Dear Members and Community,

In this national time of mourning, The Food Co-op joins the world in grieving the tragic and senseless murder of George Floyd. We stand in solidarity against injustice, racism, discrimination, and violence of any kind.
 
Diversity and inclusion are part of our values. We see these as key to fulfilling our mission to nourish our community. We are doing the work to ensure every customer and employee has a positive experience and feels included. We will continue to hold ourselves accountable to real action on behalf of our employees, our member owners, and our community to root out bias in favor of fairness for all.

The Food Co-op Board of Directors & Management.

This past week has been challenging for all of us in so many different ways, as we dig further into our feelings of overwhelm, anger and loss. Whether this comes from the effects of the Corona Virus (loss of jobs, livelihoods & the freedom to live the life that we are used to) or from the recognition of a much deeper divide both economic and racial in our country which is demanding our attention. Collectively and individually we were called to look at our own actions, to stand up for justice and decide how we want to live in this world.

Many of us, myself included, will never understand the injustices that far too many people live with every day, including some of you in our Co-op community. But we have an opportunity here to act, to listen, to learn and to educate ourselves. We can support groups doing important work in our community. And we can realize that there is much to learn and commit to doing our part in changing that paradigm.

We are committed to making the focus of our staff trainings in 2021 be based on our value of inclusion which states “we want to welcome and include our whole community”; we look  forward to learning how we can be both more welcoming and increase access to the good food that we sell.

Cooperatively yours,

Kenna, GM