I am pleased to present my President’s report to the EEFC community on Board highlights and achievements from the beginning of my term in December 2021 to the end of the fiscal year in June 2022.
choose to serve the community, and whose passion and energy keep the store running. I also want to express gratitude to the 2022 Board members who have worked tirelessly and continue to show up to support the Co-op and expand how we can do so through the Board's work. As a Board member, I feel lucky to be building with such a committed and passionate group of folks. As president, I am honored to be in this role and co-leading our efforts with a skilled team of member-owners. I also want to thank my fellow non-board member-owners who continue to show up for the Cooperative. With every bulk bag of dried mangoes bought, Co-op email opened, and voice brought into Board meetings, you continue to support the Co-op and keep it alive.
During the first half of 2022, significant energy was spent around challenging the culture, norms, habits, and structures that continue to be passed down to and adopted by incoming Board members. It was during this period that we started to see the internal Board culture shift and began cultivating a culture of more effective intra-board communication and community building. I believe the challenges of 2022 influenced the Board to look at how we can better live out and model the kind of community and relationships we’d like to see within the Co-op community, our greater surrounding community, and the world as a whole. During this period, we began collectively shifting conversations and our thinking from “This is how it's been done” to “This is how it could be. And what would it take for us to get there?”
In the November 2021 Board election, four members declared candidacy for the four available Board seats. Those candidates were appointed to fill the seats with no election; this caused the Board to pause and reflect on its efforts for recruitment, member communication, election processes, and the impact that world events may have had on this result.
During this period, we also began to reexamine and reevaluate the stipends offered to Co-op Board members. Does the stipend honor the time and energy folks contribute to the Board to ensure its success? Could it better reflect the work and time commitment necessary to achieve the goals we envision and our community has spoken up about? These are the questions that the board is continuing to explore as it evaluates itself.
As I conclude this report, I want to emphasize that in the first half of 2022, the Board has been centered around setting a strong foundation for the work that needs to be done for expansion, the perpetuation of a healthy and thriving cooperative, and a more effective and better functioning Board. Over the next few months, I look forward to sharing and communicating more with fellow member-owners about what the Board has accomplished since the first half of the year and what we have been working towards.
Into FYE 2022; the co-op had net income of $335,663. For FYE 2021, the co-op had a net income of $7,441.
Current year’s net income of $335,663 was the largest in the co-op’s history and it allowed the co-op to have net income for 5 consecutive years, which is also a co-op record. There is a caveat, however. Among the many detrimental effects of COVID, were the increased expenses that came along with it.
The co-op endured 1 ½ to 2 years’ worth of residual effects. Finally, in late Winter of 2022, the co-op had its Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiven. The result of this was an add back to income of approximately $456,000, which also was tax-free per the provisions of the program.
The co-op’s year-end cash position also remained very strong, as the balance was $2,002,431. For 2022; the co-op paid the largest profit-share in its history as well. The co-op paid out $117,121 in the Winter/Spring of 2022 related to the PPP loan being forgiven. Current assets, of which cash is our largest component, continued to be strong as well. Our current assets stood at $2,629,328 for the fiscal year. Prior year’s current assets were $2,646,039. Our total members’ equity (essentially our net worth) increased by $393,048 or 20%.
Total sales slightly increased over prior year by approximately 5%. Current year sales growth was helped by the fact that FYE 2022 was a 53-week fiscal year as opposed to a 52-week fiscal year. The co-op has 53-week fiscal year every 6 years. When normalized, sales growth was approximately 3%. In terms of margin dollars, the co-op realized $4,935,829 margin dollars for 2022 vs. $4,771,330 margin dollars for 2021. Gross margin remained extremely consistent in the midst of all that was going on: 38.3% margin for the current year vs. 38.3% in the prior year.
+ urban Farms
11 & Gardens
$3,283.44 Registrants 181
in proceeds
East End Food Co-op, in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, and Grow Pittsbugh, presented the fifth annual Pittsburgh Urban Farm Tour during Pennsylvania’s Urban Ag Week (July 19-24, 2021).
The 2021 Farm Tour consisted of several events throughout the week, including workshops crafted specifically for growers and public tours open to all urban ag supporters! Thanks to the generous support of sponsors and community members, we were able to award $1,700 in honorariums to participating sites, and deposit $1,583.44 in the Urban Growers Scholarship Fund.
Featured s ites:
African Healing Garden, Braddock Farms, BUGS Homewood
Historical Community Farm, Freeman Family Farms and Greenhouse, Hilltop Urban Farms (Pittsburgh Hop Company, Bee Boy Honey), Mwanakuche Community Garden, Oasis Farm and Fishery, Sankofa Village Community Garden, Hazelwood Community Garden, Hamnett Place Community Garden and a community partner highlight with Ebony Lunsford Evans, a.k.a. Farmer Girl Eb.
in seed $1,082.25 sales
Proceeds from the 2021 Pittsburgh Urban Farm Tour seeded the Urban Growers Scholarship Fund. The fund exists to help urban gardeners and farmers in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County access professional development opportunities, including training, conferences, and workshops The PFPC Urban Ag Working Group administers the Urban Growers Scholarship Fund. Applicants may apply for scholarship funds through the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council website (www.pittsburghfoodpolicy.org).
To ensure continued fundraising for the Urban Growers Scholarship Fund, the East End Food Co-op established a fundraiser: for every seed packet sold at the Co-op, we donate 25 cents to the scholarship fund.
Sponsors:
Another year has passed by, and the Co-op has been busy! We had hoped at the beginning of the year that we would see fewer and fewer effects of the pandemic reaching our store. Alas, we continued to experience various struggles: supply chain disruption, inflation on wholesale prices, and folks experiencing Covid illness.
But despite all of these challenges, we were able to work on achieving our Ends. As you’ll find in the Finance Report, we saw positive sales growth and net income, most of which came from the forgiveness of our Paycheck Protection Loan. True to our Ends, when the loan was forgiven, we returned a portion of the net profit to staff through our profit share program, which resulted in the distribution of an additional $4.04/hour worked during October-December 2021 for a total of $117,995 — our highest payout to date!
The work towards relocating our co-op continued. As you may recall, in June of 2021, we began negotiating a letter of intent (LOI) that had been submitted to a local developer in March 2021, and we started preparing for the launch of a Capital Campaign. As the LOI conversation continued, we also negotiated an extension to our current lease through January 2026, allowing us time to continue negotiations and deal with equipment and construction delays brought on by the pandemic. Shortly after executing our lease extension, our LOI negotiation fell through. Despite a lot of effort from the Co-op and the developer, we could not get to a financial agreement that worked for both parties. I know this is a familiar blip in our long journey with expansion, but please try not to be discouraged. Although we need to find a new location, our hard work over the last two years is not for nothing. We have a financial picture of what to look for and expect in a new location, and programming plans that are transferable to another site. The Board and I are committed to getting the best deal for our co-op and will continue this work diligently. We’ll keep you all apprised of our progress!
A look ahead:
We are repurposing our former seating area to better suit our online shopping options and enhance your book, floral, and gift shopping experience! A produce reset will happen this year. The revamped produce section will include new fixtures for the center island, the dry produce table for items such as potatoes and onions, as well as a new refrigerated end cap. These updates will give our produce department a much needed update and make shopping and stocking it easier. Our front entrance is getting new doors! Our current entrance includes doors from circa 2005 and are in a need of a much needed upgrade. Sometime this Spring we can look forward to new entryway doors.
