September GM Report
by Kenna S. Eaton, General Manager for the Food Co-op
Each month, I report to the board on how we are progressing on our long-term goals, which we call our Ends. These Ends reflect our aspirations—what we want to accomplish—and they are what makes us different from a regular grocery store. We publish these reports as a blog to keep our member-owners up to date on what we are doing.
The reports are organized by our five Ends, although not all are discussed in every report. Our Ends say that, as a result of all we do—
- Our community is well-served by a strong cooperative grocery store, integral to the lives of our customers, our farmers, and our producers.
- Our community has a resilient local and regional food economy, supported by our Co-op and our community partners.
- Our staff and board have the knowledge, skills, and passion to make our cooperative thrive.
- Our members and customers are proud to shop at a local cooperative grocery that is working to reduce its impact on the environment.
- Our community is informed, engaged, and empowered to join us in making a difference.
September General Manager’s Report
Working Together to Nourish our Community
Market
New Co-op Basics items in August: Four paper products (bath tissue/paper towels), eleven bottled spices, and one new cracker. The “new items” shelf (by the egg case) will feature all paper goods in September to show off the new Field Day items.
Laura and Deb attended the NCG Convergence this year, and it was Laura’s first time. (NCG stands for National Cooperative Grocers, our co-op of food co-ops.) Several of the presentations focused on the benefits of having a diversity of suppliers, which enables co-ops to be more inclusive as well as providing a greater sense of belonging for our customers. Siete Foods, a family-owned business in Texas, told a compelling story about their first grain-free product, almond-flour tortillas. Their first order was for five cases of tortillas for Wheatsville Co-op, their local co-op in Austin. The family took a day to make the product and the tortillas sold out over the weekend. Now Siete employs 120 staff and has 52 products available from UNFI. They credit their success to Wheatsville Co-op, for being willing to take a chance on a start-up business and providing support in many ways.
Food Access: SNAP-Match will change at the end of this month. The current program, where SNAP customers can get $10.00 off eligible produce purchases of $10.01 or more, will be reverting to the previous program, where EBT customers get $5 off when they purchase $10.00 or more eligible produce with their EBT card. This change was driven by USDA rules and our POS provider—ECRS—was unable by the deadline to upgrade their software to take this discount automatically as required.
Food System
Local 5 vendor updates:
-Wild Crow Pie is unable to fill all orders due to staff shortages, so have (temporarily, we hope) stopped delivering off-island.
-NEW!!! Cearra’s cinnamon rolls, from Chimacum. We will sell these in the pastry case along with our other baked goods. The rolls were a hit when staff sampled them.
-Four flavors of Soul Cedar shrubs are back, a perfect cool drink for hot weather.
-Three new hard ciders/wine from Raincoast Farm: Asian Pear cider, English style apple cider, and Rondo Private Reserve red wine.
-The Grainery is now making regular deliveries of bread to us on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. They usually arrive around noon, still warm from the oven, and sell out fast.
Fun Fact: Did you know that Kinglet Chai (which began as Dragonfly Chai) was a Port Townsend start-up business? Now they are in Portland selling to several distributors, coffee shops, and other retail locations.
And local summer produce continues in great abundance—lots of blueberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and so much more. While cherries are finished for the season, Tonnemaker is beginning to deliver tree-ripened peaches, nectarines, a variety of sweet peppers, and first of the season apples.
Environment
The parking lot re-seal had to be rescheduled for August 22nd due to the damp, rainy weather. And for the past few weeks, Durashine has been re-polishing our concrete floors. This work takes place at night to not disrupt our shoppers. Many thanks to our staff who worked late several nights, taking displays off the store floor so the work could be completed and then putting it all back together the next morning. However, the floors look great, and we feel super clean and sparkly!
Reminder: Roundabout construction planned at the intersection of Kearney and Sims Way (SR 20) is still slated to begin mid-August and be completed by mid-October. However, as of this writing construction still has not begun. The roundabout construction is part of WSDOT improvements, but the City of PT plans additional work to the area around that intersection. We have their promises that there will always be at least one access point to all the businesses affected by construction, and we’ll try to keep everyone updated if anything changes.
Ocean Bottles, a certified B Corp based in the UK, makes reusable water bottles that actually help save the oceans. When you buy an Ocean Bottle reusable water bottle (on aisle 7 at the Co-op), you fund the collection of 1000 ocean-bound plastic bottles before they enter the ocean. Collectors in coastal communities exchange this plastic for money and get access to social resources such as healthcare, education, and financial support. Ocean bound plastic is collected, upcycled, or processed sustainability into new products such as desks. And every time you refill your bottle, more plastic is collected. In 2022 the Ocean Bottles contained 69% recycled content, and their goal for 2023 is 75%. See The World's Most Needed Reusable Water Bottle » Ocean Bottle.