Welcome here! Want to watch a quick thing to get the basic idea? Check out our cooperative’s Invitation Poem video from 2019 (it’s ~5 minutes long)

tl;dr:
Prime Produce is a grassroots collective of friends, family, and neighbors committed to intentionally serving our communities.

Definitions
(v.2022.07.12)

Prime:

1. A natural number, potentially limitless in size, with the property of being indivisible by and irreducible to any other number (save itself).
2. An ideal period or phase.
3. First in quality, degree, or importance.
4. Original.
5. The highest grade of meat in the United States.

Produce:

1. To cause to occur or exist, bring forth, yield.
2. To create, compose, manufacture, invent through intellectual or physical effort.
3. Mathematically, to extend in length, area, or volume.
4. To make available for public exhibition or dissemination, to supervise and finance.
5. Nourishing natural product born as a result of cultivation.

Prime Produce:

Love demonstrated through action; not only organically cultivated (like produce), but achieved at the pinnacle of (prime) and simultaneously discovered at the root of (primary) human experience.

The nourishment and stewardship of our communities through practices of intentional service.

Prime Producer(s):

An Earthling (generally a human being) who cultivates prime produce. Sometimes we cheekily call other prime producers
“prime-mates.”

Intentional Service:

Purposefully serving others with a conscious commitment to deepening the quality and growing the quantity of one’s effort. Doing good. Minimizing harm.

Community:

This word is used in a lot of different ways, but around here it refers to our relational, personal network of Earthlings that defies any definition other than the ecosystem of relationships between humans (as opposed to an imposed structure, a creed, or a dominant culture-- although communities may have had these things, too). By this definition, our community extends beyond the group of people who are formally engaged with any of our organizations. After all, our ultimate community is... everyone, everywhere, ever.

Prime Produce Limited (PPL):

A grassroots 501(c)3 not-for-profit incubator operated by prime producers since 2007. This provides a fiscal sponsorship for our community’s eligible service projects. Some examples of community-led initiatives we support include: PreProBono, Seeds to Soil, GROW Externships, and Emergent Works.

Check out the Prime Produce Limited website for more information or to get involved!

Prime Produce Apprentice Cooperative, Ltd.
(PPAC):

A Membership Cooperative founded by prime producers in 2016 to further support PPL programs and prime producers beyond the constraints of PPL’s charitable programs. This is a cooperative of people creating systems of mutual support including but not limited to: facilitating physical space for our community’s practices, peer apprenticeship, and neighborhood hospitality.

Our specific corporate structure is descended from agriculture cooperatives known as Nonprofit Membership Cooperatives (“Nonprofit” in that the intention is not to accrue profit year over year, but rather to collectively govern and maintain a shared resource from which the member-owners benefit). To this end, PPAC membership shares are non-transferrable and PPAC can not be used as an investment vehicle. Only human beings can be members (as opposed to corporations) and every member gets an equal vote on issues. 

To learn more about our space, our programming, or becoming a member, visit the PPAC website.

The Guild for Good:

The word guild conveys “an association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal.” If you hear someone talking about the Guild, or Guild-mates, they’re probably talking about PPAC Members, Practitioners, and Pre-Members. Someday our guild may officially expand to other member-run spaces, but the Guild for Good lives anywhere folks and their communities are collaborating for the benefit of the common good.

The Guildhall:

Our ~7,000 sqft guildhall is a standalone building in Hell’s Kitchen, a specially designed multipurpose space created to meet the multifaceted needs of our community of makers, thinkers, creators, and doers.

The ADA accessible ~2,700 sqft ground floor space has hosted symposiums, conferences, exhibitions, lectures, panels, performances, screenings, parties, and 50+ person seated dinners. It also features a ~500 sqft street level cafe and pop-up space. The 2nd floor collaboration space offers two conference rooms and a classroom/multifunction space for meetings, workshops, yoga, meditation, presentations, and classes. There is also a shared arts workshop, digital design rig, recording studio, maker resource library, and community rooftop garden.