Night of Hope to spotlight Oakes’ contributions to cooperative development and community resilience. Washington, DC (September 18, 2025) –Community of Hope has announced that Vernon Oakes, longtime cooperative leader and General Manager of Columinate, will be honored with the Tom Nees Award for Exceptional Service at this year’s Night of Hope celebration on October 3, 2025.
Kevin Edberg and Cooperative Development Services: "We have been lucky to have Kevin and CDS in our corner all these years." Michelle Schry of National Co+op Grocers introduced the Cooperative Innovation Award and Kevin Edberg, who she described as the "longtime brain, backbone, and captain of Cooperative Development Services" (CDS). CDS is a nonprofit co-op development organization founded 38 years ago in Minnesota/Wisconsin, and it has had a profound impact for food co-ops and other ventures. What follows is edited from Schry's CCMA introduction:
Chris Maher, general manager of BriarPatch Food Co-op in California, won the 2024 Cooperative Service Award, presented at the Consumer Cooperative Management Association (CCMA) recent annual conference in Portland, Maine. This award goes to someone who has contributed outstanding and sustained work in consumer cooperatives. CCMA is presented by the UW-Madison Center for Cooperatives (UWCC) has served as an interdisciplinary teaching and research center for all sectors and types of cooperatives since 1962: https://uwcc.wisc.edu/
The Progressive Grocer Top Women in Grocery (TWIG) is a prestigious award giving industry recognition to grocery retail leadership, and this year's list includes one of Columinate's own, Rebecca Torpie. TWIG awards are granted annually to a generous number of women in a huge and diverse industry, from team leaders and store managers to senior executives. The 2022 awards were announced in June 2023.
By Dave Gutknecht Her name will be familiar to readers of this magazine—Marilyn Scholl has been a major contributor here for years, as well as the author of valuable food co-op resources such as the Patronage Dividend Primer and the Ownership Toolbox. Her professional leadership and many thoughtful contributions to cooperatives are receiving a deserved and lasting tribute. Marilyn Scholl is to be inducted May 2 into the Cooperative Hall of Fame, a national resource administered by the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF). For summaries of inductees for this year and past years, see www.heroes.coop. As that page says, the members of this select group [...]
The members of the CDS Consulting Co-op were deeply honored and humbled by the Howard Bowers Fund Award for Cooperative Innovation and Achievement bestowed on CDS CC at the Consumer Co-op Managers Association conference in Madison, Wisconsin, this past month. It is certainly gratifying to be recognized for the programs we instigated, like Cooperative Board Leadership Development (CBLD), Four Pillars of Cooperative Governance, and [...]
Bill Gessner likes working with people, and most of the time, you’ll find him wherever groups are creating plans for the future. Throughout his career, Bill has worked with hundreds of food co-ops and many development organizations. It is not an exaggeration to say that his ability to work with diverse groups of people has helped the food co-op sector grow and thrive. He [...]
Last month the food cooperative sector was unanimously thrilled to learn that CDS consultants Walden Swanson and Kate Sumberg are to be inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame at a ceremony in April 2008. Recommendation letters poured into the hands of the selection committee at the Cooperative Development Foundation from food co-op leaders as well as people in the housing, finance, wholesale and agricultural [...]
