From the Board President: Welcome New Board Members

 BrennaJessSheri

The Co-op membership has spoken. The Cedar Falls Food Co-op’s first Board elections went off without a hitch. Thanks to all who helped make the elections run smoothly, especially Judy Schindel, CPA, who served as our election official. Special thanks, too, to everyone who stepped up to run for the Board. We couldn’t do it without your willingness to serve!

Selected to serve three year terms are Jess Cruz, Brenna Griffin and Sheri Huber-Otting. All three Board members have been involved for many years on Co-op committees, so they bring a wealth of experience to their new leadership roles on the Board. Please join me in welcoming them to the Board! Also, many thanks to outgoing Board members Erica Graen, Julie Halevan, and Steve Hoodjer. We’ll be sad to see them step down, but good news…all three will continue to help with the Co-op effort by working with the Co-op’s committees. Leave a comment to let them know how much you appreciate their leadership since the very first Steering Committee was formed nearly three years ago.

Over the past year I’ve written about a number of the 7 Cooperative Principles. Seeing as we’ve completed our first ever Board election, it’s a good time to talk about P2: Democratic Governance. I feel the value of democratic governance is self-evident. Of course we’d all prefer to have a say in the businesses we frequent. Considering that we shop grocery stores approximately 1.6 times per week, having a say in how our local grocery store runs its operations would be a great value to us.

I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about the remaining six Board members, including myself. The CFFC is committed to ensuring that all Board members are democratically elected. Over time, each of your Board members will be elected members. But this will take a few years as we transition from a steering committee to a fully-elected Board of Directors. Here’s how this will work: Each year, three of the nine seats will be up for election for three-year terms. This year marked the first set of Board members elected to serve. Next year, we’ll have three more transition on, and then in 2017, Co-op members will elect the final set of three Board members. 

The Co-op’s bylaws allowed for this sort of gradual transition from willing volunteers to willing volunteers who were elected to serve. We feel this was a great solution as we shift from an idea to a business run by and for its members. Democratic governance is a great principal for the Co-op! 

In cooperation,

Tom Wickersham

From the Board President: The Fall Food Fest Delights All!

From the first few notes of Amelia and Melina’s opening set to the crew of volunteers from Green Iowa AmeriCorps helping clean up at the end of the evening, the second annual Fall Food Fest was a smashing success! If you haven’t seen photos from the event, check them out here.

Nearly 200 people attended the October 20 event held at the community center. They sampled food, watched cooking demonstrations, and many walked away with fantastic door prizes. The evening was a celebration of the Cedar Falls Food Co-op and our efforts to open a full-service grocery store. Many attendees became new member-owners at the event, helping us get closer to our total goal of 1,000 member-owners.

Continue reading

From the Board President: What Does Cooperate Mean to You?

As I began writing my article for this month’s edition of The Garlic Press, I knew I wanted to talk about October being National Co-op Month. It’s a time to remind ourselves that co-ops enable people to work together to build businesses that are rooted in and accountable to their communities. And so I would, I had assumed, provide the litany of reasons why the Cedar Falls Food Co-op will be, once the doors are open, a great asset to the community.

Continue reading

From the Board President: What does P2 mean to you?

During the day, I have the privilege of working at a local nonprofit. I love what I do. Don’t get me started talking about it! But I also love volunteering as president of the Cedar Falls Food Co-op. As one of a growing legion of Founding Owners, I’m just one voice, so I rely on hearing from other member-owners for perspective. (Seriously, send me an email (tomwick@sbcglobal.net) or give me a call (319-830-3742) whenever you have questions, ideas or suggestions.) Beyond hearing from other member-owners, I also rely heavily on my fellow Co-op Board members. They are an amazing group!

Continue reading

From the Board President

Back in April, I wrote that the Cedar Falls Food Co-op had begun making preparations to hire our first position. Well, our work is complete, and we are now accepting applications for the Outreach Coordinator. This is a part-time contracted position that will focus on membership recruitment for the Co-op. We are very excited!

As we near the 250-member mark, the Cedar Falls Food Co-op is now poised to begin our next phase of growth, a phase marked by key milestones. In addition to the first hire, we’ll be working with a consultant to help us complete our market and site analysis. Very exciting times indeed!

Please help us spread the word. If you know of someone who would be a good fit for the Co-op’s Outreach Coordinator position, please pass along the details!

In cooperation,

Tom Wickersham

From the Board President: Businesses Support the Co-op

Did you know the Cedar Falls Food Co-op membership represents 14 zip codes outside of Cedar Falls? We have members from Waterloo, Denver, Waverly, Parkersburg, Independence and more. The support from so many people is exciting!

Another source of support that is equally exciting is from our local businesses. These business owners understand the value that a full-service, community owned grocery store will bring to Cedar Falls. They see the connection between a physical store and membership support from the surrounding region, and they ask us, “How can we help?”

Continue reading

From the Board President:

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a Cedar Falls woman about the Co-op while at Hartman Reserve’s Earth Fair. She had previously lived in Decorah, and was a frequent shopper at Oneota Food Co-op. “I LOVE that co-op,” she told me repeatedly. I agree with her, it’s a wonderful co-op.

Continue reading

From the Board President:

On Monday, March 23 at Three Pines Farm Board and committee members sat down together to share a home cooked meal that included marinated asparagus, split pea soup, sweet potato and quinoa chili, a fresh green salad, homemade biscuits, a growler of SingleSpeed’s Cooperate beer, and other delicious items. It was soul warming, a evening filled with satisfying food and wonderful people. But it was also an informative evening as the four Board members who attended the Up & Coming, Up & Running food co-op conference in February shared details about what we learned.

Continue reading