By Kenna Eaton, Food Co-op General Manager

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.

January General Manager’s Report

Working Together to Nourish our Community

 Market

We welcomed Jon Steinman, Author of The Grocery Story to our community this past weekend. At the Northwest Maritime Center and Finnriver we learned the art of Cooperative Dialogue and reconnecting with our community while thinking ahead to the future of Co-ops. Thank you for coming out to these events and we look forward to hosting Jon again in the future.

Food System

Local 5 is our designation for items grown or produced in our county or the four surrounding counties (Kitsap, Island, Mason, or Clallam). New local 5 items in the December included beef marrow bones and rosemary beef sausage, both from One Straw Ranch. Two Crows has their newest seasonal cookie—Winter Wassail—with a delicious blend of spices. Pane d’Amore is expanding their available breads to include sourdough rolls and rye daily, as well as kalamata olive bread once a week. The Grainery in Chimacum now has the capacity to bake bread five days a week. Monday through Friday we will have some combination of the three varieties they have available. And Wild Crow (Whidbey Island) fruit pies were back again in late December. 

Local WA is our designation for items produced or grown in Washington State. Most recently we added Seattle Bagels’ cinnamon raisin to our bread shelves (aisle 1).

Thriving Workplace

While Jon Steinman (see above for more information) is here in PT, we are also holding three work sessions for our staff and board. Jon’s sessions are expected to help us better appreciate the importance of food co-ops and the purpose they serve within their community, the food system, and the planet. The second part of the work session will unpack food prices—for instance, how they help support ethical sourcing and the wages and benefits we pay our staff. 

Environment

In December we joined CORA (Coalition for Organic and Regenerative Alliance), a program of the Tilth alliance. CORA serves as a strong voice advocating for policies and programs that support organic and regenerative work in Washington. CORA is committed to creating an advocacy platform that is a unifying force, bringing together multiple interests within the organic and regenerative community. As a member of CORA, we are committed to contributing to the development of a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector and plan to advocate on behalf of those policy priorities.

Outreach

During a season of gratitude and giving, we couldn’t be more grateful for our members and their generosity. 

Our “Change for Change” (rounding up at the register) program has been in place for five years, and November marked a huge milestone for the program. After many years of work with our IT team and our cash register company, we were finally able to get a question on our pay devices to enable customers to donate to this gifting program. Now we can help feed our community in a way we haven’t been able to previously, and we have finally completed a project we think will literally help feed our community for years to come.

For the end of 2023 any funds raised during October, November, and December will go to the Jefferson County Food Bank. Since to the question “Do you want to donate” was added to the pin pad at the register, we have seen donations increase exponentially. In October we brought in $200, but in November our members donated a total of $9,500. WOWZA!  These funds were distributed as 199 separate $50 Co-op gift cards given to food bank clients as a holiday gift from the Co-op community. Thanks again for working together to nourish our community!

Starting in the new year, any funds raised through Change for Change will go to The Food Co-op Farmer Fund Grant—a new program created to help our local farmers strengthen their capacity to produce healthy food, making our community more resilient. For more details on this grant, please check out our website at Farmer Fund (foodcoop.coop).