Everything Co-op With Vernon Oakes

Ed Whitfield and Sohnie Black, of the Fund for Democratic Communities are Interviewed on Everything Co-op. Vernon and his guests discuss the journey of the Renaissance Community Cooperative. Renaissance is a food co-op that recently closed. Even though the cooperative closed, a lot of lessons were learned during the whole process of planning and finally opening the grocery co-op covered a span of eight years. The introspective look at those lessons was quite revealing. Ed Whitfield is co-founder and co-managing director of the Fund for Democratic Communities (F4DC). He is a social critic, writer and community activist who has lived in Greensboro since 1970. Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Ed's political activism started with attending Little Rock Central High School and beginning to do anti-war work as a teenager. He retired after 30 years in industry before becoming involved with philanthropy. Now Ed speaks and writes on issues of cooperatives and economic development while continuing to be intere