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Are Park Slopers Sending Their Nannies on Food Coop Shifts?

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The golden rule of the Park Slope Food Coop is that anyone who wants to shop there has to volunteer for two hours and 45 minutes every month. But according to Fucked in Park Slope, certain locals might be outsourcing the work. It's not the most well-sourced rumor, but it sure is a juicy one. Writes FIPS:

One of my BREEDER friends has a new babysitter who works a few days for another family in Park Slope. And she hangs with their nanny, who hangs with all of the other neighborhood nannies. And apparently, there's this big dirty little secret amongst the Park Slope Gliterati: many of the well-to-do families in the area who have full-time help, routinely send their nannies and/or their housekeepers to do their Coop shifts.

That sounds like it ought to go against the Coop's collective Utopian vision—but longtime members might recognize the loophole here. As Park Slope Food Coop General Manager Joe Holtz points out, some nannies actually have to be Coop volunteers. That's because the Coop requires every adult in member households to participate, whether the household consists of three twentysomething roommates or a family with a live-in nanny. So while it's against the rules to pay a housekeeper to do your shift, if you've got a Swedish Au pair living in your Lincoln Place brownstone, then she better be pulling her weight.
· COOL OR NOT COOL: Having Your Nanny Do Your Coop Shift?? [FIPS]
· All Park Slope Food Coop coverage [Racked NY]

Park Slope Food Coop

782 Union Street, Brooklyn NY