General Manager’s Blog - January 2020
General Manager’s Blog
by Kenna S. Eaton
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 refreshed 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.
January General Manager’s Report
Market Relevance
We hosted our first wine tasting Saturday afternoon on January 25th. We’ve also scheduled tastings also for February and March. These are great opportunities for customers to meet James as well as our featured vendors.
When demos are not happening, look in the north entry for rotating displays featuring great deals and recipes, such as the special display “everything ginger” with 15 ways to use Ginger People ginger spread.
Photo by Elizabeth Debra Swanson, Red Dog Farm
Food System Development
Our 2019 numbers show that 9% of our total purchases came from Local 5 farmers and producers and that 19% of our farmers and producers are Local 5.
We still have a large gap in local eggs which we were not able to fill in 2019. We also will lose a important local cheese as Mount Townsend Creamery closes down.
So far in January, we have brought in seven new Local 5 products: one Iggy’s kombucha and six jams, catsup, relishes, and pickled veggies from Hopscotch Farm Cannery, a new vendor. Hopscotch was at the November Farm-to-Table event and introduced products there to the local cultivators from our Grocery
department.
We also brought in eight new Local WA products: five beer and wines, and three new flavors of Chuckanut cheesecakes from Bellingham.
Outreach
Cooking classes started with a BANG this year as we filled all of our classes. One class on zero waste living was taught by Lily O’Shea for her high school senior project. We also had a class on building a plant-based kitchen and one on boosting your immune system for winter health.
We were featured in some great articles in the local paper, discussing two programs we did with Blue Heron Middle School, recapping our multicultural meal series for teens, and noting our big $500 match-donation promotion with the Blue Heron Orchard, which saw a record breaking turnout for their Martin Luther King Day of Service mulching party.
