Monadnock Food Co-op in Keene, New Hampshire started organizing early in 2010, and worked closely with FCI and other co-op consultants to reach their goal of a great food co-op in teh community. They opened in June 2013 and have become an established resource for Keene. Bonnie Hudspeth, a foundling member of the Monadnock organizing […]
“Everything I learned I learned from the movies.” ― Audrey Hepburn Hosting a movie night can have many benefits for your startup. Publicising the event will create PR for your project. You can likely raise a small amount of money from admissions and/or sale of concessions. If a social hour is held afterwards, movie night can […]
There are an incredible number of email marketing tips available on the web. A quick Google search will yield you reams of analysis on everything from what to say in your subject line to what kind of links to provide. To pare this information down to a manageable size, we will occasionally feature an email […]
Be professional: Try to avoid the “raise your hand” technique. Starting a food co-op is essentially starting a business and you want to be intentional about this very important time in your co-op’s development. Identify and recruit your “dream team.” Your “dream team” will build, protect, and carry out the vision for your cooperative market. […]
Here’s a question we recently received: We are starting a co-op grocery store here in Small Town, CO. Small Town has a population of just over 5000 and a busy tourist trade but no fresh food access. The community is very supportive of the idea of a food co-op. Your materials talk about hundreds of […]
When Will It Open? “When will the store be open?” This is a question that echoes in the ears of every food co-op organizer. If only there were an easy answer! It all depends on accomplishing a multitude of tasks. “We have to have this many members, and find a site, and find a general […]
What happens when the community purchases an existing grocery store and turns it into a cooperatively owned business? What challenges are encountered, and how can this kind of project best be accomplished? A new case study by Food Co-op Initiative explores two such projects in detail. One is Placerville Co-op in Placerville, California. The […]
“Our co-op has weathered the trials of stage one organizing and done some initial feasibility work. Now we are forming a site selection committee. Do you have or know of any resources that help define this process and the scope of work that this committee should be looking to achieve?” Forming a site selection committee […]
“I support Food Co-op Initiative because they supported us.” – Bonnie Hudspeth Monadnock Food Co-op in Keene, New Hampshire will open its doors in the first part of 2013, after a four-year-long journey. Food Co-op Initiative will have been with them every step of the way. “At the very beginning, we were able to educate ourselves about […]
When in the organizing process is it time to start creating and using financial documents? Right away! Find out why and how in this workshop with Stuart Reid, executive director of Food Co-op Initiative. Filmed at the California Co-op Conference in May, 2012, Reid discusses how to create a realistic development budget for starting a food […]