BONNIE: Welcome everyone…Bonnie introduces herself as Project Manager and introduces cooperative nature of presentation with Board members.
BONNIE
Visualize: 12,000 square ft in downtown Keene behind Armadillos Burritos. Place to eat outside, etc. When you walk in the doors, you see local food displayed and you recognize the names of the farmers/local producers who grew it. Bulk, etc. Full service food store
Opening in 2012
We are a diverse group of non-profit leaders, and business community, young energetic, etc.
Making healthy, local food accessible to community members all year round Creating more local jobs and keeping money in the community–our co-op will be locally owned forever, and will create +/- 70 jobs once established Supporting the region’s farmers and producers and helping to preserve the rural landscape Offering education and training (cooking, nutrition, and food preparation and preservation classes, etc.) to employees, the general public and community leaders Working with other businesses on sustainable development in the region Serving as a community center with workshops and community service programs Helping to promote a strong local economy : every dollar spent at the co-op and other local businesses has roughly three times as much local economic impact as a dollar spent at a non-locally owned business Helping to create a walkable community by providing a community-owned food market in the downtown of Keene The commonly used industry ratio (CDS) is that every million dollars of annual sales requires ten employees, so we are projected to have 7 million of sales, thus +/- 70 employees
BONNIE: Growing regional demand for local food Community surveys indicate need for co-op Over 75 community volunteers since 2008 Project support from over 40 students from Keene State and Antioch University Nearly 30 businesses have already expressed support for the co-op 9 Board members 22 Working Group members We want it! More than 440 community members have already joined the MCM Co-op since the April 24 th membership kick-off Surveys: over the last 3 years, over a dozen surveys have gone out to the community, all of the responses have been overwhelming in their support of a local food co-op and demanding access to more locally produced food year round More recently, on February 24, 2010 , 1,103 students from Keene State College (almost one third of the total 4,866 students enrolled) responded to an online food co-op survey. Of 1,086 responses, 88% of respondents indicated they would purchase locally grown food if the price was competitive.
BONNIE: The region has been demanding a co-op for a long time...now we are doing it!
BONNIE: Global: 1994 livelihood of 3 billion people (half of the world’s population) was made secure through co-operative enterprises National: Cooperatives directly employ nearly 500,000 people in the U.S. and with indirect effects, they support more than 1.2 million jobs that stay in local communities. State: 1936 - 2008: 4 food Co-ops in NH: Concord, Hanover, Lebanon, New London -- 72 years 2009 - 2010: 5 new food co-ops being organized/launched in NH: Keene, Littleton, Manchester, New London, Tamworth From Economic Impact Study of 17 NE Food Co-ops (2008): Buying Local : In the last year alone (2007), the co-ops reported buying $33 million worth of local products. Employment: The average wage (of food co-op employees) is 18% higher than the average for food and beverage stores in the same states. New London, NH— Seventeen food cooperatives funded a research project to collect and analyze data about their impact on the regional economy. The participating co-ops are located in Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
BONNIE: This is our timeline—but our timeline depends upon YOU
So you might be thinking—this sounds great—can’t wait to shop there. Maybe I’ll join in a year or so… We talked to other co-ops about how to start up and there are 3 broad categories of funding sources: We learned that it all starts with member/owner contributions. The rest of the financing depends on raising the member/owner equity. Once we have the members’ contributions, we can raise the rest of the money to build and open the co-op.
A co-op is a member-owned and member-controlled business, meaning we own it, we run it, and we benefit from it together. An important piece of the Co-op start-up funds come from member equity, so the sooner you sign up, the sooner we can open the doors!
1) The STORE! 2) Owner of a cooperatively run local business, a member-owned and member-controlled business that operates for the mutual benefit of all members. You have a voice in how the store is run. 3) If the Co-op does well, You Do well! The Co-op’s profit is returned to its member-owners in proportion to the amount of business each member has conducted with the cooperative. Cooperatives keep money, jobs and profits in the local community. 4) Co-op ownership means putting your dollars where your values are: quality food for our community , healthy communities (Vision 2020), creating jobs, and supporting local farms and businesses. 5) You receive specials from local businesses who support this initiative.
To publicly acknowledge your organization’s participation in and commitment to our Cooperative Employer corporate match program, we will prominently feature (if you wish) your organization as a Cooperative Employer on our website and in our newsletter communications that are distributed to over 900 people to date. “ These local organizations have invested in their employees and in the health and economic vibrancy of their community by offsetting the cost of Monadnock Community Market Co-op membership for their employees.”
This is a community-based project, so your support matters and to really make this work, we need your help! Thank you for helping to organize this community owned co-op market to serve the needs of our region!
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