5 minute read
Board News
LETTER FROM
BOARD PRESIDENT DAVE DEBLANDER
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Springtime is around the corner and it could not come at a better time. We are all so glad to say goodbye to 2020 and welcome in 2021 and the springtime season. With spring comes new life, warmer breezes, flowers, garden planting, and this year, more than ever, a sense of optimism. We all went through an incredible year of trials and tribulations with the pandemic, the hurricane, the election and the bridge disrupting our lives. Now a fresh spring arrives and what better time could there be than now to get control of our lives and health and determine to make a healthy, happy, grateful start to the new year. We all at Ever’mans are wanting to be a part of your plans and your healthy ways. We just celebrated the first-year anniversary of our Nine Mile store and it was a huge success. So many people showed up and had a wonderful time, including many folks who had never been in the store before. The vendors and the entertainers were great and the staff at Ever’mans did a wonderful job of keeping it safe and having the event maintain social distancing. I think people were ready to celebrate something and they really did. I recently read that there was a pandemic in the time of Shakespeare in the early 17th century and for two years the theaters and the economy was shut down, much like today. The good news is that after the two years when everything opened up, there was a groundswell of activity and theaters and stores were booming. I can certainly envision that happening to us and let us all hope that it does.
We are happy that things are slowly getting back to normal. For instance, we are sampling many of our wonderful products again and that is something everyone loves. We have staff that take care of samples and please make sure you stop by and try out their samplings and say hello. They are friendly folks. Also, you may have noticed both hot and cold bars are open again and I know, if you are like me, that is a great thing. I usually eat 4-5 times a week at the café and I really missed it when they were closed. Have you tried our new sushi? We have a great new company making wonderful sushi and make sure you give it a try. Your Board of Directors are still meeting monthly, but we continue to meet via a combination of live and zoom. Hopefully, that can change in the upcoming months but if you want to come, you can still be at the meeting because the staff is there at the Educational Building and they are participating live while the board members are on zoom. This year your board would like to be able to reach out to other local organizations in order that we might be able to work together and help each other. If you are part of an organization that would be a good partner with Ever’mans, feel free to contact us or to contact me, we would love to talk. You can contact any board member at board@everman.org. Happy springtime to one and all!!
BOARD NEWS
2021 ELECTION RESULTS
The 2021 Ever’man Board of Directors election was uncontested. The Board had three seats available and two applicants. The applicants were Jena Melancon (incumbent) and Larry Adams (new elect). These candidates meet the requirements for continuing as a board director and were seated at the December 7, 2020 board meeting.
Please join us for our upcoming board meetings. All board meetings are held at the Ever’man Educational Center at our Garden street location. All active members are welcome to attend, share comments during Open Forum and participate in the cooperative community.
JENA MELANÇON
LARRY ADAMS
As an Ever’man Board member, I am interested in contributing to the long-term health of our community. I admire the co-op’s educational and outreach programs, and participating in realizing its vision is exciting. As a participant of the City of Pensacola’s International Relations Advisory Board, the University of West Florida International Advisory Council, and Board of Directors of the North Hill Preservation Association, I see the opportunity to serve on your Board as a wonderful growth opportunity. And, as executive director of a local nonprofit, I want to put my organizational talents towards a cause I admire, as change starts at the local level.
I became involved with Ever’man Cooperative Grocery and Cafe from an outside professional service role to the co-op. I was privileged to have been selected as the design architect for the Downtown Store renovation and as the designer of the wonderful new Nine Mile location. Through these several years I was able to learn a great deal about how a co-op arrangement works and spent time directly with the board members advising them as they made decisions for a responsibly sustainable and energy efficient set of facilities. It became clear to me through this process that Ever’man is more than a grocery store; it’s a destination for your whole health. That comes in the form of not only the foods but the learning and community outreach that they provide. Having been diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma in 2019, my health and how to take care of myself became critical for me and having a place to get clean, wholesome and vitamin rich unprocessed foods is beyond valuable. I see my role and value as someone that understands the process of making decisions in a board setting and what it takes to work as a team to serve the overall membership so that the mission and core values of Ever’man Cooperative Grocery and Cafe are delivered consistently.
