Staff Spotlight: Amy
Hi folks, my name is Amy, and I have worked at Wheatsville for just over 8 years; throughout that time, I've worked in a few different departments and collected a few skills along the way! I've worked as a bread baker, produce VAP clerk {think sliced and prepped fruits & veggies,) cashier, and now as a Manager on Duty where I help provide guidance and support to the front-end staff, and really anyone throughout the store.
Where are you from and when did you get to Austin?
I grew up in Central Texas, really the Middle-of-Nowhere during the 1980s. Where I grew up is all farms, prairie land, and big skies. I have lived in Austin for about 15 years but grew up only about an hour northeast of here, so I've been coming to Austin for years to go to local shows and be immersed in the local music scene.
What is your favorite product at Wheatsville?
Anything from Bouldin Food Forest. They grow various kinds of basil and other herbs, micro greens, and leafy greens all right down the road in Rogers, Texas. Peppery arugula, purple basil, and herb-infused bouquets of intoxicatingly beautiful flowers are on my shopping list literally every week. Down the road a stretch in another direction in Fredonia is Buena Tierra Farms.
We get potatoes, squash, kale, and radicchio (just to name a few) from them and they are stellar quality. I'm always on the lookout for their purple potatoes--they make any potato dish instantly more magical and nutritious!
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I'm pretty reserved so I'm sure there is a lot people don’t know about me. Aside from my Wheatsville life I've worked in the past with local drag queens and theatre companies doing hair, makeup, and costume design. I enjoy slow things like birdwatching, reading, dreaming, and cloud-gazing. I'm usually obsessed with/and researching some particular facet or niche of one of my revolving doors of intense interests: genealogy (I've mapped my family tree for several generations,) history, literature (lifelong love of the Romantic poets,) philosophy, music {jazz, punk, rock n roll in its various iterations...but most recently I've been exploring the works of Liszt and other Romantics,) folklore, workers' rights, subversive counterculture throughout time, Giallo films. I'm obsessed with the ocean and dream about it nearly every night.
Why Wheatsville? What appeals to you about the cooperative model?
To borrow a comment from one of my co-workers, where you sell your labor matters. I've never envisioned myself working for a corporation where all the money, authority, and power is funneled to the top while being built on the labor of others, and without regard for their concerns. A co-op fundamentally does not operate that way, and I appreciate that as consumers, owners, and workers we are empowered to use our voice if/when we feel compelled to do so. I like that community involvement is built into the way we operate, every day in myriad ways. Volunteering, collecting donations within the community, and donating our own time, money, and space to local organizations is a huge part of what we do.
As far as my current role within the co-op, I like that I have an opportunity to hear my co-workers' concerns and needs, and can provide support and solutions. I think that the pandemic world has made evident, more than ever, how valuable workers are, and it is one of my big aims to really show up for my peers at work in a way that allows them to feel that their time and energy is appreciated, and that they are supported in meaningful ways.