Maryland Food Collective

In August 1975, Matt Mayer, a student at the University of Maryland, College Park, submitted a proposal to the Student Government Association (SGA) for the formation of the Maryland Food Collective, which is today also known as the "Maryland Food Co-operative" or the "Co-op." Agitation for the formation of a campus-based food cooperative began in 1972 as the university began to consider mandatory board for all students. Diamondback Editor-in-Chief Chad Neighbor wrote in an editorial on March 2, 1972, that students wanted "viable alternatives to the starch, paper plates, lines, heat, and tired menus the food service offers." In the spring of 1974, a member of the SGA Executive Committee approached John Goecker, the Director of the Department of Food Services, for advice on setting up a food co-op. By the fall, the Department of Food Services decided that inflation made a grocery store untenable, so the SGA planned a record store co-op instead. At a mid-September meeting with Goecker, students living in the residence halls expressed their displeasure with the food quality, sanitation standards, and customer service they experienced while patronizing food service. The following week, news broke that the food facilities within the Stamp Student Union were in danger of being closed down for not meeting Prince George's County sanitation standards. In October 1974, the Rainbow Food Co-op, located in Riverdale, Maryland, considered relocating to College Park with funding help from the SGA, though the plan ultimately failed. In August 1975, Matt Mayer submitted an official proposal for a food co-op was to the SGA. It is believed that the precursor to this official proposal was a "Guerrilla sandwich line" that formed in 1975, prior to the offical sanctioning of the Co-op by the SGA, as a protest to the monopoly of the University Dining Services. It supposedly consisted of people making sandwiches at home and selling them out of baskets in the Student Union.

Today, the Co-op continues to operate on the University of Maryland camp, independent of the university and the Department of Dining Services. It is a member of NASCO, the National Association of Student Collectives.

Maryland Food Collective, popularly known as The Co-op, was a worker-owned collective at the University of Maryland. The organization was founded in 1975 under a cooperative business structure with the goal of providing nutritious food. It operated under the motto, "Food for people, not for profit". It offered vegan and vegetarian sandwiches and hot meals, and also stocked a selection of organic and local fruits and vegetables, as well as snacks, beverages, and some dry goods.
In May of 2019, the food collective closed after attempting to negotiate with the Adele H. Stamp Student Union to pay off debts amounting to $40,000.