From the Board: Celebrating 50 Years of Community Giving
For the last 50 years, our Co-op has been providing good, healthy food at a good price to the community at large. And while the Co-op started as a place for good food, the Co-op has always been more than a food store, both foundationally and practically, as guided by the international cooperative principles we adopted in 1973.
As you may well know by now, one of those founding principles is Concern for Community. In the last Board Update, we relayed to you that we have been discussing, through a series of retreats, how we can create even more positive impact in our community. Rather than create a profit for stockholders, we are committed to investing back into our store, employees, member-owners, and community.
The Co-op has, over the years, through its fiduciary practices and ongoing sales growth, managed to accumulate capital in excess of our current need for expansion and unforeseen downturns (like COVID). After supporting our General Manager’s moves to increase employee wages and commit to a livable wage structure, rewarding employees for the great work they do as well as remedying infrastructure needs, we have decided it is time to invest further into our Concern for Community.
We can all agree that our community has many needs, and each of us has our own specific areas of interest. The Co-op mission and principles all point to encouraging local farmers and healthy food with an eye to sustainability, including agricultural practices in Skagit Valley and beyond. So, this is where we focused our attention; creating an environment and infrastructure to make a bigger long-term, persistent difference.
After much discussion, and after looking at several options – both in approach and the size and nature of the commitment – participating Board members unanimously agreed that we would begin with a partnership with a $100,000 contribution to Viva Farms. You can read about Viva farms and the details of our commitment in this issue’s cover article.
As we celebrate our Co-op’s 50th anniversary, we find it fitting to embark on a such a meaningful journey of supporting healthy, local food and the legacy of sustainable farming in Skagit County for the next 50 years and beyond.
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A Note of Transparency: Board Member and Treasurer Rob Smith is the Director of Programs and Operations at Viva Farms. While Rob was involved in board discussions regarding community investments, and while he did provide valuable information about Viva Farms at a purely informative level, when it came time to vote on any specifics of the selection of Viva Farms as the recipient, he appropriately recused himself.