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.

April General Manager’s Report

Working Together to Nourish our Community

Market Relevance

New check stands were installed March 4 and 5. The previous stands came to us in 2000 from another store that no longer needed them, and we were glad to be gifted them, as we didn’t have the funds to buy new. Since then, they had been modified and re-laminated, but nothing could change their funky layout and poor ergonomics. Finally, we felt it was time to take that big step and make our cashiers work day just a little bit smoother and more functional. And perhaps just a little bit more hip looking. And so they are—both slightly retro looking and way more state of the art when it comes to doing the job we need them to do. 

Shields will likely remain at the register for the foreseeable future, but in the next few months we’ll be thinking about how to create functional screens that can both withstand the test of time and keep our staff protected.

As you are probably aware, the mask ordinance was lifted March 12. Announcements about the changes were sent out to members, signage was refreshed, and we moved into a new phase, where masks are optional for both shoppers and staff.

Note on Co+op Basics:  To support our new Community Cook! program, which launched with a celebration of Indian cooking, we brought in Field Day packaged red & green lentils. Also, we added three new Wild Harvest pet foods to fill gaps caused by out-of-stocks.  

Food System Development

We have 20 exciting products from 3 new local vendors this month. 

·        Fay Farm, Port Townsend, has a variety of soaps and CBD lotions/rubs. 

·        Kodama Farm, Chimacum, has several goat milk soaps, with a little story about a different goat on each label. 

·        Soul Cedar Farm, Quilcene, has several pickled products, a spiced pear butter, and a turmeric ginger shrub, which is their best seller at the farmer’s market. 

We also expanded our offerings of Eaglemount cider, Finnriver packaged rye flour, and a seasonal fresh blackmouth king salmon from Neah Bay, distributed by Key City Fish.  We added Britt’s kimchi and pickles to the products we order from the Puget Sound Food Hub.  Britt’s is located in Langley, and we will soon offer their pickles in bulk at the deli.

Plus we just received another 50th anniversary collaboration—the Jubil-bee honey pale ale from Propolis.  Check out the bees on the can!

 Thriving Workplace

At the end of March, we implemented a new “time and labor” tool to help us better manage all the things related to becoming and being an employee at the Co-op, such as onboarding and payroll. This new system feels like a great improvement, making both the HR and the finance teams’ tasks quite a bit easier, as well as making it easier for the staff to keep up to date on their benefits, pay, and schedules.

Department teams are beginning to meet in person again. For many teams, it had been over two years since they last met, so at the March managers’ meeting, we had a refresher on how to schedule and organize team meetings.

Outreach

The marketing team has been busy preparing to launch Community Cook! with recipes created by our culinary educator, Sidone Maroon. We began with Vegetarian Indian cooking in March. The goal is to build ties among community members through learning new food ways, sharing techniques, and discovering the joy of cooking. In addition to FREE recipe bags with spices and instructional booklets, Sidone and Abi have teamed up to create a series of (super cute) You Tube instructional videos. We are also excited that, in a new partnership, spice packets and recipes will be available at the City of PT Library, with no charge to library patrons. Also, as part of the marketing campaign to introduce the new program, we are offering everyone an opportunity to enter to win a Masala Dabba tiffin filled with aromatic Indian spices. Winners will be chosen on April 30th. 

And PARTY planning is in full effect! Danny Milholland, Party Master Extraordinaire, has teamed up with us to put on a great party out at the fairgrounds, so don’t forget to save the date for May 4th and help us celebrate 50 Years of Cooperation