Are Maggie Gyllenhaal and other Brooklyn boldfaces shirking their shifts at the clubby Park Slope Food Co-op?
According to sources, Gyllenhaal is one of the many celebs and VIPs in the stroller-heavy neighborhood who send minions to work the two-hour, 45-minute monthly shifts required to maintain good standing with the co-op and gain access to its organic quinoa, kale, black futsu squash, Mutsu apples and other produce.
Neighborhood blogs first reported that co-op members were sending nannies, cleaning staff and personal assistants to work their shifts. Annoyed residents say the practice is out of control among the co-op’s wealthier members.
“Everyone in Park Slope is talking about the wealthy members of the co-op sending people in their place to do their shifts,” one groused. “[The co-op] doesn’t know how to do deal with it. The celebrities are sending other people. While Gyllenhaal has done shifts, she has also been sending somebody else to do her shifts.”
Another frustrated member told us: “I don’t have a cleaning lady or any staff to send. I had to hire baby sitters at night to take care of my kids while I did my shifts. It’s ridiculous!”
Other organic devotees say they’ve seen Gyllenhaal toiling away. “She definitely has done her own shifts,” one vegetarian spy said. “And she even brought her brother [Jake Gyllenhaal].” The source explained that Maggie Gyllenhaal does not “do her shifts on the floor,” but rather in “private areas” so as not to cause commotions, or spills, in any aisles.
But an insider said that “fancy members, like big actors,” can arrange “future time-off plans, or FTOP, so if they go on location, they can skip future shifts.”
A rep for Gyllenhaal told us, “She doesn’t have an assistant.” But when we asked if she was sending another stand-in, the rep said: “Who would go? She doesn’t have anyone in her employ except me, and I don’t do it.” A rep for the co-op told us, “We do not give out information regarding our members.”