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Cultivate Your Community

Everyone Welcome? Personal Narratives about Race and Food Co-ops

By |2023-05-05T20:06:12-04:00August 30th, 2017|

By Jade Barker and Patricia Cumbie We believe that now is a critical time to engage our cooperative community in important conversations about racism and oppression. Everyone Welcome? Personal Narratives about Race and Food Co-ops presents a variety of perspectives on what can be done to make food co-ops more racially inclusive. Fifteen co-operators from a variety of backgrounds — class, gender, race, ethnicity, [...]

The Cooperative Advantage

By |2023-05-05T20:06:14-04:00August 24th, 2017|

Sometimes the obvious isn’t so obvious. Just because we have co-op in our name does not mean that people will really understand what that means. The formal definition of a cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. But we need to give that meaning life. [...]

Everyone Welcome? Considering Race and Food Co-ops

By |2023-05-05T20:06:17-04:00July 12th, 2017|

Three years ago, we were participants in a workshop designed to raise awareness of racial bias, particularly in progressive organizations. As part of that Training for Change session in Minneapolis in 2014, everyone was asked what we would like to do as next steps. Part of our professional work as consultants is to bring a variety of people together in co-ops to better [...]

Making Smarter Strategic Decisions through Board Engagement with Owners

By |2023-05-05T20:06:24-04:00June 2nd, 2017|

When boards and management make decisions with the long game of co-op impact in mind, a powerful relationship with owners can develop. Strategic decision-making can be an opportunity to build a strong, participatory co-op culture that understands that the leadership is obliged, by virtue of its fiduciary responsibility, to make decisions to benefit the co-op and accordingly, its owners. Owners typically have high expectations [...]

Cooperative Ends, Impact, and Telling the Story

By |2023-05-05T20:06:31-04:00April 12th, 2017|

An individual member-owner or customer or vendor could probably describe how the co-op impacts their life: This is where I get the food that feeds my family. Or, I see all my friends here. Or, this is the center of my community. Or, I make my living by selling my products here. But how can the co-op describe the collective impact it has on [...]

From Credit Union to Community: Stories of Impact

By |2023-05-05T20:06:34-04:00March 29th, 2017|

At the Local Government Federal Credit Union in Raleigh, NC Michael Spink has the enviable title of Innovation Strategist.  In this brief video Michael shares a few stories of how the LGFCU is creating an impact in the lives and communities of its members.

Moving Forward Together

By |2023-05-05T20:06:35-04:00March 29th, 2017|

An historic proposal was floated among members of 3 Twin Cities food co-ops to merge their 3 distinct organizations into one co-op. Two of those co-ops chose to merge, in this video we get to hear from the one that chose NOT to merge. Eastside Food Co-ops John Lacaria and Carolyn Buzza share about their next steps in deciding how their co-op can create [...]

On Participation

By |2023-05-05T20:06:38-04:00March 28th, 2017|

In her work as a Participation & Engagement consultant for cooperatives, Rebecca Torpie gets to see many successful campaigns engendering authentic relationships between co-op stakeholders.  From members, to staff, to community members, the connections between these groups is so powerful, and Rebecca shares with you some of the best strategies from co-ops around the US.

New North Willy Street Co-op Serves Needs and Values

By |2023-05-05T20:06:45-04:00November 14th, 2016|

Willy Street Co-op Madison, Wisc. Year founded:  1974 Equity investment:  $56 single/$91 household + $2 service fee Number of members:  34,000 Number of employees:  420 Number of locations:  3 retails, commissary kitchen, central office Every day food co-ops must make decisions within the context of one of the most intractable dilemmas of the grocery industry.  How does the co-op reconcile customer desire for lower [...]

Including Members in the Ends Dialogues

By |2023-05-05T20:06:46-04:00November 2nd, 2016|

How is your board spending its time? It’s easy to get caught up in the delegation and accountability portion of a board’s job.  Yet there’s a whole other side to the work that is equally important, and the ultimate endeavor of the board: spending time thinking about the co-op’s desired outcomes, members and member needs. A board is accountable for results produced, but ends [...]

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