In this 13-minute video Bonnie Hudspeth shares some key strategies in launching the community participation efforts at the startup Monadnock Food Co-op and how those ideas relate to all our co-ops.

Hudspeth, a startup champion from the Monadnock Food Co-op in Keene, N.H., and a staff member at the Neighboring Food Co-op Association thinks long established co-ops and startups both need to continue to engage their members and community about its vision. She outlines how the power of relationships give co-ops an incredible opportunity to show how co-op values, purpose and growth yield great community benefits.

Hudspeth argues that startups bring a lot of value to the co-op movement, by introducing new communities to the co-op idea. “We need to remind people what they are part of—a whole co-op movement,” Hudspeth said. “My perspective from going from working intensely in one community and going through the process to building that founding group of board of directors with a vision, to reaching out to different networks and continuing to reach out to our members to give them a sense of what they’re a part of, the bigger picture.”

“What do startups bring to the movement? I think what they bring is a necessity to focus on member outreach and member engagement.”
—Bonnie Hudspeth, Monadnock Food Co-op, Keene, N.H., and Neighboring Food Co-op Association

Watch the video