OP1000 50 YEARS OF RAINBOW

DeAnna and Anna met on an online community group and became fast friends, sharing a love of cooperative business models, puzzles, birds, and more. They conceptualized this image and took photographs around Rainbow Grocery Cooperative to create this rainbow gradient puzzle to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the store. Once the photos were taken, Innosanto Nagara put them together into a collage. This 1000-piece puzzle measures 19.7x27.6 inches and is grid cut.

Rainbow Grocery Cooperative is a San Francisco institution recognized as a Legacy and Green business coming out of The People’s Food System of the 1970s. Rainbow opened its first storefront in 1975 on 16th Street near Valencia. Rainbow opened with volunteer labor at a time that there was no natural foods industry and was a healthy vegetarian alternative to the typical grocery store.

In 1983, Rainbow made the move to Mission and 15th Streets with the support of customer loans. With 105 workers it was the biggest health food store in the city. In the 1990s Rainbow officially incorporated as a California Cooperative and on April 25th, 1996 Rainbow opened its current location at 1745 Folsom Street. With over 200 worker owners Rainbow Grocery Cooperative is one of the largest worker-owned, collectively-run, cooperatives in the US. Because of our workers and our community we continue to thrive today.

About the Artists

DeAnna Tibbs (left) is a 3rd-generation Bay Area photographer and a partner of Oakland Puzzle Company. Her focus is on landscape and nature photography, but she also loves still-life and portraits. She lives in North Oakland with her husband, daughter, three cats, and a dog. She covets paper maps and blue cheese.

Anna Costa Rowan (right) is an artist, sewist, amateur photographer, and bird nerd who lives in Oakland, California. Anna has been a worker owner at Rainbow Grocery Co-op in San Francisco since 1996 and currently works as their Book & Gift buyer. She was previously a member of the Cheese department, Office department, and served over 15 years on various organizing committees including the Board of Directors.