our people

People are drawn to True Food for an amazing variety of reasons. The one which unites them all is a desire for good food. There is also a great variety in what people gain from True Food and what they bring to the venture.

We are a big team and operations are split across three distinct groups of people: members, committee and staff; there is some overlap between these groups.

our members

As a co-operative, True Food is owned and controlled by it’s members.
We are a community co-operative business, owned and run by our members with a shop that is open to everyone.

We’ve been operating in Reading since 1999 and have had our Emmer Green shop since 2010. We have five paid staff; the rest of the business activity is delivered by members and other volunteers.

We welcome people to join the True Food community who share similar values around organic, ethically sourced products and zero-waste.

our staff team

True Food has a small and very hard working staff team who perform roles that are not suitable for our members or volunteers.

All our staff are part time and flexible in their roles which cover shop manager, buyer , business development, operations and finance. This core team is supported by a small number of occasional shop managers and by our wonderful volunteer members.

our committee

Our Committee is a group of members who are elected to govern True Food. These members meet monthly to make strategic decisions for True Food and are effectively the equivalent of a board of directors. There is more information about our committee in this document.

Our constitution means that committee members serve for three years, and each year, one third of the committee is up for re-election at the AGM. We have space for up to 12 committee members.

Contact the committee by email at: committee@truefood.coop