Photo credit: Dave Zylstra
2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of what evolved into Outpost Natural Foods, a member-based cooperative that has proven instrumental in helping Milwaukee develop into a true “foodie” town. Well before the city came to host a myriad of “farm-to-table” restaurants, Outpost Natural Foods was introducing Milwaukeeans to the tastes of fresh, organic produce. After 50 years, it is hard to imagine the city’s food culture without them.
What is often overlooked, however, is that the roots of the Outpost were as political as they were culinary. In early April 1970, the Street Sheet—a Milwaukee-based countercultural newsletter—published details for meeting for individuals interested in starting a food co-op on the city’s East Side. By June 1970, the Kane Street Co-op, under the guidance of Steve Pincus, Pat Small, Janet Baron, Mike Stevens and a cadre of similarly devoted members, had opened for business at 1158 East Kane Street. Seeing the opening of the co-op as an inherently political act, the countercultural Kaleidoscope newspaper came up with a slogan for the new store, one that paraphrased an already popular New Left slogan: “UP AGAINST THE WALL, CHAIN STORES!”
Yet, many involved with the co-op quickly realized that their inventory was not as revolutionary as they had hoped. By the fall of 1970, such individuals concluded that they had to move towards selling healthy, organic food. “It is now our belief that in order to build an alternative culture in America, one of the first things we must do is teach people about alternative styles of eating, both for our own bodies and heads,” co-op organizers proclaimed. And while the East Kane Street Food Co-op would close in November 1970, such developing ideas set the stage for the enterprise that would help make organic mainstream in Milwaukee: Outpost Natural Foods.
Many of those involved with the East Kane Street Food Co-op were instrumental in opening Outpost Natural Foods, at 800 East Clarke Street, in May 1971. The name was chosen because, according to one founder, “we felt our effort in carrying pure organic foods at low cost is a pioneering one in this vast wasteland of depleted and processed foods.” For those that worked and shopped at Outpost, such a mission was a continuation of 1960s-era activism on a different—more human—scale.
As the co-op’s O.N.F. Newsletter detailed in 1976, the Outpost’s goal was to “take control over nutritional content and distribution of food, in order to free ourselves from agribusiness.” More specifically, the Outpost saw itself as “acting as a political force to break the hold that agribusiness has over consumers.” Most importantly, the Outpost wanted to insure access to such alternatives for all Milwaukeeans. Healthy products had to be available to everyone, so the cooperative quickly adopted the motto of “making good food and knowledge about good food open to all people—not just those who can pay.” And customers responded: In July 1972, the co-op moved to a larger store, at 833 East Locust Street. A move to an even bigger location, at 3500 North Holton Street, occurred in November 1979.
It is this commitment to inclusivity that has allowed Outpost to continue to grow well into the 21st century. The co-op’s flagship store has been located at 100 East Capitol Drive since 1990; Outpost branches have also opened in Wauwatosa (2000), Bayview (2005), and Mequon (2014). And while shopping at the co-op may no longer be perceived as an act of political protest, Outpost continues to provide a challenge to the status quo by offering organic, non-processed food options for residents of the Milwaukee metropolitan regime. Here’s to another 50 years, Outpost.
