August General Manager's Report
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 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.
August General Manager’s Report
Working Together to Nourish our Community
Market Relevance
All Food Service staff participated in multiple hours of training this month in anticipation of the revised WA Food Rules, including the new & exciting “vomit and diarrheal clean up" plan, new temperature tracking, new dating of ingredients, and new glass breakage clean up, just to name a few of the changes in the 100+ pages of rules. We greatly appreciate the dedication of our staff, who are stretched thin and tired after more than two years in pandemic mode, but come in every day to work hard to feed our community.
Staffing levels continue to be below our needs and those levels are also unpredictable due to more unplanned time off, including covid-related causes. Consequently, all areas of the Co-op are looking to reduce work loads while still keeping the shelves stocked. We have trimmed back the food service counter and hot bar hours to help staff focus on maintaining production levels and sanitation.
Did you know that you can bake chocolate chip cookies completely with Co-op Basics?
New Co-op Basics items this month include Field Day whole-wheat flour (5 lb.), almond butter, and skipjack canned tuna, both salted and no salt.
The Product Research Committee wrote up a brief history of our boycott policy including the boycott of Coke products (in place since approximately 2006) and submitted it with the C9: Civic Engagement & Action report to the Board of Directors for the August board meeting.
Food System Development
This month we received our 50th anniversary “Honey Jun” kombucha from BluJay, now for sale in the store. You may notice that the bottles have changed, just one of the many challenges of the supply chain for all producers. Serendipity Farm has begun asking for a deposit on their dressing bottles, so they can have more bottles returned for reuse.
We have added another flavor of coffee from PT Coffee, Moka Java dark roast. And on a bright note, local strawberries and raspberries are finally here – so sweet! Look for Silva Family Farm, SpringRain Farm, and Three Peas Farm.
Finally, I’m happy to report that we purchased $1,453,329 from our local farmers and producers in the 2nd quarter of 2022, an increase of more that $93k and close to 6.8% over Q2 2021!
Thriving Workplace
Following flooding in June at the Clay Street administrative building, we have cleaned and prepared the affected rooms for repair and rebuilding. In the meantime, the HR team made a temporary move to the Annex, which also allowed us to start planning a transition to digital records and filing, allowing us to decrease the number of large filing cabinets in our small spaces (which we hope not to move back to Clay St!).
Additionally, we’re pleased to welcome Jeanette H. to her new role as HR Generalist. Jeanette brings several years of HR admin and generalist experience, as well as grocery co-op experience, both as a store employee and as a GM! We’re looking forward to further growing a more robust, effective, and cohesive HR team.
And the Fun Committee broke the ice with FREE popsicles for staff in the break room, just to beat the heat!
Outreach
We decided to keep it simple this summer, after finalizing the annual report and elections materials, but now we’re gearing up for a “Community Cook Greek” with a Greek Essentials Starter Kit give away, recipe booklet, social media campaign, etc.
The wine club is in full swing – new options are coming out for August – you can read James’s blog to learn about his choices. Wines will be available on the shelf after club members have enjoyed their selections.
Donations to local non-profits this month included a sponsorship to the Port Townsend Film Festival. We freshened up the Change for Change, where customers can round up the register for our Farmer Fund and this quarter support local farms One Straw Ranch, Dharma, and SpringRain. And we are gearing up for the Grow Fund applications opening in August. Being short staffed like the rest of our teams, the marketing crew found they can reuse some of our evergreen messages and materials to streamline and keep it simple for an easy peasy breezy summer. At the co-op we are all about celebrating summer!