Ten years ago, the Assabet Co-op Market recruited its first member-owners in the small mill town of Maynard, Massachusetts. Today, the co-op boasts more than 2,100 member-owners from 40 communities, and this spring they’ll celebrate the grand opening of their 8,000 square-foot grocery store along the Assabet River.

“It’s been a pure grassroots effort from the beginning,” says Lorne Bell, the co-op’s operations coordinator. Bell estimates that he and co-op volunteers have “tabled” at more than 500 farmers markets, festivals, and community events over the years.

That face-to-face community outreach—coupled with an emphasis on values important to owners, like supporting local farms and increasing healthy food access for all, regardless of income—has built a loyal following. The co-op has also succeeded in raising more than $2 million in interest-paying loans from its owners, a testament to its members’ commitment to cooperative economics.

But despite these successes, the co-op is facing stiff headwinds. As construction kicked off in 2022, pandemic supply chain issues caused construction costs to increase an unprecedented 80 percent. Steel materials alone, which make up a large portion of the store’s equipment and framing, have increased an average of 200 percent since the pandemic began. Manufacturing delays for crucial store equipment pushed the original opening day from Summer 2022 to Spring 2023, adding to the store’s costs. All told, the project’s costs increased more than $1 million above expectations.

“It was devastating, and it remains a challenge,” Bell says. “But if we’ve learned anything from the ups and downs of building our co-op—and from other amazing startup stories across the country—it’s that we only fail when we quit. Our board isn’t quitting, and our co-op community isn’t quitting. So we’ve had to get creative.”

That creativity starts with General Manager Sam McCormick, who moved to the Boston area to take the position after successfully managing the Mariposa Food Co-op in West Philadelphia. McCormick also brings invaluable experience as a former green construction manager, and Assabet Co-op worked tirelessly to “value engineer” the project, cutting costs at every turn while construction costs continue to rise.

“We’re not getting the Cadillac of co-ops anymore, but that’s ok,” says McCormick. “We’ll have the Toyota of co-ops, where everything works and works well, without the frills.”

McCormick, Bell, and the board have also been creative in meeting the store’s fundraising needs. After a large $250,000 donation from an anonymous supporter, they launched the “Bridge the Gap Campaign” in Fall 2022, an effort to close the remaining $1.75 million funding gap. The co-op’s national fiscal sponsor, the Cooperative Development Fund of CDS, is accepting donations from across the country, while the Cooperative Development Institute can accept donations from Massachusetts residents.

The Bridge the Gap Campaign has raised just over $200,000 so far through traditional contributions as well as contributions from donor advised funds and qualified charitable donations from retirement accounts. Donations of stocks are also accepted. In March 2023, in response to owners’ requests, the co-op opened a Spring owner loan campaign to raise $400,000 in before opening day. Grants, state funding, and traditional debt are also being pursued. And talks are underway with a local mutual bank to establish a co-branded CD, which would allow owners to make CD deposits that open additional low-cost bank lending for the co-op.

“The other factor, of course, is our shoppers,” says Leah Ciappenelli, board chair at the Assabet Co-op Market. “We’ve done five or six tours of our store under construction, with hundreds of owners coming out to see the progress. And I’ve never tired of telling them, ‘We all need to give and invest as much as we can. But the wildcard is our commitment to shopping here. If we shop this store like we own it, because we do, and if we continue to rave about our co-op’s products and values to friends and neighbors, we’ll have no problem making our store a thriving success for the long haul.'”

Ben Sandel, a Columinate consultant to the Assabet Co-op Market’s capital campaign team, agrees. “Even as there have been setbacks and cost increases, the folks at Assabet Co-op have kept a positive outlook and brought creativity and persistence to overcome their obstacles. They also continue to tell the story of their co-op over and over again, which is crucial to building and keeping strong local support.”

To help the Assabet Co-op Market meet its fundraising goal—and support all of our shared values around local farms, healthy food access, and community—head to the giving page for CDS here and select “Assabet Co-op Market” in both fields.