issue

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2014

rootstockthe official newsletter of the belfastCO-OP

www.belfast.coop

rootstockthe official newsletter of the belfastCO-OP

123 high street belfast, me 207.338.2532 7:30am-8:00pm

IN THIS ISSUE . . .Hunger Close to Home - P1A Means to the Ends - P2GM Corner - P3Food Safety- P4Just Picked - P4

A Balanced Diet for Optimum PH - P5Meet a Worker-owner - P6Participation - P6Know Your Fisher-folk - P7CO-OP Calendar - P8

ROOTSTOCK newsletter by Kate Harris & Doug Johnson

continued on P5

by Susie Dexter, BelfastCO-OP worker-owner

hungerCLOSE TO HOME

“...15.4% of Waldo County residents, or almost 6,000 of our neighbors, are food insecure.”

Late autumn is the season of final harvests and grateful feasts. Market tables are heaped with bright squashes alongside boxes of potatoes, bushels of apples, and buckets of nutritious greens. Larders are packed with the pickled and preserved bounty of summer gardens and farm purchases. Freezer doors can barely shut. Stocked root cellars ensure sustenance through the cold months ahead. For more, we scoot down to the Co-op. There we can watch farmers coming through the door steering hand trucks stacked with local eggs, fresh produce, dairy products, and meat. Bakers and other culinary artisans deliver locally produced baked goods, cheeses, and assorted prepared foods. Such a cornucopia is reassuring as we head into winter.

Surrounded by such abundance, those of us with easy access and financial means can forget that there are others in our community who can’t afford to share in this nutritious bounty. According to the charity Feeding America, 15.4% of Waldo County residents, or almost 6,000 of our neighbors, are “food insecure”. For children, the food insecurity rate is 24.5%...nearly one in four children.

As defined by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), “Food insecure households (those with low and very low food security) had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources.” If you are food insecure, there are months when you may need to choose between life sustaining medications and food...or between heating the house and feeding your family….it means not having the funds to reliably meet the dietary needs of your family.

So….don’t we taxpayers fund food stamps (SNAP) and other federal programs which weave a “safety net” to ensure adequate nutrition for all in this richest of rich countries? According to Feeding America, of those individuals who are food insecure by USDA criteria, only 67% are likely to qualify for Federal assistance (SNAP, WIC, TANF, etc). This percentage grows as our lawmakers systematically cut funding and limit access to these programs. Unfortunately, although Maine has the highest rate of food insecurity in New England, Governor LePage has not taken the measures implemented by others of less affected regional states to shield their SNAP recipients from recent cuts.

Fortunately, we are a community of caring people and resourceful groups who are looking out for neighbors in need, and working to increase the quality and availability of food for all. Several recent developments are improving access to nutritious food, which is often more difficult to find and more costly than highly processed, or fast foods:

Bindy Pendleton, presidentDebbi Lasky, vice president

Jerry Savitz, treasurerPhil Prince, secretary

Doug Johnson, staff rep.Nixie BombardierRon BraybrookCindy CanavanBetsy GarroldChris Groden

Jean LenderkingAlessandra Martinelli

Kip Penney Meg Peterson

Janis StoneZafra Whitcomb

Finance Committee3rd Tuesday of the month, 3pm Belfast Co-op conference room

boardfinance@belfast.coop

Membership Committee1st Tuesday of the month, 11:30amBelfast Co-op conference roomboardmembership@belfast.coop

Long Range Planning Committee1st Friday of the month, 11:30amBelfast Co-op conference roomboardlongrange@belfast.coop

Board Development Committee2nd Tuesday of the month, 9:30amBelfast Co-op conference room

boarddevelopment@belfast.coop

Purchasing Policy Committee1st Thursday of the month, 2:00-3:30pm, Belfast Free Library 3rd floor mtg room

boardpurchasing@belfast.coop

Annual Meeting CommitteeAd hoc

Elections and Nominations CommitteeAd hoc

boardelections@belfast.coop

Bylaws CommitteeAd hoc

Building & Grounds Committee2nd Thursday of the month, 1pmBelfast Co-op conference room

bandgcomm@belfast.coop

Public Interaction CommitteeAd hocNovember 20 & December 18

Board of Directors

for the next

meeting

6:30PM at Waterfall Arts, 256 High St, Belfast, ME2

The Board of Directors of the Belfast Co-op has adopted Policy Governance as its new governing style to help it achieve clarity and consistency in its governing of the Co-op (see “Benefits of Policy Governance” in our Jan-Feb 2014 newsletter, available at: http://s.coop/newsletters). One of our first tasks is to draft an Ends Statement, which is a global state-ment that captures what we hope to achieve, working together with you, our member-owners. It is different than a mission statement, a values statement, or a strategic plan, although it will certainly reflect their sentiments.

An Ends Statement incorporates three distinct parts: results, recipients, and worth. Let us look at each of these components separately.

Results: this is a statement of why the organization exists. This piece of the statement can cover such goals as providing access to locally produced goods, making healthy food available and affordable, providing living wage/right livelihood jobs to our workers-owners, serving as an educational resource, etc., etc. Why are we a cooperative and not just a natural foods store?

Recipients: What results are we seeking to obtain for our member-owners, customers, producers, community, and worker-owners? This piece designates our “target audience” which can be as as narrow or as broad as we choose.

Worth: What is the ethical, moral, legal and monetary worth of the services and goods we provide the community? How do we judge if we are doing a good job obtaining our results? What concrete measure of our success will we use for that purpose?

Ends Statements are documents meant to be used by the Board of Directors. They lay out the goals to be achieved, who they are meant to benefit, and how exactly the board is going to measure its success at achieving these aspirations.

In the FAQ section of the PolicyGoverance.com website, they warn against falling into the trap of “well-intended busyness” and advise that the way to avoid that is to make sure the planned ends are truly being measured: “Teaching is not the same as student achievement. Counseling is not the same as client improvement. Coaching is not the same as winning. Running a service is not the same as obtaining intended results.”

Our Board is beginning the process of writing their Ends Statement now and will be hosting informal brainstorming sessions to gather ideas about this important document. How to provide opportunities for member-owner input is being discussed, and there may be an opportunity in the near future for the membership to add their voices to the composition of this important Policy Governance document. Stay tuned.

by Betsy Garrold, BelfastCO-OP Board of Directors

ends empo

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The Belfast Co-op is a membership owned and controlled organization that operates a retail outlet for whole natural foods and other goods and provisions. We strive to offer and promote the continued availability of a wide selection of products

organically produced and locally sourced whenever available, at reasonable prices, to support healthy lifestyle choices for both our members and the general public. Our intent is to be a resource for information and action concerning health, nutrition,

and the source of our products, as well as for building community.(Approved April 22, 2010)

The Belfast Co-op is a member-owned market and café that seeks to foster community, support local producers and educate for healthier food production and consumption. To these ends we hold the following values:

Transparency in operating our business. We work for an atmosphere of honesty, respect and inclusiveness, with open communication among members, employees and management.

Encouraging participation, building an organization that acquires and transfers knowledge, promotes from within, and creates a positive work environment.

Exercising ecological and social responsibility.

O U R M I S S I O N

O U R V A L U E S

GM cornerby Chris Grigsby

September 30th wraps up the end of our fiscal year, and we want to share some of our year end data with the membership and community at large. We also have some interesting plans for fiscal year 2014/2015 that are worth mentioning as well.

Thanks to the effort of our wonderful worker-owners, member-owners, and community, we have again finished the year profitable. We are currently processing year end numbers and will have adjustments and accounting figures finalized by the end of 2014. We finished the year with total gross sales of $7,634,946, which is approximately $76,000 below our budgeted figure, and mostly accounted for by reduced sales growth in our second quarter, January through March. We were able to counter this with reductions in our Cost of Goods, Labor, and Supplies, and posted an estimated net income of $160,000. Departments leading the way in year over year sales increases were Dairy, Meat & Cheese, and Produce respectively. This is consistent with industry trends, where “fresh” departments are outpacing center store growth.

We are also pleased to see continued growth in our local sales figures, which are nearing 25% of our overall sales volume. We continue to see new products and vendors coming on the scene, and coupled with the customer support and loyalty for locally grown and produced goods, this trend is likely to continue.We were also pleased to be able to offer a change to our member benefit Super Sale program. Due to Point-of-Sale upgrades, we were able to expand our previous one-day-only member sale to a full week. This means that during the course of the first week of September, December, March, and June, member-owners have the option to choose one transaction only and apply a 10% discount to most items. We had heard from member-owners about the difficulty of having a single day option, and with this adjustment, we were able to triple member-owner participation in September! So please, mark your calendar and plan for the next Super Sale week, December 1st-7th.

3

As many of you are aware, the continued growth in our Co-op has made things a little tighter on our sales floor. It’s hard to believe we have been in our current location for over 20 years! This, coupled with office space constraints, inventory storage, and outdated facility systems, has brought about the need for the Management Team and Board of Directors to ana-lyze our current challenges and plan for future growth. To that end, we will be hiring a consulting firm to conduct a market study which will help in this planning process. Over the next nine months, we will be conducting customer surveys aimed at gathering important data for proper decision making. This, along with market potential and penetration research should give us a very important tool as we approach our business planning for the near and long term. We appreciate your patience and cooperation through this process.

We also have plans in the works to increase our outreach programming, including a free fruit program for children called Co+op Explorers. In addition, you will see increased product sampling, and other sale driven initiatives. We will continue to offer the finest in local products, as well as expanded offerings from afar. Our goal is to offer the very best in natural and organic products, as well as re-vamping our Deli offerings and “grab-n-go” items.

Please feel free to drop us a line and let us know how we’re doing. We love hearing the feedback. As always, thank you for supporting your local co-op!

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4

A year ago, food safety regulations were a front burner issue. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had issued proposed regulations to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and New England Farmers Union (NEFU) and many other organizations mobilized their networks to submit comments to FDA. NEFU worked hard to help FDA understand that these ini-tially proposed rules would be costly and difficult for New England’s diversified producers to implement.

As co-op members and local food supporters, many of you may have helped with the grass roots advocacy campaign. Thank you –it seems like it has paid off!

In late September, FDA released supplemental rules for FSMA. The second time may be a charm for farmers across the region. WhileNEFU is still analyzing the rules, they seem to be more closely aligned with NEFU priorities, reflecting advocacy by our members and allies.

On a webinar hosted by the Conservation Law Foundation, Amer-ican Farmland Trust and Northeast Agriculture Working Group, NEFU President Roger Noonan described the changes in the rules as a potential win for small and mid-size producers. “FDA has addressed our most significant concerns,” he said.

Here are several highlights of the new regulations that were altered based on stakeholder comments:

Farms with sales of $25,000 of produce or less are exempt from FSMA. The initial rules counted all farm sales – not just produce – in the calculation of total sales. The new rules say that total only applies to produce, so, for example, a dairy farm that grosses over $25,000 and that also has a small vegetable operation that grosses under $25,000 would not be subject to FSMA rules.

Farms that hold, pack or sell produce from another farm were initially regulated as a “mixed type” facility, and were therefore subject to a higher regulatory burden. With the re-released rules, these farms will generally not be considered a “mixed-type” facility, and therefore will be regulated like other farms.

Rules on agricultural water have been significantly improved. As initially written, these rules were excessively burdensome for producers – like most in New England – who rely on surface water for much of their irrigation.

by Sarah Andrysiak, Communications Consultant, New England Farmers Union

Safety

May Be Closer to the Mark

RegulationsFood

Rules on the use of manure were changed so that the FSMA regu-lations are more consistent with other regulations covering manure use (like the National Organic Program). FDA withdrew the 9-month minimum interval between spreading manure and harvest. Organic farms will remain in compliance under the National Organic Program’s 90/120 rule.

The initial rules were unclear about the use of compost. With the re-released rules, USDA and FDA encourage use of compost application, and will conduct research into the use of manure for compost. It will release guidelines based on that study five to 10 years down the road.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture has received a grant to investigate legal and funding issues to implement the Produce Safety Rule.

Noonan said the FDA has put an emphasis on “education before regulation,” a shift championed by Vermont’s Agriculture Secretary Chuck Ross, a proponent of agriculture literacy. Additionally, the 2014 Farm Bill provides for “an ongoing process to evaluate and respond to business’ concerns,” which is a win for farms.

The webinar on FSMA also featured Linda Titus, co-owner of AgMatters, LLC, who spoke about what farms could do now to meet the coming FSMA standards. She said Harmonized GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) would likely be the metric by which farms would be able to conform to the regulations. To learn more, visit: s.coop/harmonized.

NEFU has been a leader on FSMA. Join today to support this work at s.coop/joinnefu.

The “acidity” of lemon juice and its opposite, the “alkalinity” of baking soda, are both measured on the same scale in units called “pH.” Distilled water is neutral and has a pH of 7. By definition, all acids have a pH lower than 7 and all alkali (or “bases”) have a pH greater than 7. Both acids and bases are found in many com-mon foods and beverages. Acids are also formed during digestion, as proteins (neutral when intact) are broken down into free amino acids. Additionally, foods with high sulfur or phosphorous contents, as well as uric acid (found in the muscle tissue of all animals) can form acids when digested. Alkaline foods are those with high potassium, magnesium, and calcium contents which are all capable of neutralizing acids and can be transformed into metabolically available bases such as the potassium bicarbonate ion upon conversion in the kidneys. Therefore, food provides us with the building blocks for making both acids and bases. Our body regulates this pH tightly, often compensating for too much of either. In the industrialized world, an acid-loaded diet is the norm due to our reliance on meat, grains, animal protein in general, and sugar. Far too few people eat sufficient greens and other mineral-rich fruits and vegetables, as well as legumes, to balance the acid-producing foods. Consequently, the burden of regulation falls to the major organ systems, which only have a finite organ reserve available for this task.

This topic is not a contemporary one. Famous physicians and researchers as far back as Hippocrates, and more recently WestonPrice and William Howard Hay, demonstrated that the ratio of animal protein to vegetables and other rich sources of alkalinity made an enormous difference in patient outcomes or overall health. In the past few years, research at places like the Energy Metabolism Lab at Tufts University has shown that women who eat large amounts of grain-based foods (even whole grain varieties) have accelerated bone loss compared to women who eat significantly less grain. This research, combined with the ongoing efforts of nephrologists (specialists in kidney care) such as Thomas Remer MD, at the University of CA, San Francisco, is slowly changing the way physicians and consumers alike look at this topic.

Most grains, nuts, and seeds are at least modest acid producers. The highest metabolic acid values are for meat and fish, as well as for egg yolks and hard cheeses. Ounce for ounce, these foods can cause nearly twice the metabolic acid load as grains, but because most people eat so much grain, its impact can be quite significant.

If a meal is largely made up of protein-rich foods-which often contain other acid producers such as uric acid, phosphorous, and sulfur-that meal will pose a significant challenge to the body’s buffering system reserves which are made up of our organs’ mineral content (causing bone loss, etc.) and their ability to generate buffering reactions in our kidneys. For a diet that supports optimum pH, I suggest that two-thirds of any plate or bowl be vegetables, especially dark greens, and fruit.

A Balanced Diet for Optimum pHby John Bagnulo, MPH PhD

John Bagnulo MPH, PhD, holds a doctorate in Nutrition and Food

Science, is a faculty member of Kripalu Healthy Living Programs, and has a private practice at 39 Main Street in downtown Belfast.

For more information, visit John’s website at:

johnbagnulo.com

justpicked

Hi! My Name is& I work in the

here at .

Because

stock r�m

I like the way it tastes and it

makes my belly happy

Maine Coast Sea Vegetables

It is awesome in soups! I just picked

The co-op.Amanda

dried Kelp from

Vegan, vegetarian, whatever,

it is g�d for everybody!

5

• Farmers markets in Belfast, Unity, and Bucksport are now accepting SNAP benefits;

• With funding from the national organization, Wholesome Wave, these three farm markets offer incentives for SNAP recipients (at the Belfast market, they receive a 25% discount);

• Waldo Community Action Partners (CAP) has added the Belfast Farmers Market as a stop on their Friday Belfast Shopper route. For information, contact the Waldo County Transportation Program at (207) 338-4769;

• The Good Shepherd Food Bank distributes food to several local food pantries (go to http://www.foodpantries.org for a list of sites and times of operation);

Here in Waldo County, the 33% of “food insecure” citizens who do not meet the miserly qualifications for Federal benefits, or whose benefits are being reduced, can rely on the efforts of numerous charitable organizations. In addition to many church food and meal programs,

• The Belfast Co-op has implemented the Co-op Ownership Reaching Everyone (CORE) discount program making healthy food more affordable for recipients currentlyreceiving state or federal assistance. 72 households are presently enrolled in the CORE program.

• The Co-op CORE program requirements were designed to be more inclusive than SNAP qualifications by including lower threshold programs such as heating assistance;

• The Belfast Soup Kitchen serves meals at the Belfast Center Monday through Friday;

• Waldo CAP partnering with People for People and other civic groups will provide 800 Thanksgiving and 1100 Christmas food baskets to families in need.

What can individuals do to help? Beyond giving generously, pay attention and talk about the issues and VOTE for candidates who focus on the needs of the poor and hungry.

hunger close to home

continued from P1

be my neighbor, worker-owner Ron “Goldy” Goldstein. Goldy is celebrating his 20th year at the Belfast Co-op. His employment began in 1994, but Goldy adds that he has been shopping at the Co-op since the late 1970’s. While homesteading in St. Albans, he was a member-owner of Hungry Chucks in Waterville as well as the Unity Co-op, but the Belfast Co-op offered more choices.

In the early 1990’s, Goldy was selling wood burning stoves. The Belfast Co-op general manager at the time would engage him quite a bit whenever he was shopping, often encouraging him to apply for a job. Eventually Goldy said yes, as he liked the idea of community the Co-op represented. Goldy started as the beverage and frozen food manager, then went on to manage the bulk department. When the general manager left, Goldy became the interim general manager. By 1999, Goldy had become part of a three member general management team, which he had advocated for. Goldy remained a member of the general management team until 2009, when a new management team was selected by the board and he became the special events manager. His responsibilities include food demonstrations, both in-store and in the community, including local elementary schools, where he especially loves to promote healthy food choices. He also oversees charitable giving.

Goldy was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and attended the University of Massachusetts where he graduated with a degree in recreation. At this time, Goldy was a roadie for local music acts and managed a few bands. It was also at this time that members of his family who were living in Israel encouraged him to visit. He lived in a kibbutz for a while, which he compares to a communal cooperative.

When he returned to the States, he invested in his own restaurant, the Lazy River, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Some years later, Goldy came up to Kittery, Maine to assist his sister in clearing her land. He fell in love with Maine and began homesteading on the property. During this time, he also worked as a first cook in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He then moved to Belgrade Lakes and lived on Great Pond where he was caretaker of several camps as well as first chef at a restaurant in Waterville.

His work with nonprofits followed as a director of Shelters for Children, a group home for children with autism located in Augusta. It was a six bed facility which supported the children’s ability to mainstream into society at both the school and community level. Goldy then found his way to Belfast where he started working for Wentworth Service Star Home Center, a hardware co-op. After a brief commute to Lamoine to manage another hardware store, Goldy then settled in as a representative for wood burning stoves. He mentions that during all this time he always chose to make purchases at cooperatives, whether those purchases were person-al or for business.

Goldy takes pride, and well deserved, in his advocacy and assis-tance in bringing health insurance benefits for the worker-owners of the Belfast Co-op, and he is proud of the Co-op’s support of the local economy.

When asked about people he admired, Goldy mentions several people. First, his brother-in-law, for his dedication to the community. He also admires the many people who work for Special Olympics. Musicians? Neil Young, because Neil refuses corporate sponsorship.

In five years Goldy hopes to be nearing the end of his time at the Belfast Co-op, enjoying grandchildren, and finding ways to volunteer and continue to be productive, meaningful, and relevant. And yes, he will still be a member-owner of the Belfast Co-op and giving to his community. Another person Goldy mentioned as a person he admired was Martin Luther King. I end this article with Dr. King’s definition of a neighbor, “The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human, and therefore, brothers.” Amen.

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A simple definition of a neighbor is a person who lives near another. The person I interviewed for this edition of the Co-op newsletter happens to

The time is right for participation to emerge as a driving force in the success of cooperatives.The cooperative model, by design, draws on the strength of people working together in common purpose to meet their economic, social, or cultural needs. Healthy cooperative democracies provide opportunities for meaningful participation. Yet the incredible power of participation is inconsistently realized in all of our cooperatives.

It’s a perennial question: How can co-ops encourage people to take more of a stakeholder role, whether they are owners, staff, management, or any others with a vested stake in the co-op? Rather than looking at participation as something co-ops need to convince people to do, let’s shift our thinking and see participation as a strategic way to inspire innovation and leadership in our cooperatives. Participation lives throughout the co-op, touching all. It is time to organize for it, plan for it, and tell the story that makes participation come alive. In keeping with the ICA’s goals and themes, CDS Consulting Co-op has developed a new frame-work for participation: People own, use, serve, and belong to their co-ops.

OWN. Participation as an owner is key at certain times in the life of the co-op. It might include setting the purpose, giving input on long term strategic direction, providing capital, attending annual meetings and voting for the board, and monitoring progress to make sure the co-op is properly benefiting owners. While important, this type of participation typically occurs relatively infrequently, some activities annually, some even once a decade.

participation:own, use, serve, & belong

courtesy of CDS Consulting Co-opwww.cdsconsulting.coop

6

meet aworker-ownerby Roger Quehl, BelfastCO-OP worker-owner

ron “goldy” goldstein

featuringfeaturing

continued on P8

is the delay in putting the data collected to use in determining quotas. The lag time can be up to three years. This delay leads to inaccurately assessing declines and recoveries in fish stocks.Glen says that the fishery monitors at Woods Hole Laboratory do a good job under the circumstances, but “it would also be of benefit to the fleet and consumers, as the owners of this natural resource, if we could find a way to get the science closer to real time. This all takes money, of course, and that unfortunately always seems to be in short supply.”

In spite of the hurdles these intrepid fisherfolk face, we are still guaranteed fresh local seafood here at the Belfast Co-op. Glen says that all of the filets are cut to order. When he gets a call from Jeff Butler, our meat department manager, he cuts the fish that day and sends it up to our store.

Supply chain and distribution are an art, much like fishing. Glen says, “when you are out on your boat you know, from experience, where the fish are likely to be at any given time, tide, or season. It is a similar experience with fish orders.” He states that over the years he has gotten pretty good at predicting when and what people are going to order. This experience is his basis for deci-sions about what percentage of the catch landed by the fleet in Port Clyde to keep, and what part to send into the wholesale mar-ket. The fishers fare much better, financially, on the portion sold through Port Clyde Fresh Catch due to the decreased transporta-tion costs, lack of broker’s fees, and the fact that if the fish do not go to auction, the price is not dependent on the vagaries of the auction process. He adds that their goal is to eventually market the entire catch through Port Clyde Fresh Catch, where the fish-ers gain the highest price for their product.

Port Clyde Fresh Catch was founded in 2008 as a cooperative fishing fleet out of Port Clyde with the goal of providing a sustain-able living for local fishers. A business bound to warm the hearts of any dedicated locavore, they guarantee total traceability of the fish you are eating. As their website states: “A guarantee of 100% supply-chain traceability starts at harvest, and continues through packaging at our Port Clyde based HAACP-certified processing facility. Our Community Supported Fishery (CSF) customers, restaurants, and other seafood retailers receive the freshest sea-food available. They know every step of the route it takes from the moment it leaves Maine’s clear waters until it reaches your plate.”

Talking with Glen Libby, one of the founders, the conversation ranges from the need for more workers to pick crab (Glen says anyone interested in earning up to $20 an hour should give him a call!) to the situation with the cod fisheries off the New England coast.

With last year’s shrimp harvest cancelled due to depleted stocks, the Co-op is working a little closer to the bone financially. Right now they are harvesting scallops and picking crabs as well as con-tinuing to supply fresh fish filets to their customers. Glen is hope-ful that there will be a limited northern shrimp harvest this winter. In a good year, the Port Clyde fleet can bring in 10,000 pounds of shrimp per day. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will decide whether a northern shrimp harvest will be permitted this season during a November 5th meeting in Portland.

While discussing fisheries monitors and their ability to accurately predict how much stock is in the Gulf of Maine, a notable difficulty

by Betsy Garrold, ThePopulistFarmer.wordpress.com

port clyde fresh catch - port clyde, ME

know

fisher-folkfisher-folk

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The Belfast Co-op is now a Gulf of Maine Research Institute Sustainable Seafood Culinary Partnerlearn more in the next issue of ROOTSTOCK

this Holiday season

mfortgive the gift ofgive the gift of

$22for a whole basket

$11for a half basket

available for purchase at the registers

$22for a whole basket

$11for a half basket

available for purchase at the registers

purchase a holiday Donation

Basket which the Belfast Soup

Kitchen will distribute

to families in need

purchase a holiday Donation

Basket which the Belfast Soup

Kitchen will distribute

to families in need

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novemberRound-Up for Community recipients: Friends of the Belfast Free Library, Maine Consumers for Affordable Health Care Featured Artist: Audrey Broetzman11/15 Guided Store Tour Sat. 10am, meet at Co-op entrance11/20 Screening of “Growing Local” Thurs. 6:30pm, Colonial Theatre, co-sponsored with Maine Farmland Trust11/21 Love LOCAL Day – Toddy Pond Farm (Monroe) dairy product samples, lunch special highlighting local ingredients, 10% off all Maine-made products all day.11/21 Wine Tasting & Art Opening Fri. 7-9pm, Café - free monthly sampling of highlighted seasonal wines & art show opening. Featured wines 10% off during tasting; must be at least 21 to attend.11/27 Closed Thanksgiving Day

decemberRound Up for Community recipients: Help Autism Now Society, MaineshareFeatured Artist: Kelsey Floyd 12/1-7 Member-Owner Super Sale Week12/14 Store closes 12pm for our worker-owner holiday party!12/19 Love LOCAL Day – lunch special highlighting local ingredients, 10% off all Maine-made products all day.12/19 Wine Tasting & Art Opening Fri. 7-9pm, Café - free monthly sampling of highlighted seasonal wines & art show opening. Featured wines 10% off during tasting; must be at least 21 to attend.12/20 Guided Store Tour Sat. 10am, meet at Co-op entrance12/24 Store closes at 6pm12/25 Closed Christmas Day12/31 Store closes at 9pm1/1/15 Closed New Year’s Day

campaign. Service to the co-op may be high- or low-frequency, and may be driven by both the interests of individuals and the needs of the co-op.

BELONG. People are drawn to join their co-ops by a desire to be a part of a community with shared values and belong to an association that enhances their well-being. Their sense of belonging is reinforced and grows when the co-op successfully meets their needs; when they feel included; and when they understand that the co-op also belongs to them!

PARTICIPATION’S NEW PARADIGM Building a shared un-derstanding of the co-op’s purpose is critical. Greater participation does not mean figuring out ways to prod owners to “do” or “do more” things for the co-op. Rather, the purpose is for people to understand the strategic intent of their co-op and how they can contribute to its goals in ways that benefit both their own and the common good. All of us can be motivated and inspired by seeing how our participation contributes to the co-op’s success. Together, let’s show the power of cooperative democracy.

CDS Consulting Co-op specializes in providing consulting services to cooperatives in the areas of expansion and growth, improving retail opera-tions, leadership development and governance and, starting a food co-op.

USE. The co-op offers goods and services meant to be used. Peo-ple help the co-op accomplish its goals by patronizing the co-op, working for the co-op, being a vendor, a lender, and, in general, actively par-ticipating in what it takes for the enterprise to thrive. This kind of high-frequency participation provides owners and others a chance to give feedback about how well the co-op is meeting its stakeholders’ needs and how it can improve. Meanwhile, the co-op helps owners connect their individual choices to the collective impact by articulating its strategic goals and informing people how their use makes a difference.

SERVE. Highlighting the co-op’s collective impact or common good allows people to see that when they participate as owners and use the co-op to meet their needs, they are also being of service to the cooperative. The co-op provides other opportunities for service as well. For example, a co-op needs people to serve as its leaders. It needs a board of directors, management and staff who are willing to serve the community. At a much broader level, anyone can serve the co-op by telling its story or by participating in an advocacy

from the

happy holidays

participation

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