Brooklyn Packers launched in 2016 as a Black-owned food distribution, packing and sourcing cooperative. When the pandemic hit, their six worker-owners pivoted their business model to meet the exploding demand.

(Editor's note: This story was originally published June 10, 2021, as part of a special report from The Real News Network. It is being republished by Elevate Dayton with permission.)

By Jaisal Noor, The Real News Network

We know that workers have been on the front lines of the pandemic, too often with no real say in the conditions they’ve had to face and the risks they’ve had to take. Meanwhile, the net worth of American billionaires has grown by over a trillion dollars since the start of the pandemic. How would a more democratic economy have responded to the current crisis?

How have co-ops in the food industry and in the care sector stepped up to protect their worker-owners? How have traditional businesses found a path through the pandemic through a conversion to worker ownership? How have worker co-ops created opportunities for those traditionally excluded or marginalized in the economy to build workplaces centered around dignity and democracy? And what challenges and setbacks have these nascent efforts to build a new economy facing?

Millions went hungry when the pandemic hit, but at the Black-owned cooperative Brooklyn Packers, workers rose to the challenge by packing thousands of meals a week.

In a sector known for exploitative pay and poor working conditions, people at the worker-owned cooperative are proving it’s possible to pay food workers decent wages, while not making work hell.

This story has been supported by the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems. Check out complete coverage from The Real News’ Jaisal Noor of how worker cooperatives rose to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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