Greetings from the Co-op. With 2022 drawing to a close, I would like to thank everyone—especially Co-op members, shoppers, employees, and local vendors—for helping us through a challenging yet ultimately successful year. As I told our governing council in June, a combination of factors, including COVID-19, labor shortages, price inflation, and supply and service disruptions, made for the trickiest operating environment many of us have ever seen. Together, we managed to navigate these challenges and move forward. I was gratefully reminded of our strength as a community by our 50th Anniversary video.

Thank you to everyone who voted in this year’s Co-op Council elections. Per a timing change in our recently updated bylaws, council elections now commence rather than end with our annual member meeting. We are pleased to welcome Ashley Muscarella, Staff Representative Genevieve Cambron, and incumbents Julia Scheier and Jeff Roberts to the 2023 council. Council contact and meeting information is always available on our Governance web page and on the council bulletin board in the exit way of the store.

On a different note, a member asked me to write about our member deals. We have devised a calendar of special promotions that includes one-time member appreciation discounts (such as 10% off all bulk purchases) and member shopping incentives (like $5 off a purchase of $20 in cheese which is running now through January 3.) We hope you find these deals to be valuable and help stretch your shopping budget a bit further. Keep in mind that with the appreciation discounts, the decision of when to apply the discount within the sale date range is yours, so a little planning can go a long way.

Finally, I want to highlight our Neighbors Helping Neighbors Food and Fund Drive. This is our third year partnering with the Vermont Foodbank to gather resources for Central Vermont food pantries. We have already reached our fundraising goal of $15,000 and we are still accepting donations at the registers. We are working our way toward 2,000 pounds of food donations; our special Buy One, Get One Free promotion on over 35 products is a perfect opportunity to save and share. Thank you for supporting this important cause.

I wish you a joyful and peaceful holiday season,

Kari Bradley, General Manager