By Kenna Eaton, General Manager of 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.

April General Manager’s Report

Working Together to Nourish our Community

Market

The Food Co-op continues to work diligently with our partners at NCG (National Cooperative Grocers) to provide a wide variety of high-quality, lower-priced items to our shoppers, which are identified on our shelves with the purple Co+op Basics signage. Many of these are the Field Day brand, a certified-organic (when possible) product line that is in essence our house brand. In March, seven new Co-op Basics products arrived—tortilla chips (blue & yellow) , albacore tuna (salt & no salt), paper plates, bowls, and cutlery. You can find these on the new-items shelf, located next to the egg case, and then they will transition to their permanent spots in the next few weeks. We’re also super excited to offer another BOGO (Buy one get one free) event from April 19 to May 2—this time on self-care and wellness products.

Reminder:  The kitchen maintenance project is going ahead as I mentioned last month. The kitchen closed early Sunday evening on April 9th. All food production has moved offsite for the week, and while we will continue to produce most of the deli offerings you love, there will be no hot food or soup until we reopen, which we hope will happen Saturday, April 15, after getting approval from our Health Department. 

Food System Development

One of our goals is to strengthen the local food system by bringing in Local 5 products whenever possible. What a great array of new local products we have gotten in the last month!  From Chimacum Valley Grainery (previously Finnriver Grain), we have four varieties of bulk pasta, packaged fusilli, and packaged pastry and spelt flours. They are transitioning to beautiful new labels highlighting the swans that visit the valley in the winter. We plan to switch several of our non-local bulk flours and grains to CVG products, as their supply permits. 

And now we have over a dozen flavors of jam—sweet & savory—from Gray Fox Farm in Beaver Valley and SpringRain Farm in Chimacum. Much of the fruit was grown on those farms. And lastly, RainCoast Farms’ first vintage wines, with four varietals, are now available in the store. These wines are extra special because the grapes are grown locally. WOW.

Thriving Workplace

Now that we are able to hold in-person meetings again, our supervisors—managers, team leaders, and assistant team leaders—have been meeting monthly to catch up on multiple training courses that were postponed or only available on-line during the pandemic. These group meetings are a great way to help build our skills as teachers and leaders. Additionally, we’re looking forward to reviving our Fun Committee—this group of staff work with our HR team to find fun ways of thanking our teammates for their hard work.

Outreach

Our Marketing Manager, Andrea, has been working with the Food Innovation Class at Port Townsend High School, where she is mentoring kids on how to bring a local product to market. Our team—Baby Burger Bar—is almost ready for market day, finishing up the logo and finalizing the product sourcing. Burgers will be made with local vendor One Straw Ranch beef. 

Organically Grown Company came to the store and set up the first citrus fest since the beginning of the pandemic. It was fun to engage with our vendors and celebrate sunny citrus.

Community Cook is back, this time with the theme of Vietnamese! Recipes. Videos, recipes, and helpful tips on how to get started are now available on our website and in this season’s issue of Around The Table. Join in the fun and cook with us.