Staff Profile: Nate Horwitz

by Christy Articola

Nate Horwitz lives and breathes the Honest Weight Food Coop. And thank goodness! Thanks to his great enthusiasm for and dedication to his position as Member Coordinator, new members are recruited, trained and organized. And, because of his efforts, everyone who wishes to work at the Coop is given the opportunity to do so. As we are all well aware, member workers are the heart and soul of our little slice of heaven, and coordinating our involvement here is undoubtedly no easy task! However, Nate very obviously loves what he does, and he is just the man for the job. In addition to determining labor needs and filling open member labor slots, Nate also takes care of store marketing and advertising, and organizes yearly member events such as the upcoming annual member dinner on November 5. However, despite his wide range of responsibilities, he takes it all in stride.

Nate first became involved in the Coop in the late ’80s when he was a psychology student at SUNY Albany. At the time, there was a coop on SUNY campus and his college roommate, John Drucker, was president. It was John, who was also a member of Honest Weight at the time, who introduced Nate to our Coop — and the rest is history. Nate was a member throughout his college years, and he became an employee in 1991.

Over the years, Nate has worked in nearly every department. During his time as a member worker, he remembers spending a great deal of time draining tofu in produce, doing store inventory and working as a cashier. “I remember almost an entire year when all I did was bag raisins,” he recalled with a laugh. As an employee, he worked as Nancy Reich’s assistant in grocery, as ombudsman, and was even Front End Manager for a year or two before taking on his current position.

Nate grew up in Queens, but he’s lived in Albany since college; he currently resides with his wife, Amy, and his son, Eli, age 2½. He rides his bike to and from work every day — “I’m notorious for being a bad driver, in fact,” he adds. He admits that he has little free time, but when he does, he enjoys baking — and he buys lots and lots of the Coop’s whole wheat pastry flour to create fresh-baked culinary masterpieces. Although he is not a milk drinker, there are often several glass bottles of Meadowbrook Milk in his cart for Eli, as well.

Back to index

CoopScoop Home
CoopScoop Archives
Behind the Scoop
Guidelines for Article
     Submission