
THIS YEAR THE CO-OP TURNS 40.
To celebrate, we are cooking up a very special documentary project -- the Open Harvest Storymobile!
Born in a basement, raised on Randolph Street, Open Harvest Co-op Grocery has never strayed far from its roots. In 1975 a group of like-minded friends came together to create a place where Lincolnites could buy fresh, local organic food.
In the style of Story Corps, the Open Harvest Storymobile is an oral history project intended to gather material for an audio documentary that will air on KZUM 89.3 -- Did you know that KZUM started in the basement of Open Harvest?!
The Storymobile will be a food truck turned temporary recording studio -- THANKS PEPE! -- parked in front of Open Harvest to record interviews and conversations, June 4th-7th, 2015.
We want to create a place to gather and share stories about the Co-op and the wider community: your stories recalling the early days to now, the roots of the local food moment and Open Harvest's evolution alongside other important Lincoln community institutions.
HOW WE WILL USE THE FUNDS?
Practically speaking, here's what we can do with your support:
- Build a simple, soundproof recording studio. Most of the recording equipment will be supplied by KZUM, but we need some additional materials to pull this off!
- Transcribe and edit the recordings -- this will take a lot of time!
- Produce a final documentary audio series for radio that will also be available to download.
Producers Kat Shiffler and Nick Svoboda are both Open Harvest Board Members as well as volunteer radio programmers with KZUM. With your support, they'll be able to dedicate their time and talents to track down interviews, record, edit and produce a broadcast-quality final product for the Lincoln community. The hope is that the interviews will also provide content for a future book.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Whether you are new to the Co-op, or were there at the beginning, we want to celebrate 40 years in the Lincoln community through your voices; weaving them together to paint a larger picture of where we’ve been and where we’re going – together.
Help us by sharing your stories. Your photos. Show up, participate.
REWARD YOURSELF
Our appreciation runs deep. Whether you give a little or a lot we have a few things to offer as a 'Thank You'



Risks and challenges
We are confident that with the help of our Co-op community, friends, family and neighbors this project will succeed. We also have the very special support from Pepe's Bistro and KZUM radio.
The challenge (and the fun!) is finding and tapping into the people who have been a part of Open Harvest over the last 40 years and drawing out the stories that will paint a vibrant picture of the Co-op's history. We have a good start thanks to technology and the memories of our long-standing members!
Donate today to make the Open Harvest Storymobile a success.
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Funding period
- (30 days)