welcome to the May Day Cafe workers coop
May Day Cafe is where Powderhorn gathers. It has been a staple of the Powderhorn neighborhood in Minneapolis since the 1990s, when it opened in the space that had previously been home to the Powderhorn Food Co-op. The cafe has been loved and supported by generations of neighbors who have come from near and far to enjoy food, baked goods, and drinks from our scratch kitchen - or just to hang out and chat with old and new friends.
When May Day was put up for sale in late 2023, workers began organizing a year-long campaign to transition the cafe to a worker-owned cooperative. The Cafe has been open for business and worker-owned and operated since January 2025! We are so excited to carry the powerful legacy of May Day Cafe into a new era, rooted in worker dignity and with deep love for our community.
Members of the Powderhorn Food Community Co-op in the current May Day Cafe space rally to defend it. Minnesota Historical Society.
OUR Cooperative ethic
The May Day Cafe Workers Cooperative mission is to be a home for dignified and meaningful labor, affordable food, and community connection in the heart of the Powderhorn neighborhood. We strive to contribute to a thriving and more powerful economy of worker cooperatives in Minneapolis, while using our physical cafe space to become a true “third space” - one that is welcoming, accessible, and fosters neighborhood interdependence.
Food is at the center of what we do. We seek to respect ourselves as workers, our customers, and our broader ecosystem:
- As workers, we value food that is made with care and love for the food and ourselves
- For customers, we value food that provides comfort, nourishment, and dependability
- For our ecosystem, we value food that is sourced from our community, where people and planet are treated with respect
As a worker-owned cooperative we are proud to be part of a long labor tradition of workers organizing their workplaces by and for themselves. We believe in the worker-cooperative model as a way to uplift worker power and dignity, build stronger and more resilient communities, and actually meet the needs of ourselves and our neighbors. Support your local worker-owned co-op!
Our Campaign to Buy the Cafe
Fall 2023 - February 2025
The process of May Day Cafe becoming a worker-owned cooperative was a year and a half in the making. We organized as workers, connected with our neighbors, learned so many ins and outs of business ownership and property acquisition, launched a massive and successful fundraising campaign, and transitioned our operational structure to accommodate this new business model.
The lessons of being part of this campaign are many, and over time we hope to document and archive these lessons publicly as we support other workers to transition ownership of their workplaces as well.
For now, check out these links to see some media coverage of the campaign:
Neighbors gather to support the May Day Cafe coop fundraising effort at a celebration in fall 2024. Craig Bares Photography.