The candidates are: Lauren Antler (incumbent), Giles Brulé, Steven Farnham (incumbent), Thomas Gram, Dvora Jonas (incumbent), Jo Perreault, and Micah Wood. Thanks to all of them for running!

Stay tuned for more information on the candidates, their reasons for running, and their vision for the Co-op on the website in the coming weeks and look for an announcement of a candidate forum in October. Voting begins at the Annual Meeting on November 7.

Nourishing Our Community

CCMA is a national annual meeting of grocery co-ops. This year it was held in Portland, Maine, and Hunger Mountain Co-op sent a delegation of six staffers and council members. We were all impressed with the opening panel discussion, “Nourishing Communities: Food Co-ops Serving Low-Income, Low-Access Areas.” Since Hunger Mountain Co-op is re-introducing the Co-op Basics program, it’s timely to let you know what we learned about what our sibling co-ops are doing to reduce food prices.

Anthony Goodwin, the Business Innovation Director at National Co-op Grocers (NCG), introduced the topic. NCG is a co-op of food co-ops; Hunger Mountain Co-op is one of the members. Members include about 164 food co-ops that operate 230 stores in over 40 states in the US. Goodwin leads NCG’s research and development arm, which has focused over the last three years on how to develop new and innovative ways to support food co-ops, especially within low-income, low-access neighborhoods.

Co-ops can lead work on food justice and access to fresh, healthy food, particularly in underserved areas, Goodwin said. That’s because co-ops prioritize long-term community well-being over short-term profits for distant shareholders. And though individual co-ops may be small, compared to corporate chain grocery stores, we collaborate with each other—sharing ideas that work and boosting buying power by working together.

In West Dayton, Ohio, the co-op Gem City Market was established to serve a community of 40,000 people in an area with no full-service grocery store. To reach a full-service grocery store, residents of the segregated (98% African American) community were faced with a long drive or, if they didn’t have access to a car, a three-hour round-trip bus ride on two different buses each way.

One of the panel speakers was amaha sellassie, the Board President of Gem City Market. He acknowledged they still have a lot to learn at their young co-op. “So how do we meet the different price points?” he asked. “How do we make sure that the community that that we intended the market for actually feels that it’s their store and that they belong? So, it’s a lot of reframing and re-imagining that takes place.” The important story was that Gem City Market was established as a full-service grocery store, owned by the community, responding to the needs of the member-owners, and working with them to try to figure out how to make the business viable.

Sometimes, making food more accessible means rethinking what type of food the co-op sells. Jeremy DeChario serves as General Manager of Syracuse Cooperative Market in upstate New York. They expanded from their long-time location in a 1,200 square-foot store to a food hall that became available to them. And they changed their name from “The Syracuse Real Food Co-op.” As DeChario said, “Man, what even is real food? I don’t know.”

DeChario summarized the product mix at the new location as “heavily overskewed in chips and hot sauce.” But he continues, “That stuff sells, you know? People go everywhere, and as much as people say, they don’t want Captain Crunch, it’s in your pantry. We know it. And I know you only buy it once a month for Johnny’s special breakfast, but it’s there. So why don’t you just buy that from me?”

The affordability of good food is a perennial theme at Hunger Mountain Co-op. We offer more affordable options than many people realize, and we are continuously learning how we can do better.

Wrap-Up

This time of year, many families are seeing their kids off to college or jobs in distant parts. Apparently, that’s happening on our farms, too.

Q. What did the beefalo say when his son went to college?

A. Bison

—Carl Etnier, Council President

Do you have any questions or comments about the council? Do you know any jokes even faintly related to food and/or co-ops? Please email them to me!