As our Co-op continues to move closer to opening a full-service, community owned grocery store, we tend to gauge our progress on one factor: how many members we have. As I’ve written before, our progress is determined by multiple factors: sales projections, annual budgets, capital raised, number of house parties, etc. At our last board meeting we spent a lot of time discussing how to increase the number of member-owners attending the upcoming annual Member-Owner meeting (save the date: Tuesday, Oct. 24 in the evening).
This got me thinking: It’s all about the numbers. It’s not, for example, as powerful to tell people that we have a Business Partner program where local businesses are supporting our efforts by offering discounts at their stores for Co-op members. It’s more powerful to say that 57 businesses are part of this program!
So, with apologies to the Harper’s Magazine, I’d like to present to you, The Cedar Falls Food Co-op Index:
Number of members as of July 25: 643
Average change in membership of 3 other Midwest start-up food co-ops that we network with over the last year: +90
Change in membership for the Cedar Falls Food Co-op over the last year: +238
Number of hours volunteers have helped with Co-op efforts since January of this year: 1,689
Value of volunteer hours (based on IndependentSector.org): $40,790.57
Percent increase in likes on the CFFC Facebook page in last two years: +62
Number of yard signs printed and placed throughout Cedar Falls and Waterloo: 100
Number of requests for yard signs by members who don’t have one: 38
Percentage of food co-op revenue spent locally: 38%
Percentage for conventional grocers: 24%
Percentage of products sourced locally at food co-ops: 20%
Percentage at conventional grocers: 6%
Rank of food co-ops collectively as purchaser of natural products in the U.S.: 3
Okay, so I don’t really know how many people have requested yard signs that don’t already have one, but it’s several dozen for sure!
Thanks for reading. Let me know if there’s a number you’d like to see reported by sending me an email.
Oh, and please be sure to join us at the Co-op celebration at Octopus on August 27. Let’s see if we can add a new number for a future index: Number of people at Octopus over the maximum limit!
In cooperation,
Tom Wickersham