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.

December General Manager’s Report

Working Together to Nourish our Community

Market Relevance

We are super excited that in the second half of December we will be offering 38 different “Buy One Get One Free” (BOGO) food items, or you could call it “buy one, gift one,” for a fresh holiday twist. All 38 items are Co+op Basics, shelf-stable, pantry-friendly items like rice, beans, coconut milk, and toilet paper! We’ll need to make room for these in our already tight storage facilities, but we’re ready for the challenge because we know our shoppers will be excited to stock up.

We’re rounding out the year of Community Cook with a Nouveau Baking booklet featuring our culinary educator Sidonie Maroon’s innovative ways to bake traditional favorites. Using whole foods, the recipes provide more vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein than conventional baking. For those needing a little more guidance, we have created video tutorials, available on our web site (www.foodcoop.coop).

Finally, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue our curbside shopping service, Coop2Go, at the end of this year. The last pickup date will be December 30th. We’ve enjoyed working with shoppers over the past few years, learning how to best meet their needs and help them with their shopping lists. However, it takes between 20-30 hours per week to maintain the website and process the orders, and with our limited resources, it just isn’t sustainable for us.

Food System Development

This month we have a few new Local 5 products and vendors to celebrate! 

Chimalow Produce is back with seasonal items like yacón. They are also providing the deli with some produce. 

Hope Rising Microgreens from Port Angeles is bringing us several varieties of fresh microgreens. 

Goodness Tea, from Sequim, recently refreshed their packaging. We have three of their herbal tea blends, all with some locally grown or wildcrafted herbs. They are making chocolate now too—we will bring in a few flavors as soon as we can make room on the shelf. 

Several months ago, Island Time Coffee, from Whidbey Island, dropped off samples. Our tasters raved about the Salish Orca medium-dark blend, and we have just received this coffee for our shelves. Island Time donates 10% of the proceeds from this coffee to the Orca Network. 

Wild Crow frozen fruit pies will be arriving soon. We are trying these seasonally. Wild Crow, from Whidbey Island, has been providing the spanakopita we sell in the deli for more than two years. While not cheap, these deep-dish pies are worth every penny!

On a sadder note, Dungeness River Lamb Farm had a very poor apple harvest this fall, so we won’t have any of their bulk apple chips to sell after the current stock runs out.

Thriving Workplace

Exciting news—James R., our sommelier, has accepted the position of Grocery Manager. James stepped into his new role at the end of November, and we’re excited to see how the grocery team grows under his leadership. In other workplace news, Carolyn P. has returned as interim HR manager, supporting the HR staff until we can fill the HR manager position.

Environment

The designs for the awnings over the north door and the receiving door, as well as a replacement trellis, have been submitted to the city for permits, and we are currently accepting bids on the scope of work. While the design phase took longer than I had hoped, I am confident that the external additions will withstand any amount of wind and rain!

Outreach

After four busy years of work, the JUMP inclusive playground had its grand opening Friday November 18th. Co-op marketing staff have been instrumental during in helping bring this playground to reality. Andrea S. attended the event and live streamed the celebration for all to see. 

Andrea also attended a recent Food Summit convened by the Jefferson County Heath Department. The Food Summit brought together people helping to reduce food waste and food insecurity in our county. We know a lot of edible food still goes into the landfill due to a lack of ways to get it to the people who need it. Organizations with surplus edible food—grocery stores, restaurants, caterers, schools, hospitals, farms, gleaners, etc.—joined those who serve people in need of food—food banks, churches, shelters, community organizations etc.—to share generate ideas to help solve this problem. More information to come.