With 940 member-owners already supporting the Co-op, quadruple membership digits are in sight! And here’s what 1000 (and beyond) member-owners means for our timeline and the opening of your locally-sourced, community-owned grocery store.
GROW, FUND, BUILD.
It’s a 5 to 8-year process to build a thriving food co-op, and this time table is why 70% of food co-ops are still thriving after 5 years in business!
GROW
We are growing our co-op through new member-owners joining each month. We started looking for a store site at around 800 members strong. We remain active in site selection and welcome your input on potential spaces. Keep spreading the word about the Co-op (and join if you haven’t yet) as the more member-owners we have on board when the store opens, the more successful we can be.
FUND
When we decide on our future store site, we will have the owner numbers needed to launch a successful member-owner investment campaign. Through this, we anticipate raising $1.1 million in owner loans and preferred shares. We hope all owners will take advantage of this investment opportunity; our current base of 940 already ensures viable statistics to draw from for raising this capital.
BUILD
Once we raise the required capital needed, we will begin construction on OUR community-owned grocery store at a location in the Cedar Valley and size (around 8,000 square feet) that will give us the most success. We’re using our market study to inform and guide us to insure we get the best, most viable site possible for OUR grocery store. Once we have secured our site by signing a lease, we will celebrate by letting our member-owners know first with a big announcement event!
HOW CAN YOU HELP? Let’s hit 1000 MEMBER-OWNERS!
If you are not yet a member-owner, join today. You can do so by paying in full ($200) or starting a payment plan via a credit card on our website.
Already a member-owner? Thank you for your support! Please keep spreading the word. Ask others if they’ve heard about the co-op and tell them why you decided to support this community-grown business. Invite a co-op representative to your work’s lunch and learn or your book club event. Host friends in your home and invite a co-op representative to attend to answer questions about the Co-op.
And know that behind the scenes, there are many volunteers working hard on the numerous aspects it takes to bring this to fruition. If you are one of those volunteers, thank you! If not, please consider volunteering to help us meet our upcoming goals.
DON’T FORGET, to get our store here, we can’t do it alone.
We’re not at the finish line yet, but we’re close to where things start going REALLY FAST and getting REALLY FUN. There’s never been a more exciting time to be part of the Cedar Falls Food Co-op. Help us GROW, FUND, and BUILD our community grocery store by becoming a member-owner today!
Invest in a place to shop that you can call your own.
Together we really can do this.