Today is Employee Appreciation Day at the Co-op, so I hope you will join in thanking our folks for all they do to serve the community. Over the past year, Co-op employees have worked through a variety of significant challenges, including labor shortages, supply disruptions, and several disrespectful customers, all under a cloud of uncertainty and increased risk to themselves and loved ones. Collectively, we are proud of the essential work that we do for our community and our successes this past year. Personally, it has been an honor to be part of this team, and I thank every one of my coworkers for your contributions.

Over the past year, the Co-op has done many things to thank our employees, including offering enhanced pay, extra paid time off, food, gifts, and more. Today we hope you will join our expression of thanks by emailing us your comments or uploading a short video. We will add your message to the chorus of appreciations that we are sharing with employees.

Thank you for supporting our staff and our co-op,

Kari Bradley, General Manager

Best tips for a quality video

• Record holding your device horizontal/landscape
• Find a quiet, light place
• Plan out what you’d like to say or make some notes include introducing yourself (just your first name is fine), and sharing how long you’ve been a member
• We hope to get a lot of videos, so please try to keep it shorter than 30 seconds

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Dear Co-op employees, 

I have so much gratitude, admiration, and respect for you. Throughout these last two years (two years?!?!), you have continued to feed us and keep us safe while practicing patience, kindness, and almost always good cheer. All this while wearing those annoying masks! Along with emergency responders, medical personnel, and teachers, you are my heroes. 

Blessings, 

Judith Hinds 

HMC Staff always go beyond the call to help customers. They make going to the Co-op a successful experience. 

Beth Burgess 

I visit my family in Southern California (Los Angeles and surrounding area), several times a year, and I have been seeking a grocery store or market with high quality, local, organic food that might be similar to Hunger Mountain Co-op. No such luck! I have found nothing to compare to the Co-op, with its large variety of fresh produce, canned and bulk goods, as well as top notch, flavorful grab and go and hot bar offerings. Thank you Hunger Mountain Co-op employees — it is always a pleasure to come home to you! 

Liz Pritchett 

THANKS TO ALL FOR BEING THERE DAY IN AND DAY OUT! 

I do not know if we could survive without the CO-OP! 

YOUR HARD WORK AND DEDICATION IS APPRECIATED! 

fondly,  

Cameron and Lloyd 

hanks to the staff and management of the Co-op for their dedication to safety and cheerful customer service throughout the past years of great stress. From the beginning of the pandemic, I have felt the Co-op to be one of the safest places for me to shop, thanks to the clear requirements (mask-wearing, limits on numbers of customers) which the Co-op instituted and enforced firmly and politely. Throughout this time, the staff have continued to be cheerful and helpful.   

Thanks for your community service, as well as your customer service! 

Tim Swartz 

Dear Co-op Staff, 

Thank you for all of your hard work to keep the shelves stocked, the meals prepared, the aisles clean, and the registers running smoothly all throughout this pandemic time, while also keeping Co-op customers safe and healthy. I appreciate all you do especially under these very challenging circumstances. Thank you!

Joan Javier-Duval, Montpelier 

Thank you, thank you for coming to work when doing so may be risky. 

Thank you for coming to work when you may wish you were doing something else. 

Thank you for taking care of our community, for keeping us fed, for keeping on. 

Thank you, sincerely and with love, 

🌻 

Jan 

Customer service is hard enough without a pandemic. I truly appreciate your service, especially during this extremely difficult time. Thanks to all and please continue the curbside program! Its been so awesome!!! 

Heather 

Having once, many moons ago, been employed by HMC, but never during a pandemic, I applaud each and every one of you. 

The circumstances and stress of our most recent times, particularly during holiday rushes, is large. Thank you for your endurance, humor and continued food to table nurture for all of us shoppers and the farmers who need the support of all of us! 

Much appreciated. 

Emily Sloan 

I can’t thank you all enough for the curbside feature you offer. 

For one thing I hate grocery shopping. You, shop consciously, I appreciate so so much for all that you do. 

In peace,

Brenda 

You guys are way cool to keep us in healthy, organic food throughout the pandemic. Thanks for showing up!

Sue and John 

Thanks for showing up and doing the work! You help to feed us all. 

Andy Robinson 

Dear HMFC staffers,

I am always so impressed with the friendliness that the workers I encounter exude. I really feel welcomed and safe in your store, as I appreciate all the COVID protocols you have in place. I can only imagine that it has been supremely difficult for you all these last years, with all the changes and especially wearing these darn masks all the time. Nevertheless, I see a smile in your eyes, despite them!

Thank you all for being there for me and serving me.

You are deeply appreciated!!

PS. I am now a member of your store..in large part to you all!!

PEACE,

Deborah Hartt

Sending thanks to all of the employees at hunger mtn co-op! We love you guys… without you we’d have to go hungry or eat from big box stores with inferior help and food quantities. Thank you! You are greatly appreciated!

Deana Burnham

Are we ever lucky to have the incredibly (and dependably) smart and informed, interesting and interested, helpful and kind HMC staff working to provide us with healthy and sumptuous and local food.

A huge heartfelt thank you to everyone working at HMC!

Jennifer Zollner

Thank you for always being there to help in all the many ways needed. Thank also for having such a wonderful and varied supply of all our needs.

Marit Young

My wife & I are long time HM Co-op members who love shopping & browsing the many aisles of local, organic, healthy & delicious food in person. We’re tremendously grateful to the Coop & its top-notch employees for their commitment to following the science during this long COVID pandemic to keep shoppers & staff all as safe as possible! Even with masks & distancing, the co-op shopping experience is a pleasure! We’ve also been major users of the curbside grocery service & it has been so amazingly good! Jared & others have been so friendly & helpful time & time again — Thank you! 🙂

Jeff & Kellie Merrell

Thanks so much for being there for us, day in and day out. I rely on ready-made food since I can’t cook much. And someone is always willing to help me get my groceries to the car, despite rain or frigid weather. You’re the best!

Lynne

I want to add my gratitude for EVERYTHING that EVERY ONE of you have contributed — and sacrificed — to keep our Co-op going and playing it’s pivotal role in our community. Not just feeding us all but also being a beacon of how “cooperation” can help so much in weathering any crisis. THANK YOU!! 🥰

Proud CO-OP member for almost 25 years!

Andrea Stander

Dear Co-op Staff,

Thank you so much for showing up for us over these nutty years! Your familiar friendly faces have made the mundane (and, at times, risky) grocery store trips enjoyable. In addition to showing up for your community, y’all have extended moments of connection and care whether it be through showing a us a drawing of yours, knowing my name or genuinely engaging my three year old in a conversation. Your presence and diligence has provided my family a safe and warm environment to stock up on our essentials (and some treats). Today, I marvel at your commitment and kindness! Cheers!

With so much gratitude,

Kayla and Family

To all the HMC staff,

Thank you for all your help whenever I’ve asked, and especially thank you for showing up during these scary Covid times, keeping the shelves stocked plus doing all the behind the scenes work we don’t always think about.

You are The Greatest!

HMC member,

Lynn Jeffery

Thank you for continuing to feed us, so often with wishes of good health and smiling eyes! I do not like to imagine life without our Co-op. The food is great but the people are essential. Thanks to all of you, the folks we see and the folks we don’t see. Good health and happiness to you all.

Susan Baker

You are all doing a great job of serving us. I want to reach out especially to the Deli staff who make the quality of my life so much better with their wraps, chickens, and incredible customer service!

Paula Gills

Every staff member is profoundly appreciated for their unique role in guiding the membership through this ordeal. Thank you will never adequately express our gratitude. Please carry on!

Nancy LaVarnway

A huge reason I shop the Co-op is the staff. Overall a dedicated group of helpful, available, and informed folks. I hope their collective satisfaction is equal to their integrity.

Thank you all,

Paul Boffa, Worcester

Throughout the last couple of years of Covid madness Co-op employees have worked hard to make customers welcome and help keep us safe. Given the lack of social contact, many of us have endured, shopping has been a productive, safe, and kind place to be while stocking up on necessaries. I sincerely appreciate your support,

Alexander Anlyan

Thank you to all the CO-OP team for keeping us well fed and healthy throughout the pandemic, working hard to maintain a high level of service and safety.

Kate Stephenson