45th Anniversary Stories: Rochelle Gerratt

The Good Tern Co-op: From Its Very Beginning, So Much More Than a Natural Foods Store!

Rochelle pictured in the Santa Fe National Forest

Interview by Julia Schulz

Rochelle Gerratt is regarded by many as the Mother of the Good Tern Co-op. Living in Camden from about 1976 to 1981, Rochelle was one of three Founders who signed the original incorporation documents for the Good Tern. Although she now lives in Santa Fe, she has visited Midcoast Maine often as a volunteer leader of group trips she developed for the Sierra Club. Rochelle and I recently had a lively chat, just before she headed out for one of her favorite pastimes: hiking in the mountains around Santa Fe. Her enthusiasm and regard for the Good Tern have not waned over the past 45 years!

We are thrilled to welcome Rochelle as our Special Guest at Good Tern’s 45th Anniversary Bash on October 4th, 2025.

Here is Rochelle’s story in her own words (edited by Julia Schulz):

“In either 1978 or 1979 while I was living in Camden and as a member of the Camden area pre-order buying club, I had this idea: Why did other towns in the area have a storefront co-op and we didn’t?

I developed a questionnaire that I distributed to all the members of the pre-order buying club to see whether there was enough interest in putting a new co-op store together. The results were overwhelmingly positive. I then distributed a notice to the members of the pre-order club to solicit volunteers for committees to do the necessary organizing work, including looking for a physical building, marketing and outreach to the local public, and looking for startup money. Several hard-working motivated folks volunteered immediately.

The momentum grew. I wrote articles for the local paper, spoke on the radio, and put up notices in local stores. I still remember the meeting at one of our committee member’s houses when several of us suggested names for our co-op. Hands were raised, counted, and “Good Tern Co-op” won. I think we all felt comfortable with that name.  

My primary intention for the Co-op from the start was two-fold: to create a community institution that was a comfortable place for people to learn about and buy healthy food and other commodities. And as Co-op members, a place to bring people together and feel invested in helping each other as well as the community at large. And that’s what it was. It was certainly a community effort to create it. And the energy was there.

We found the ideal vacant store in Rockland, which coincidentally had been the site of the first “supermarket” in Rockland. The store still had a walk-in cooler even though the building had had a subsequent incarnation as a laundromat. It just seemed like serendipity or fate was in our favor. I wrote the Fedco grant that gave us $5,000 for the first inventory. Studying the vendor catalogs, I wrote the first order of food and non-food items for the store.

There were a lot of like-minded people, those of us who came from cities: back-to-the-landers, they used to call us, although some people weren’t living on the land per se: same kind of values, same kind of outlook about life. And it was easy to find people who had the time and the energy to help get it going. Remember it was the late 70s: the co-op movement was strong, and health food was just coming on to being a little bit more accepted generally. And a lot of people were interested in that. It was just one step at a time, but there was nothing in the way. And then when it came time to create, to get the barrels and get the shelving and all that, people contributed easily because they had the skills. We were all very enthusiastic, all looking forward to the opening.

It had a feeling of an older building, an older store, narrow. I remember that the refrigeration unit was back in the left-hand corner. And it worked; it was amazing! And the register was near the front, of course, near the big windows. And we had two aisles with some barrels with bulk stuff in them. And I think a few non-food items, too, that we sold. And really that’s all I remember. And free parking, of course, out front.

The Good Tern opened its doors in 1980. A local artist presented us with a lovely painting of a tern which we hung up as the store’s sign above the front door. Unfortunately, it was stolen within the first week that the store was open.

I was also envisioning that the Co-op would be a place for opportunities for local growers and local artists to bring in their produce or their artwork and sell it. And when I was there as Manager, we did have local farmers coming in with their summer produce. That was good for them, and it was good for us.

I think I maybe worked there a year. I was the first Manager and the first President of the Board. I left in the summer of 1981 when I moved to Bangor to go to graduate school. I left Maine in 1982 to continue graduate studies in Berkeley, California. In the years since then I’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tucson, Arizona, and now live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Over the years when I visit friends in the Rockland area I always stop at the Good Tern and feel happy to know that this community organization is still succeeding in serving its community’s needs.

I’m really proud of how the Co-op has grown and succeeded since its start in 1980 and wish you all continued success.