JOIN NOW!
All are welcome! You don't have to be a member to shop.

Meet Our General Manager, Lori Burge!

We are so excited to introduce our general manager, Lori Burge! We are thrilled that Lori will take the helm of our community-owned grocery store at 2031 S. Juniper St., slated to open later this year.

Lori brings 23 years of co-op business and community organizing experience, most recently as a Cooperative Development Consultant with Keystone Development Center where she has provided training, resources and consultation to consumer, worker, producer and shared-services co-ops.

She previously served as General Manager of the New Orleans Food Co-op for over five years and worked as the Development Manager of People’s Food Co-op in Portland, OR, for over seven years. She is a graduate of the Cooperation Works! Cooperative Business Development Training Program and the Democracy At Work Network Peer Advisor Training Program.

Lori has expertise in co-op education, start-ups, strategic planning, financial feasibility and budgeting, community outreach and ownership growth, staff development, democratic group process, and diversity and social-justice initiatives.  

“I’m looking forward to working with and for the South Philly community to make this long-held vision a reality,” Lori says. "We are a community united to use food as a force for good, and I am looking forward to all the good we can create together." 

Lori has contributed to the Cooperative Grocers’ ”How to Start a Food Co-op Manual,” was a co-founder of both the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives and the Democracy at Work Network, and has presented as a panelist at numerous conferences and events.

Lori lives with her three children and a gaggle of pets on a quiet block where neighbors look out for each other. On Friday nights you can catch her with a whistle around her neck handing out healthy snacks, teaching kids to cook, or hosting a neighborhood movie night.