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Kira Montagno
Assistant Operations Manager
Swarthmore Co-op
March 26, 2013

We at Good Food Jobs spend a lot of time thinking about grocery stores and food markets. They are both essential and pleasurable parts our lives. A bad one can dampen our spirits, a great one can lift us up to cloud nine. Hearing Kira's story makes us wish that every grocery and market in the country had someone like her behind the shelves.

When did you know that you wanted to work in food?

At the end of my senior year at Bryn Mawr College, I found myself with one small problem: no job.  Like many seniors at Bryn Mawr, I too, had the weight of the ominous question of what are you doing after you graduate on my shoulders, and I had no clue.  My rugby coach gave me some contact information for a possible job opportunity at a farm called, Willow Creek Orchards in Collegeville, Pa.  After four grueling months working with six other interns on 138 acres farm, I knew this was something I could spend the rest of my life doing.  Being surrounded by food that I not only grew myself but was healthy, organic and so beautiful, how could you not fall in love?

How did you get your current good food job?

After my internship at Willow Creek ended I had a sense of what I wanted to do with my life.  I knew I wanted to be involved in food access with communities or people that don't have immediate access to healthy food options. I did some research and applied to many different food programs in Philadelphia.  I joined Good Food Jobs and Idealist and searched those websites every day. I went online and searched Food Co-ops in the Philadelphia area. I found one called the Swarthmore Co-op, and I applied online. I didn't hear anything back from any organizations I applied to for about a month. Finally, after I thought I was going to be jobless forever, I received a phone call from the Swarthmore Co-op. I initially started out as a cashier and in the produce department. I worked my way up the ladder to become the Assistant Operations Manager.

How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?

My parents started their careers pretty late, I was about six when my father got his Ph.D. from Ohio State and then shortly after that we moved to Virginia so my mother could get her M.Div. For the first 12 years of my life I was moving around for my parent's schooling and careers. There was really only one constant in my life - no matter where we moved, there was a garden. My father would always say, anything you can make yourself is healthier than anything you can buy. My parents always made their own food; we had homemade apple sauce, pickles, chocolate pudding, peanut butter and yogurt, just to name a few growing up. My mother claims that she got my father into healthy food and gardening, so I will give her that credit. Even now that my parents are divorced, no matter whose house I go to today there is a garden, whether is it in the city on raised beds or in the country on an open plot of land. It feeds us. I guess I never really understood how lucky I was to have been surrounded by healthy food options all my life and even now.

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream?

The Swarthmore Co-op is the third oldest Co-op in the country; it opened in 1937.  Sometimes, it's hard to believe that we have been open for that long.  But when I look at some of the customers that shop at the store I find the answer. Before the current management the Co-op used to carry a lot of conventional products. However, now we are moving away from that.  We want to really focus on sustainable products. We have slowly started to phase out conventional items all throughout the store. Educating customers is one of the greatest obstacles. Food is personal and it's so hard to change your eating habits. Trying to make customers understand that the food they have been eating all their lives is unhealthy is a hard endeavor. It is a challenge every day.  ut there are some customers that get it, understand and are excited about the sustainable options we have. I look at my coworkers and their passion for the work they do every day and that makes it worth it; they help to validate everything I believe in.

What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now?

Living in Philadelphia there are so many neighborhoods that don't have access to healthy food. I think food access is one of the most important issues for the communities I live near. There are so many Philadelphia programs in place trying to improve food access, like The Food Trust. I believe that urban farms and farmer's markets can help combat food access issues. Farmer's markets have an amazing opportunity to make this happen. They have the ability to go into certain communities and supply the neighborhood with local and healthy food. I also believe that urban farms have the ability for this as well. A lot of times when people grow up in an urban environment there can be a disconnect between food and how it grows or where it comes from. I think urban farms bridge that gap and help to educate the community about food and how it's grown. A few great urban farms in Philadelphia are Mill Creek Urban Farm and Greensgrow Farms. The growth of more farmers' markets and urban farms are a big part of the future of good food.

If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?

Food! I will work for food always!

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