Challenges of a College Town

The Isla Vista Co-Op focuses on social justice through the lens of food access and insecurity in a college town.

"Being a privately owned business or a family owned business in Isla Vista is difficult." Cohen expresses.

They need to keep coming up with money to run their business even when there are no students around to buy their products.

“Sales during winter break will drop to almost nothing some years”, so a lot of businesses will close during break because of the three-week decline in sales since paying to stay open is illogical.

Cohen believes that closing stores creates bad patterns because the people who are not students in Isla Vista such as families will just go somewhere else for their needs.

The Co-Op stays open regardless because as a general manager, Cohen wants there to always be a grocery store open.

She recalls the Thomas Fire last year when Isla Vista was abandoned, the Co-Op stayed open. “Until I see fire, we stay open”. However, she let everyone who wanted to leave evacuate.

While businesses like Whole Founds found every reason to close, the Co-Op found every reason to stay open.

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