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The following transcript is protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. Link to Audio and Episode Info Here
Show
Transcript
Deconstructing
Dinner Kootenay
Co-op Radio CJLY Nelson, B.C. Canada September
25, 2008 Title:
Co-operatives: Alternatives to Industrial Food V (The Common Ground Food Co-op) Producer/Host: Jon Steinman Transcript: Pat Yama Jon Steinman: And welcome to Deconstructing
Dinner, a syndicated weekly one-hour radio show produced at Kootenay Co-op
Radio, CJLY in Nelson, British Columbia and currently being rebroadcast on 29
stations across Canada and many more around the world. I'm Jon Steinman your
host for the next hour. On
today's broadcast we revisit with a series that has been ongoing here on the
show since early 2007 titled "Co-operatives: Alternatives to Industrial Food."
The Co-operative model of operating a business has long been an example in
Canada of how a community or a group of people can assume greater control over
their needs and resources. On
this part five of the series, we travel to Urbana, Illinois, and visit with the
Common Ground Food Co-op - a co-operative grocery store that had, up until
August of this year, existed quite literally underground for over 30
years. Well that's all changed, and the store now finds itself above
ground in a much larger location and having a much larger impact on its
community of farmers, producers, and eaters. We'll
hear from the Common Ground Food Co-op's General Manager Jacqueline Hannah and
Co-op Board Member Clint Popetz to learn more about
what it takes for a community to expand a small co-op into a larger one. And
we'll also learn just how integral a food co-operative can be in ensuring that
a local food supply can be economically sustained. increase
music and fade out A few quick
announcements and updates before we embark on today's show. We've long been
receiving encouragement from listeners to launch a Facebook
page for Deconstructing Dinner, and I can now announce quite happily that the
show does now have a presence on Facebook,
and all thanks to the efforts of one devoted listener from San Francisco who
made it all happen. And a big thanks to her for that. And so for those
of you who do network using Facebook, there
will be a link from the Deconstructing Dinner website to our new Facebook page and of course we're encouraging you to check
it out and help spread the word about the show to all of your friends and
on-line networks. And
on another note, for listeners in British Columbia who are interested in or already
involved in small-scale food processing, the Small Scale Food Processors
Association will be hosting a free introductory food safety workshop in
locations across the province over the coming months. Participants will learn
basic food safety theories, hands-on monitoring procedures, and the latest
information on employee hygiene and practices. Companies that do attend
will also be eligible for a free one-on-one site visits by a Food Safety
Consultant. And
more information on these workshops can be found on the SSFPA website at
ssfpa.net or by dialing 1-866-619-7372. And again that's 1-866-619-7372. And
a thanks to Candice Appleby of the SSFPA for sending this information along. Also
a few updates on what you can expect in the coming weeks and months here on the
show. I will be heading off to the B.C. coast for a whirlwind tour among which
will be a stopover in Courtenay to attend the Canadian Farm Writers Federation
annual conference with other fellow agricultural journalists from across the
country. As the host of Deconstructing Dinner I've been invited to speak on a
panel titled "Bringing Agricultural issues to the Mainstream" - certainly an
increasingly important topic and something that we've been of course trying to
do here for approaching three years now on the show. One of the interesting
sides to the conference is who's sponsoring it. Of the major agricultural
corporations helping fund the conference, there's a number of them, the major
financial supporter is none other than Monsanto, a company we've long been
critical of here on the show and one that will indeed lend an interesting
dynamic to the presence of Deconstructing Dinner at the conference. But
one of the agenda items at the conference that I'm of course most
looking forward to and which you can expect will act as a foundation for an
upcoming show is a tour of a salmon farm that a small number of delegates will
be visiting not too far from the city of Campbell River. Last we covered fish
farms on the show was way back in February of 2006 and of course a lot has
transpired since then including a pending lawsuit against the B.C.
Provincial Government by a number of petitioners, among whom, is Alexandra
Morton - the scientist who we heard from on that broadcast. And you can of
course expect more information on that when that future episode airs. And from
Courtenay, I'll be off to Cortes Island - home to Linnaea
Farm - a 315-acre land trust that is one of a growing number of community farms
across the province such as those recently featured on our most recent episode
on Co-operatives. The farm is home to some really interesting educational
programs and I'll be bringing back a wealth of recordings on what the farm can
offer to anyone wishing to learn more about farming. And also coming up
on the show will be part three of the Local Grain Revolution series. We'll also
hear recordings from the Kootenay Harvest Revival, which took place in Nelson
on September 19th and 21st and which celebrated the
monumental harvest of grain from Canada's first grain community-supported
agriculture project. And also stay tuned for some more installments on our
series covering the creation of GE-Free regions that is regions free of
genetically engineered crops. Back in January we introduced the GE-Free Kootenays group operating in the interior of British
Columbia who are making significant headway towards
creating such a region. Those efforts included a campaign launch back in July
with Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser. Of course
Deconstructing Dinner recorded that event along with an exclusive interview with
Percy and his wife Louise. So do
stay tuned for what looks to be an exciting upcoming few months of shows as we
enter into this fall season here on Deconstructing Dinner. soundbite Today marks part five of our ongoing series titled
"Co-operatives: Alternatives to Industrial Food." And it's a series that I know
I get great pleasure in hosting because we here at Kootenay Co-op Radio, we are
too a co-operative. And so I can say from first-hand knowledge that the co-op
model of governance and ownership can indeed bring a sense of community back,
into communities that have in many cases in North America, lost it. For those unfamiliar with the co-operative model, the most
common question is how does a co-operative differ from a traditional business?
And most importantly a co-operative is owned and democratically controlled by
the people who use the co-op's services, or by those working within the co-op.
A co-op is operated for the benefit of members and members have a say in
decisions that affect the co-op. In the case of food, co-operatives can
represent a refreshing alternative to the many concerning issues facing our
food supply today such as those Deconstructing Dinner explores on a weekly
basis. Now grocery store co-ops have been a feature here before as
part of this series. We met with the very successful Kootenay Country Store
Co-operative operating in Nelson B.C. and we also learned of the demise of a
co-operative, a food co-op in Madison, Wisconsin - the Mifflin Co-op. And today, we'll meet yet another food co-op, but this time
one that has just recently undergone a significant expansion. And its story
lends a very promising and inspiring sign that communities can indeed come
together and build their own co-operative grocery store or, as today's
case in point, even expand on one that already exists. The
urban area of Urbana-Champaign Illinois has a population of around 200,000
people, but up until recently did not have a natural food store easily
accessible to the public. All that existed was an underground food co-operative
that remained in the basement of a church for over 30 years and which only
served members. In late August of this year, 2008, the Common Ground Food Co-op
surfaced and now sits above ground in a brand new building, which is also now
open to the public. Of
course at a time where the economy in the United States is being hit hard and
loans are a hard thing to come by, the Common Ground Co-op implemented an
innovative financing model that sought close to half of its financial support
from members themselves. Certainly a sign of a supportive
community wishing to take greater control over their local food supply. The
mission of the Common Ground Food Co-op is to, "promote local and organic
production, foster conscious consumerism, and build community." I
spoke over the phone with General Manager, Jacqueline Hannah less than a week
after their new store opened in August, and she shared a history of the co-op's
early years. Jacqueline
Hannah: The
co-op was formed in 1974 and the idea was at the time, I was part of the
Illinois Disciples Foundation, which was kind of a student organization here in
town that was formed around the conscience of social injustices and promoting social
justice in the community. And the neighbourhood
around where the Illinois Disciples Foundation building was at the time was
very economically depressed. They were asked, they did
a survey of the neighbourhood and said, you know
"what do you most need?" And the number one answer was access to healthy,
affordable food. So it was started originally to meet the needs of that neighbourhood and there was a strong interest in healthy,
bulk foods as well as produce. So it started very small and mostly as a buying
club. There would be truckloads of the food brought in and everyone came to
pick up their food and take it that very day which is how a lot of co-ops
started way back when. It slowly grew into a little tiny store space in the
basement of the Illinois Disciples Foundation building and it has grown
throughout the years and the constituency has moved as the neighbourhood
has more and more towards people who were interested in organic food,
supporting local food movement. That transition happened slowly throughout the
decades until we get to the point now out main mission is to support local and
organic food and sustainable living and building community. JS: Many of the most successful
co-operative food stores today did get their starts as buying clubs, whereby a
small or large group of people purchased foods in larger quantities to help
reduce costs. Of course as any such model grows, the ability to manage
it can become rather unwieldy. In the case of the Common Ground Food-Co-op
though, their issue was not unmanageable growth, but a state of
stagnation and a lack of any management structure. JH: Well I would say I came in
2006. I would say the co-op wasn't necessarily near death but there was
definitely a stagnation. It was kind of an identity
crisis. We had been kind of an ad hoc collective people who ran the co-op. It
was constantly in flux and with different levels of effective and non-effective
management and it was really getting to the point where it wasn't sustainable
to function like that anymore. When I came in, from what we can tell from the
records that did exist financially, the co-op had barely keeping afloat, that
many years loans were being made to the co-op actually by some of the core
workers at the co-op and not necessarily were paid. And it had gotten to the
point where that was becoming very difficult to maintain and it was time to
really bring in effective financial management. There wasn't
steady hours so I would say there wasn't a consistent enthusiasm. There
were lots of people who cared about the co-op, wanted the co-op to be
effective, were passionate about it but, I think were getting a little weary
with the inconsistency and definitely there was a constant turnover and burnout
of the people who were working to keep it alive and some were having a hard
time getting kind of consistent management there. And a lot of what led to the "near
death" is just that there had been inconsistent management fiscally because we
didn't a formal management structure. It was just a constant change of people
coming through who made collective decisions. So there was no formal management
structure really focusing on making the co-op a fiscally healthy business as
well as a social responsible business. Also
for a long time the co-op had wanted to move out of the basement of that church
and was ready to do that to become open to the public - we were members only
until just a week ago. You had to be a member of the co-op to shop there and we
were not visible. We were in an interior space inside the church. Finding us
was very difficult. There was a wood sign on the outside of a brick building
and parking was far away and you kind of had to go through this little maze of
hallways to find us. It was quite an intimidating experience (laughs). And so
there hadn't been this urge toward movement and growth but we hadn't been able
to figure out how to make that move. And so it was more that sometimes a lack of
growth when you need growth can be something that really takes you to a crisis
point and that was what had happened. Actually, the co-op was seeing steady
slow growth and success. It just need to grow, it
needed to move on and open its doors to the public to take its mission out
there. And so the life was kind of being choked out of it by not making that
growth happen and being too small a space and too invisible a space. JS: And this is Deconstructing
Dinner. One of the greatest opportunities for the formation and expansion of
co-operative food stores that has arisen over the past few years is the result
of the growing interest and need to support more naturally and locally
produced foods. In other words, today, rallying a community together to make
something like a food co-op happen is easier than it seems. In the case of the
Common Ground Food Co-op, they were about to undertake a pretty significant
expansion, and there was surprisingly no need to grow their membership in order
to do so - they simply looked to their current members for support. And as a
result, it was the word on the street that the co-op was about to expand
that allowed the membership to grow without anyone having to actively
seek out new members. Also
on the line with Jacqueline Hannah was Common Ground Board member Clint Popetz. Clint Popetz:
I mean the idea of any co-op is always is to try to grow your membership but
what we started with we did a strategic vision process with our members over
the course of a summer in 2005 and we met with lots of people on several
occasions and drafted an enormously exhaustive lengthy strategic vision. And we
wanted to find out from them what they wanted out of their co-op. And what we
found was surprising because we'd expected there'd be some people who wanted us
to stay exactly as we were and there were some people who would want to us to
grow and be more successful and it turned out that everyone actually, at least those
that participated which was a pretty broad segment wanted us to get a little bigger,
to come out of the closet or out of the basement and be visible and be
accessible and broaden our scope and our audience. And so we took that as a
mandate, the Board did and that resulted in - there were other things in the
strategic vision as well and looking back on it I'm really proud of it because
we've implemented quite a few of them. We want to get to the point where we
have professional management, where we were paying management and staff better
and that their work environment was more coherent and more fulfilling. We're
not 100% there I don't think anyone ever is but we're certainly in a better
place than where we were before we hired Jacqueline as a General Manager. We
wanted to keep the same ideals that we had but operationally approach them in a
different fashion and rather than relying strictly on volunteer labour whenever we could, at any cost, we wanted to hire
people for the things that made sense in terms of consistency and
accountability. So through the process of hiring a General Manager and through
the process of really digging into what it would take to move out, I think we
did increase our membership because there was a lot of publicity about what was
happening as we started on our path toward relocation. It wasn't increased membership
in order to move but rather it was increasing membership came about as part of
moving because the number of people in this community who have known about the
co-op for 20 years have never shopped there because either they didn't know
where it was or found it just too inconvenient, is huge and we've been hearing
that for years. And sure enough the moment we started talking about moving a
lot of them actually did come in and join and said that I'm coming in and
joining and I might shop a few times but I'm really joining because I know that
you're moving. And so it came about that both things grew together I would say. JS:
It's a timely topic to cover the expansion of this particular food co-op here
on the show. Because here we are in the midst of a rather serious economic
crisis that is in large part due to the mismanagement of lending institutions
and perhaps at its core, a faulty system of economics that does not take people
into consideration. Enter the co-operative model, one that can look to the local
community and its members for financing. It's not uncommon for co-operatives to
look to their members for such support instead of some distant banking
institution without a face. But in the case of the Common Ground Co-op, they
did something rather uncommon, even in the world of co-ops, and that was
raising close to half of their financing needs
from 150 of the co-op members themselves. Here's General Manager Jacqueline
Hannah. JH:
In any expansion project or most expansion projects for a food co-op, usually
about a third of the financing actually comes from the membership in some form
or from the store itself. And that means the cash that you have in reserves,
you know cash from profitability. It also means equity money that you preserve
which is the money that has been invested by your members or by your owners to
become owners. Also by doing equity drives to bring in additional equity and by
doing member loan drives. And we did do that. We started a member loan drive in
January of this year and our goal was to bring in a quarter of a million
dollars, $250,000 in member loans which is unheard of from what we found in the
industry, in talking to other food co-ops and consultants who work with food
co-ops during expansion. It's actually an unheard of amount of money for a
co-op as small as we were. And so we did this, we did a membership loan drive
and the response was unbelievably positive. We were surprised. When I first heard that number, when I heard that I was suppose to
help raise a quarter of a million dollars in loans from our owners and from our
membership, that didn't seem real doable (laughs). I was - all right
we'll give this a shot, we'll see what'll happen. Then what happened
is that people came forward with just blinding enthusiasm to be part of it and
within ten weeks we had pledges for $250,000 worth of loans. It was an amazing
process to be a part of, watching a community come together like that and
invest in making a dream a reality for their community. So we
actually ultimately raised $270,000 in loans from our members that we paid back
in terms from five to ten years. As well as we brought in a great deal
of new members who invested their equity in helping us to move as well as
current members we, the Board voted to make it possible to purchase extra
equity shares. Usually when you become a member of a co-op you purchase one or
a set number of equity shares that are your investment in the co-op. And the
Board voted to make it possible to purchase up to ten extra equity shares at
$60 a piece that are non-voting shares - they didn't give you any extra weight
in voting in issues for the co-oper for electing
Board members. But as a way that you could invest in helping
to grow the co-op and have the money there for the relocation. And we
raised I think about $25,000 that way. There was also a great deal that came in
from donations, from individuals as well as local social justice organizations.
There was actually a buying club here in town that existed that actually was
started by a group of people who split off from the co-op at one point. They
had gone out and worked on their own and they dissolved in this last year and
they had a lot of equity left from their members and their membership actually
voted to invest or to donate all of their equity to supporting the co-op and
this growth. So it was just an amazing flowing/outpouring of money from the
community support - fiscal support from the community. We actually ended up
raising 47% of all the money necessary for the project amongst our members and
owners which is pretty unheard of amount. It's quite an accomplishment and a
testament to how much the community cares about their co-op and wanted this to
happen. JS: Other funding for the
expansion came from a local county job-creation organization, local banks, a
co-op development fund and even, the city of Urbana itself. Now
one of the greatest fears when any business increases in size, is that adhering
to the values that formed the business in the first place may be pushed aside.
I asked Board member Clint Popetz if this was ever a
concern during their planning stage. CP: When the Board had the
strategic planning process and actually throughout the times since then the
Board has been kind of aware of the question of how big is too big and identifying
our values and finding out are any of our values in conflict with being larger.
At this point actually we have not had any problem with that. Probably the most
difficult question - there are a lot of parts of being big that seem like they
would be problematic, that need a practical thing like is it too impersonal, do
prices get bigger, do prices get higher becomes we're getting bigger and things
like that. And it turns out of course they don't. Prices usually do better when
you get bigger because the scale works in your advantage. We are keenly aware
of how big is too big. I've definitely had the Board read "Getting To Scale" which is a great book on businesses that find
their niche in terms of scale. But the only question I would think that, you
know, is really present for the Board is, you know the product selection it
gets really, really diverse and we don't dabble in production selection, that's
something that we really delegate to management and because Jacqueline knows
much more about it than we ever could. We are aware of what is the balance
between local foods, natural foods, and processed natural foods. Like how much
of our space is being devoted to macaroni and cheese and frozen foods. Right
now we think we have a pretty healthy mix. We certainly have a lot more produce
for a store our size than equivalent stores. We have the same or more bulk food
than most stores our size. And beyond that we kind of see product selection as
having to maintain a balance between being easy to use and welcoming a wide
variety of people, but also always offering the opportunity to learn about how
to cook foods from scratch. And so we kind of feel both things have to exist in
the store and so we do talk about it but we're pretty happy with where it is. But
other than that one issue of product selection which is very difficult, product
selection is a really touchy issue and I think that's why it's good that the
Board doesn't touch it aside from setting guidelines on what our values and
what our goals are and mandating that the product selection reflects those, but
we don't actually choose the products. Beyond product selection, I don't think
there are any values we feel are in conflict with being larger. Our mission of
building community, of educating consumers, and of supporting local and organic
production are all better met through being larger so long as we are adhering
to the values we've established and we're meeting member expectations and we're
growing our presence in the community and our diversity, I don't think that there's
an upper limit. Now there's a practical upper limit to our store size. And the
space that we're in is not very adequate space that we have adjoining to it
that we can expand into, is about the limit of the size that we want to be. But
I think at that point we would probably start looking into finding people in
other parts of the twin city area who would be interested in opening a co-op
and helping them get to the point where they could if they would demand our
ability to serve it in that space. But I don't see that happening for a long
time. JS:
And you're
tuned in to Deconstructing Dinner, a syndicated weekly one-hour radio show and
podcast produced at Kootenay Co-op Radio CJLY in Nelson, British Columbia. For
listeners just tuning in, a reminder that Deconstructing Dinner now has a
presence on Facebook and so we are encouraging Facebook users to help spread the word about this
not-for-profit project to your friends and on-line networks. And a link to our Facebook page can be found on the main page of the
Deconstructing Dinner website. Today's
episode is part five of our ongoing series titled "Co-operatives: Alternatives
to Industrial Food." The feature for this episode is the Common Ground Food
Co-op located in Urbana, Illinois. The mission of Common Ground is to "promote
local and organic production, foster conscious consumerism, and build
community." In late August of this year - 2008, the store completed a
monumental move into a new and larger location. And the story of this expansion
is an inspiring one to encourage others, perhaps right in your own
communities to launch a food co-op or expand on an already existing one. Because
co-operative food stores are owned and democratically controlled by members
within the community they operate in, the possibilities for using the co-op as
a catalyst for increasing the local food supply are endless. This is exactly
what General Manager Jacqueline Hannah has recognized - that their expansion
will only help the Co-op better reflect their mission. JH: That's what's exciting to me
is I feel like growth for us allowed us to better meet our mission and that has
really been the response from our owners, from our membership as well. Already,
in the first week that we've been opened we're working with an additional six
farmers and many farmers are coming forward that we didn't even know about.
They had heard about us through the publicity of our growth, through the larger
store and are coming to talk with us about how they can start to sell their products
directly to our store. Now we are very lucky in that our location, I should say
we carefully selected our location, that we are
actually just across the parking lot from our thriving farmers market here in
our community. And so it has really helped our ability to partner with local
farmers and our visibility to those local farmers so they know where to find us
and what we do. So
it's been utterly exciting to me that we have already brought in so many new
farmers who are excited to work with us and excited to learn about what the
co-op does and how they can get involved and invested. And we're buying so much
more local and organic produce from local growers and really talking to them
about really planting whole extra crops for us next year. Really
being able to grow their capacity in helping us to grow our capacity. So
there's definitely been exciting growth in what we've been able to do in
supporting the local food networks and farmers already just in the short week.
You know I just can't believe what we are already doing much less what we are
going to be able to do in the coming year and years to come in this larger
space. And it's just been exciting to have so many local producers come forward
and to have the grapevine of information passing about the how the food co-op
is there to buy their product and to support their product and to educate the
community about their project. It's just been wonderful. And I
wanted to speak to a little more about keeping kind of our mission, our goal
and keeping the heart of what the co-op is with expansion. I think it
effectively has allowed us to better meet our goals to be larger. I am now able
to have a member of my staff who devotes, you know at
least 50% of her time to developing education for the community and for our
members. We're now going to be able to offer classes on how to use some of this
local produce, to educate people how to cook with it. We're going to be doing a
series of small classes on how to use bulk products and how to cook in a way
that is more economic for them as well as healthier for their families through
using bulk products which are very mystifying to a lot of people who haven't
been necessarily shopping natural foods for a long time. We're also going to be
doing classes on how to garden, how to use rain barrels, all about sustainable
living. And we're doing one on canning this coming month to help people that
actually purchased large amounts of local produce and fruit and can them for
the winter. Which again feeds into supporting the local food system
as well as a more sustainable way of living. It's just really exciting
how the growth has actually allowing us to better meet a mission that for a
long time that we believed in and we've done a very good job by but could have
gone a lot farther. JS: On
August 23rd the Co-op opened its doors to the community of Urbana,
Illinois and the response was astounding. Over 2,000 people came through the
doors and the comments from members and customers since then have been a real
testament to the impacts that Jacqueline speaks of, because there were people
within the community learning about farms in the area that they never knew
existed. Yet another important piece of how a co-operative grocery store can
catalyze a thriving local food system. JH: Well I will say, we had
Friday night we were open for three hours for a sneak peek to just our
membership which was a lovely experience having the entire community come out
and there really was a huge showing of our membership and of the community to
come out and take a look. And it was - I don't even know how to put it - it was
a very emotionally touching event to walk in and see what their hard work and
investment had created and to interact with the Board and with the staff who
had helped work with them to make it possible. It was really touching. And
then on Saturday we opened to the general public and now you have to understand
that we've never been open to the general public. So we opened to the general
public for the first time in history on the same day that we opened our new
expanded store. So we didn't know what to expect. And the buzz in the community
had been very positive. Every time friends or I were out in public we were
being approached by people who were wondering when it was opening and we can't
wait to come shop. We knew that there was definitely some enthusiasm in the
community for what we were doing. But when we opened our doors, we use to on an
average day maybe have 80 to 150 people who would come through the door, and we've
had well over 2,000 people show up on Saturday. The store was just body to
body. Many times the lines were snaking around the store to get to the registers.
It was just amazing. And there was so much interest and so many people coming
through. So
far what's been a little challenging is we opened the deli for the first time (laughs)
and we're making fresh food every day. Most of it made from organic and/or
local ingredients. We focus on local ingredients as much as we can. And the
enthusiasm for that has been very strong. And trying to keep up with that and
learn what we're doing back there and put that together has been a little bit
of a challenge. It's also been very fun (laughs). While challenging it's been a
blast. And people are responding to that really well. And it's been neat
because the building that we're located in actually also has a couple of health
insurance companies and local hospital organizations - they have offices here.
And so most of them are people who have a slight interest maybe in natural
foods but they really never spent time in a store that does natural foods on a
consistent basis and don't know a ton about it. And they've been streaming
through the doors to have lunch here. And we purposely built our kitchens so
the window - we have a large window from the kitchen into the area where our
food is displayed. And some of the conversations have just been wonderful. Many
of them you're talking about we say "oh there's local potatoes" and they'll go
"Oh from where?" And talking to them about this farm that they didn't even know
exists is right here in the town that they live and work in. And having them
show interest in that and you're kind of excited about that idea or share with
us that they grew up on a farm. And that their grandfather had been a farmer
and that this is kind of neat. That they never thought about this - they never
thought about where the food came from and here they were eating a potato soup
that was made from ingredients that were from a farm here in a little town not
far from where they'd grown up on a farm. And all sorts of really interesting,
dynamic conversations with people who might not usually have thought about these
issues are happening because they're coming to get lunch in our deli. And so
that's been very exciting and sometimes heartwarming experience. JS: And this is Deconstructing
Dinner where you're listening to segments from my conversation with Jacqueline
Hannah and Clint Popetz of the Common Ground Food
Co-op in Urbana, Illinois. I spoke to them only four days after their grand
opening and it was in those few days following the opening that their
membership has grown significantly from its previously stagnant membership
growth. JH: Well I will say we've been
open four days and in four days we have just added slightly over one hundred
members, which understanding that our membership before we moved was at about
1600, so we've added one hundred people in four days. So the growth has been
phenomenal. We've often heard that actually when new co-ops open there's definitely
an increase of interest in membership right away but not necessarily abundantly
dynamic as ours have been. And Clint can speak to this, our Board actually sat
at a table right near the entrance to greet people and to sign up members as
they came in the door and I didn't know if that was going to be completely
necessary. You can sign up for membership when you're in line at the registers
and I really didn't know how many people there would be and they kept running
out of forms and information (laughs) to sign up members. But I'll let Clint
speak to that more. But it has, as I said, in four days we've grown our
membership by over one hundred people and we were a membership of 1600 so it's
been phenomenal. CP: Yeah, I think and this is
actually a challenge for the Board and it's one that we knew was coming but as
a Board we have to represent the membership and our membership has grown in
four days over 6%. So, we can see ourselves in six months time really having a
completely different membership that we're supposed to be representing. But one
of the challenges that the Board face is linkage which just means making sure
that we are authentically representing the membership, that we're aware of what
the members values are and that we're working to make
sure those values are present in the co-op. And I think that one of the reasons
that we were in the store and one of the reasons we want to continue to be in
the store and have a presence on a regular basis is that without being there
and talking to people we really don't know who we are as a co-op and so
there'll be a lot of mechanisms for that, that there's surveys and there's webpages and there's focus groups and gatherings but being
in the store really gives you a good pulse of who your membership is. And yeah,
that first night was really unbelievable and people join for a wide variety of
reasons and we've been sort of told by consultants that membership might not be
something people are use to and might not be easy for them, it might sound
communist, it might sound weird and so don't push it. And so, while we think
membership very important, our main message is actually on the first night was
- Hi, welcome to the co-op, here's some information about the co-op. You don't
have to be a member to shop but we invite you to read what the advantages are
and talk to us if you are interested. And I think more people talked to us
about it than didn't and a number of them that even didn't sign up said - well
let me shop a few times and see what I think of it and then if it looks good
I'll become a member. So membership was actually much easier than I thought it
would be and I was also overwhelmed by the number of people who said - I've
been meaning to become a member for a long time and now that you're here, I
will. Which tells me that - one, we're doing something right; but two the
growing membership is probably not going to slow in the immediate future
anyway. It's
also a great thing just for the health of the co-op because every one of those
memberships represents equity which we can use to build a stronger co-op. So
it's not just a diversity question and it's not just a how many people in the
community are you representing, it's how strong is your
balance sheet. The more equity we have the better we look to the bank and
it may be easier it to get signed anything in the future, the easier it is to
invest in improvements, the easier it is to suffer slow periods in terms of the
economy. So I was really excited to do that on many levels and it was really a
wonderful experience. JS: One of the reasons we've
chosen to focus this entire broadcast on the Common Ground Food Co-op is that
it represents a shining example of what's possible when a community comes
together to put an idealistic vision into practice. It's not the first time on
Deconstructing Dinner that food co-op's have been suggested to be one of the
most important tools within a community to ensure the presence of an
economically viable and socially and environmentally responsible food system.
Board member, Clint Popetz spoke to what lessons
others can learn from Common Ground's expansion. CP: Well the main message is that
if we can do it anyone can (both laugh). Because the place that we were coming
from before this all started was one of the most difficult - meaning that we had
been around for a very long time but it wasn't that we were raising money for
something really, really new, we were raising money for something that had been
there for thirty years plus. But also we were in a time of economic slow down
and in particular, a credit crunch that made it extremely difficult to get
loans from banks. And especially for an organization that you can't point to a
single person and say - this is the owner and that person will take
responsibility if something goes wrong. So banks are very reticent to loan
money to co-ops and they have to be convinced. So that fact that we were able
to get financing in this particular time period was very encouraging. Also we
went from a members only co-op in a basement of a
church to a public co-op to an enterprise outside and we did it on an extremely
short timeline. And so that's encouraging and it's also no one should try to do
it on that timeline (both laughs). It's extremely stressful. We didn't have a
choice because our building was getting full and we didn't have any other place
to be so, you know, we actually didn't find out our building was being sold
until towards the end. But nevertheless, if our building hadn't been sold or
being sold we probably would have extended our timeline by about another 12 to
18 months just to deal with the difficulties in terms of financing. So, I think
it's an extremely positive message because it showed the community rising to
the challenge of a really monumental task. Moving a store is not easy. JS: Now a number of other lessons
have also been learned from the expansion process - lessons that are important
for any existing or planned co-operative. When one takes a look at some of the
most recognizable brand names of packaged foods found in natural food stores or
organic aisles of chain grocers, in many cases, those brands began as small and
very conscientiously operated businesses. But as they grew, those values were
lost and in some cases, those involved in their formation lost their voice
which was replaced by distant shareholders or overseas investors. This
alienation of a businesses founding values can apply
to those of a retail store too. Board member Clint Popetz
suggests that remaining transparent with co-op members is critical to
ensure that trust can be maintained with the co-op's management and board and
to avoid the alienation that the corporate model of chain grocery stores
has created within the communities they operate in. CP: The lessons we took away from
it are definitely that our community loves us as long as we stay in touch with
them and keep them in the loop and keep them involved and get their input and
trust them with information. We have a really transparent co-op and Jacqueline
worked even in the depths of trying to relocate the store and keep it running,
she made sure that all the information about what money was needed and how it
was being spent and how the progress was going, was available to the members
through the website, through e-mail, in meetings that she held. And she worked
pretty tirelessly to keep that level of transparency and I think that led to a
lot of goodwill because co-ops have had situations where expansions were seen
as a tiny cobble of people which I think that move the people away from its
roots. But our membership and the community at large really saw this as a
grassroots effort in which everyone was on board. And I think that was crucial
because not only did it help to fundraise but there's goodwill right now that's
present - it's amazing. People that I don't even know recognize me from
newspaper pictures or from the tiny little early morning TV ads and they say -
wow is it moved. And I didn't even know who these people are so I feel like
that the goodwill in the community is very good and I think that's because we
involved the community in the process. JS: On the first episode of this
Co-operatives series here on Deconstructing Dinner, we heard a segment produced
in Madison Wisconsin about the demise of what was at the time, one of the
oldest food co-op's in North America - the Mifflin
Co-op. Now the reasons for that particular co-op's demise were partially
due to the increased competition from a much larger co-op food store in the
area along with the presence of a Whole Foods store also in Madison. But
perhaps the store's demise was also due to its stated reasons for being
in business. The Mifflin Co-op had long maintained an image of opposition to
big business, to corporate greed and to profit. But as Jacqueline Hannah and
Clint Popetz suggest, profit
is not necessarily something to fear and presenting an image of what a business
is for rather than what it's against, is what the Common Ground Co-op strives
to achieve. CP: I don't want to diss on Mifflin because I think this one is a great co-op
but Mifflin's slogan was, they had these little things that said ‘taking it to
the man.' Our mission isn't taking
it to the man. Our mission is a very positive one, and
a very important one but it isn't defined by what it's against and it's not
defined by only being the alternative to everything else. It has a very broad I
think mission and a broad scope and therefore a broader audience. JH: One of the other things I'll
put forward on that is a mistake I think we as co-ops sometimes make is, many
of us started with, as Clint brought up earlier, a kind of a stick-it-to-the
man attitude and wherever you stand on that now, there was also this concept of
food for people not for profit. It was actually kind of a catch phrase at our
co-op for many years and at many co-ops. And learning that
profit is not an ugly word and how to communicate that to your members.
That to forward your mission means you need more economic health and to explain
what that means. That's there no individual profiting off these farmers or off
the money made by the co-op, no one's getting rich doing this. But that profit
is necessary and healthy. That we want to run a successful
business as well as a successful organization for social justice. And
so the co-op thinking for many years made that mistake. I think our co-op had a
hard time with it and struggled with it for a long time, understanding that we
are here to be a business, the idea is to be able to funnel our economic clout
behind something that we believe in and that means your business and that means
you need to be good at it. And to be good at it can actually be a triumph for
your mission and make it grow. And so to help the membership understand that
and be willing to grow into that understanding and to understand that doesn't
undermine your mission in any way. It's something we struggled with and I know
other co-ops struggled with in the past and some are still struggling with
understanding that growing out of the idea that profit is always at the expense
of others instead of a way to enrich the community. JS: And this is Deconstructing
Dinner. As we near the end of today's broadcast and part five of our ongoing
series on co-operatives, it's important to reiterate a message that has been
presented on this series before. Today's broadcast has showcased just how
community-focused a food store can be when it's owned and democratically
controlled by members in the community, and this community ethic is also found
in the way through which co-operatives can co-operate with each other. In fact
co-operation among co-operatives is one of the seven principles that
outline what makes a co-op a co-op. I can
say from my own personal experience as someone who is a member of four
co-operatives here in the Nelson-area, that the principle of co-operation among
co-operatives plays a critical role in ensuring the success of a co-operative
economy and a well-functioning community. Jacqueline
Hannah stressed how important this principle is to ensure the success of the
Common Ground Food Co-op. JH: One thing we didn't get to speak
to you - it's kind of off the topic but I'd like to bring up is, one of the
amazing things about being a co-operative business. I've been in the natural
food industry in management in natural food now for eight years and I'd never
worked for a co-op before I came to this co-op. And co-operative businesses,
co-operative food co-ops, I mean food co-ops are really about co-operating,
about helping one another. So instead of having all this protecting of
information and what your sales numbers were and the best way to display
produce to make it last through the weekend or whatever, you know whatever
you're trying to do in your business. There are hundreds of other co-ops that
are happy to share their information. They're happy to tell you what they have
done and give you a hand. And we were reached out to by so many other food
co-ops that helped mentor me and take us through this process and share their
experiences. I'm currently working with the General Manager of Neighbourhood Food Co-op in Carbondale, Frances Murphy who's
been in the industry for a long time. And he's still personally mentoring me
and spending a lot of time on the phone with me answering my questions and
helping me to develop my skills as a manager in finance and sharing his
experiences. And he actually drove four hours to come be here on our opening
day to see what we'd done and to celebrate with us. And we've just been reached
out to by so many other co-ops who've actually proactively come to us and said
- how can we help? That's just been an amazing experience to be part of and we
are - I'm very proud that we've started to have the opportunity to give that
back as well. We've
been approached by a couple of co-ops that are trying to start up - one in Taraho, Indiana. There's another in a small town in
Illinois just outside of St. Louis. We've been approached actually by a couple
of other individuals who are interested in starting co-ops. There's a woman who
use to be a member here who is now in Memphis, Tennessee and they don't have
co-ops there. And she's been on the phone with me kind of constantly saying I
want to start a co-op, I want to start a co-op and getting information and I
didn't know what would come of that. And they're actually already forming a
Board of Directors and having community meetings where dozens of people are
showing up. So we're having an opportunity to spread the wealth and help
support other co-ops in their efforts to start while we're being supported by more
experienced co-ops ourselves. So the spirit of co-operation within food co-ops
is just amazing and without it, I don't know if we would be where we are today.
So I'm very grateful for that. JS: And that was Jacqueline
Hannah, the General Manager for the Common Ground Food Co-op in Urbana,
Illinois. Jacqueline was joined over the phone by Clint Popetz,
one of the Board of Directors of the Co-op and he too had some final comments
to share that also outline just how impactful a food co-op can be in a
community. Most chain grocery stores operating in North America are founded
upon an industrial and globalized food system and have not yet made any
significant progress to support localized food systems. In fact many chain
grocers outright refuse to carry locally grown products unless the product is
first shipped to a distribution centre perhaps hundreds if not thousands of kilometres away, and, if that product is produced in enough
quantity to fill the shelves of many stores. On
the other hand, a co-operative food store concerned about the community they
operate in, is in a much better position to look at
itself as a vacuum for locally grown and processed foods. CP: Boards are created to be
forward-looking and to lead and so there's definitely issues that I know our
Board is looking at. And probably one big one is, our
co-op hasn't done a lot of connecting to other organizations, both in terms of
outreach and in terms of working on joint projects together or even just
educating each other. And so one of the things I want to see our co-ops do in
order to help build a stronger community is for the Board to reach out to the
Boards of other organizations and educate each other on what we're doing and
see ways in which we can work together. I also
see, there's kind of a looming question of food security, of local versus organic,
of food miles - all these issues that are on the rise as oil goes up. These
questions face us and so I think that we're doing exactly the right thing but I
think that the Board wants to remain constantly cognizant of how the landscape
of local food, of corporate food, of FDA regulations, of USDA regulations -
what things are happening on the food front that the co-ops needs to be aware
of so that we're always urged to do the best thing for our community. So for
instance, one of the things I think some communities have done is very exciting
is that local farmers have a lot of leeway in terms of selling locally to their
co-ops but they often have a very difficult time in terms of processing and
storage. And that long term storage is crucial especially in areas like ours
where we have many months of completely frozen weather when nothing grows. So
it would be interesting to see in what way that the co-op could facilitate
co-operative ventures in terms of farmers getting together for processing
because processing is extremely regulated and extremely difficult for small
farmers. So that's something I would like to see us doing is not only enabling
small farms with information and enabling small farms by providing an outlet
for their goods, but enabling the next step in the food infrastructure which is
how do you feed your community year-round from your farms and not just during
the growing season. JS: And that was Clint Popetz, a Board member of the Common Ground food Co-op in
Urbana, Illinois. More information on the Co-op and its expansion can be found
on their website at commonground.coop. There's also a
nice gallery of photographs on the site and that will also be linked to from
the Deconstructing Dinner website at deconstructingdinner.ca. Today's
broadcast will be archived on our site alongside the other episodes of this
Co-operatives series, and we do encourage you to learn more about how
co-operatives present an ideal alternative to industrial food. JH: Don't underestimate the
goodwill of your community. I think that's an easy mistake to make. Be
transparent with them. Tell them what you're trying to do. Don't ever underestimate
how willing they are to get behind what you're doing not only by putting in
some sweat equity or telling other people about the project. But you're really
fiscally invest in something they believe in, if you share your vision and
you're transparent with them and you ask for their feedback and really respond
to it and want it. If they feel that they're truly listened to and that their
investments really going to mean that they're taking part in something
meaningful to their community where they will really have a voice, they will
invest both their time and their energy as well as
their money. They're willing to put their money into what they believe in, if a
real vision is shared with them and they're allowed to have a voice. And I
think it's something that both the Board and the management did extremely well is
not underestimate that goodwill and the power of people coming together to do
something they believe in. And I think it's really uplifted not only the co-op
but the community to see ourselves have a dream, work together to make it happen, and really accomplish it. There's a real idealistic
feeling that maybe many of us haven't had in awhile that people can come
together to do something they believe in, that's meaningful and pull it off and
have it become something very valuable for the community. So I'd say don't
underestimate that and go ahead and share your idealistic views and be
idealistic. There were times when I think I wasn't idealistic enough and let it
really shine how much I believed in our community and what we could accomplish
to change the food community in this area and then support local food and to
change the economy in the town. People rallied behind that. They loved to hear
that optimism. They loved to hear there was a way to take their optimism and
turn it into action. ending
theme JS: That was this week's edition
of Deconstructing Dinner, produced and recorded at Nelson, British Columbia's
Kootenay Co-op Radio. I've been your host Jon Steinman. I thank my technical
assistant Doug Farquharson. The
theme music for Deconstructing Dinner is courtesy of Nelson-area resident Adham Shaikh. This radio program is provided free of charge to
campus/community radio stations across the country, and relies on the financial
support from you the listener. Support
for the program can be donated through our website at deconstructingdinner.ca
or by dialing 250-352-9600.
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