clean, healthy, and organic,” said Tiffany.
The next move came in 2005, to a location on Mount Rushmore Road. This was more of an upgrade for Breadroot. The front doors opened right to Mount Rushmore Road, so there was parking right out front, plus more parking around the back. When you entered the store, you’d find yourself in a tight, rectangular space where the Co-op had their grocery items. If you walked up a couple steps, you’d find bulk items and produce. “It was really good visibility and really got a lot of people to realize that we even existed,” said Tiffany. At this time, Breadroot Co-op was still fully volunteer run. From working at the register, to placing the orders, to unloading the truck and stocking the shelves, all the work was done by a core group of volunteers who were also the Board of Directors. “We would have potlucks in the backroom to talk about who was going to work when, and what was going to happen next, so we could keep Breadroot open and running,” said Tiffany. By now, Tiffany and her husband were heavily involved and were at the Co-op all the time. Butch and a few of the other volunteers spent a lot of their time fixing coolers and doing maintenance around the store because they couldn’t afford to hire anyone to fix things. “That’s when we got Big Bertha, a three-compartment sink we found on Craigslist. We were all so stoked to finally have a place to wash produce. These little things felt so huge to us, it was like ‘yay we can clean produce!’” exclaimed Tiffany.
Inside our Mount Rushmore Road location (2005).
In the spring of 2007, Butch and the Co-op crew spent the day moving Breadroot to its fourth location on Main Street, where Armadillo’s Ice Cream Shop now sits. That same day, Tiffany was in labor with her first son, Jupiter, who was born the following day. Somehow, Butch made it to both the move and Jupiter’s birth. If that doesn’t scream dedication to the Co-op, I don’t know what does.
For a long time, the Co-op was nothing but volunteers doing everything they needed to so that the doors would open the next day. Four moves in the first seven years were a result of finding the cheapest place they could rent and avoiding extended leases because they didn’t know if the Co-op was going to be around for another year. Everything they bought for the store, other than the food, was second-hand. Coolers, shelving units, whatever they needed; volunteers would source on Craigslist. If they couldn’t find what they needed, they would build it. Two of the Co-op volunteers even wrote the code for the computer program used to check out customers and keep inventory. It was the definition of DIY.
When the Co-op turned a profit, it was reinvested right back into more product for the shelves. If they didn’t turn out a profit, Tiffany and the rest of the volunteers would take turns paying for the weekly orders so they could keep products on the shelves. The money that the volunteers used to purchase the orders was then considered somewhat of a credit, but none of them really used that credit because they wanted the Co-op to make money. “We all had keys to the Co-op, so if you needed something after hours, you could just run down and get it,” Tiffany said, “but we didn’t have any issue with stealing. No one wanted to steal and everyone was very honest because we were all so heavily invested.”
Breadroot’s fourth location was a big upgrade for the Co-op. Being right on Main Street gave the Co-op great visibility to the public. It was more centrally located, the space was larger, and it had great big windows in the front. “After we moved into that location, Heather Margaret said, ‘I know we don’t want to sell junk food but maybe that will bring some people in’ so we decided to order a bunch of chips and we put them all up in the front window, and that was insane,” Tiffany said, “it brought so many people in, it was huge.”
Our Produce Department at our Main Street location (2009).
Tiffany prepares sprout samples as a volunteer at our Main Street Location (2009).
The next few years brought a lot of growth for the Co-op. Eventually, more people were coming in to volunteer. Some would come in once a week to help with truck day or to stock shelves. With more people volunteering, this allowed some of the original volunteers to take a little breather. The original volunteers also made up the Board of Directors, so while some of the Board Members were still around daily to run the store, some of them were able to just be Board Members, and help-out as needed.
To encourage people to keep coming in, the Co-op was offering discounts. If you were a Member-Owner, you could Special Order cases of product at wholesale costs. If you volunteered, you got 25% off in store. This helped keep the Co-op busy and kept people coming in to volunteer. At this time, Tiffany was the main person placing weekly orders. She would go around the store making her list of what needed to be ordered, all while pushing her son, Jupiter, around in a cart. “Really, by then it was just a bunch of moms with babies running the store,” said Tiffany.
By 2012 the Co-op was busy, had a ton of volunteers, and hired its first paid General Manager. By now, Tiffany had scaled back her time at the Co-op slightly to just being a Board Member. After having her third child and feeling like the Co-op was established and in good hands, Tiffany left the Board and decided to just be a loyal shopper and Member-Owner. After 12 years of hard work and dedication, Tiffany felt that it was a good time to let go and focus on her family.
While Tiffany continued to get all the groceries she could from the Co-op, it continued to grow. By 2013, the Co-op still allowed people to volunteer but was able to hire fully paid staff. Before long, in 2015 Breadroot moved to its current location on East Boulevard North. Growth continued, and in 2019 Breadroot was accepted into National Co-op Grocers, a co-op for co-ops that works to strengthen the cooperative movement nationwide. This gave the Co-op better buying power and brought a ton of resources to continue its growth. In 2020, the Co-op hit over $3,000,000 in sales. After 20 years of cooperation amongst volunteers, producers, Member-Owners, and the community, the Co-op felt like it was really here to stay, and the growth has only continued.
Staff prepping produce at our current location (2015).
In 2020, Tiffany began getting calls from friends and long-time cooperators wondering what was going on at the Co-op. At this point, Breadroot had a fully paid staff and a Board of Directors, but they felt separate. Tiffany saw a slight lack of cooperation happening around the Co-op and decided it was time for her to jump back in and remind people of the vision. She ran for the Board and was elected in 2021, and has remained on the Board ever since, continuing to remind people of what a co-op is. “I do this because I want the Co-op to persevere and grow. That benefits me as a Member-Owner, but it also benefits our community. We need this,” Tiffany said, “Having access to clean, healthy food, and supporting local producers, all in one place… creating and having a community of like-minded people who believe in the same thing is really important.”
Looking back at the last 25 years, access to organic and natural food has been important for Tiffany and her family, but the community the Co-op has created is what has impacted her life the most. “Having people that are actually very different in a lot of ways, but all have this one thing that brings them together (eating clean and having access to clean and healthy food), it builds a foundation of community, and I love that,” Tiffany said.
Since rejoining the Board, Tiffany has been digging deep into cooperation, and the importance of co-ops. Initially, she became a part of the Co-op in 2001 because she finally found a place that had the clean, healthy food that she needed. Now, 25 years later, she is still at the Co-op for something bigger. “It’s not just food, its community. It’s supporting local business, it’s creating wages that work for everyone and making sure people are paid well and feel valued, its making things accessible, it’s keeping our dollars here and supporting our community, it’s having a vote and a voice, it’s being able to provide what the community is asking for, it’s not about profit,” Tiffany laughed, “we need more co-ops!”
Tiffany and I feel that it’s really important that people understand the difference between co-ops and regular businesses. “Sure, co-ops can be very profitable, but the difference is that profit is going to be spread and shared with the community, and the Member-Owners, as opposed to CEOs” Tiffany said.
I asked Tiffany if 25 years ago she thought that Breadroot would be what it is today, and she told me no. “There was always a vision and idea of what the Co-op could be, but I didn’t really know if that could or would happen. It was kind of desolate for a while, and where the Co-op is today is just awesome,” Tiffany said, “Watching what it’s become, and is becoming, has been amazing, and part of that is because it’s not just my vision. It’s a vision of all our Member-Owners. A huge community of people giving their input and helping with growth and seeing something come to fruition. It’s so much more powerful than just one person,” she explained.
Tiffany told me that she tells everyone that being part of the Co-op is supporting your local economy, and shopping somewhere that you can trust. In an era of a ton of information everywhere, you can shop at the Co-op without question. I asked what advice she would give someone who wants to start eating healthy and she told me to keep it simple and just eat real food that doesn’t come with an ingredient list.
Walking away from our conversation, I reflected on the fact that Breadroot wasn’t built by investors or executives. It was built by neighbors willing to give their time, money, and belief in a better way to feed their community. I feel very proud to be a part of the Breadroot community vision, and something that started with a group of friends in a living room 25 years ago. Hearing stories about volunteers paying for inventory out of their own pockets gave “people over profits” an entirely new meaning. It isn’t just a slogan, it’s part of Breadroot’s history. After hearing Tiffany’s story, being a Member-Owner feels like being part of something much bigger than a grocery store. It feels like carrying forward a vision that started in a living room and continues to grow because this community believes in it. Owning my grocery store, alongside Members like Tiffany Knight, never felt so good.