Fulfilling the Co-op’s Ends Bobby Sullivan, GM
Every year around this time it is my duty to report to our Board of Directors on how well we did the previous year in achieving our Ends Policies. This entails meeting, as best we can, policies regarding products, education, finance, staff environment and our community. It’s a great time to reflect on how we’ve done, so we can move forward effectively to accomplish more in the future. The overall goal is stated in our Global Ends Policy: to be a transformative force in our community and in our work, and to serve as a model of a sustainable business alternative that nurtures social and economic well-being in an environmentally sensitive manner. My reporting starts with an interpretation of the policies to make sure the board and I are on the same page with our perception of what the policy actually means. After all, being a “transformative force” could be interpreted in many ways. For that reason I am also asked to provide an operational definition, so all can be observant of what the policy means to me in the day-to-day operations of the store. My interpretation of the Global Ends Policy is currently this: “The FBFC exists to cause or to be an impetus of a major change in the character or condition of our local area, the people in it and the work we do. We are also here to serve as a model of a sustainable business alternative, so the processes we adopt to do this work should always have the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance. Our financial health should not be at the cost of the social and environmental health of our area, or the planet.” Because of the expansive scope of the above policy, it is helpful to focus in on the individual Ends Policies that govern how we run the business. Therefore, my operational definition is essentially - that by fulfilling the individual Ends Policies, we will thus fulfill our Global Ends. Below are the individual policies and the data points that support our accomplishments.
I’ve abbreviated these as I’m guessing you don’t want to read the eleven pages I turned into the board. PRODUCTS: Maximized availability of healthful and organic foods and non-food products grown, manufactured, or produced locally with ecological and social responsibility for the community. Interpretation: The Co-op will make available as many local products as possible, as long as they are produced with ecological and social responsibility for our community. “Local” as defined by the Co-op means products coming from within a 150-mile radius of the store.
We continue to serve as a first outlet for many new local companies. Because we don’t require them to have a bar code, we are able to bring their products in before any other store and this helps these companies figure out what works and what doesn’t, before they have to make significant investments in their operations.
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Bobby Sullivan General Manager
Sage Turner
Finance & Project Manager
Clare Schwartz
Outreach Co+ordinator
Ryan Prenger
Grocery Manager
Darren Stroupe Produce Manager
Greg Mosser Deli Manager
Melissa Fryar
Health & Body Care Manager
FBFC Board of Directors
We are an officially recognized Non-GMO-Verified Participating Retailer, as evidenced by their website: http://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/search-retailerendorsers/
EDUCATION: An empowered and informed community with access to education and customer assistance.
Interpretation: The FBFC will make available to the general public as many educational materials as possible regarding natural foods and cooperative principles. The FBFC will work diligently to respond to the needs of the community at large, providing as much access to this information while offering knowledgeable and courteous customer service. The FBFC will also strive to be involved with as many off-site educational opportunities that also promote cooperative principles. Data: We had two Diversity Trainings for staff in August 2014 with Kendra Turner. She did this workshop with the Asheville Police Dept. and has done numerous trainings for Green Opportunities. The training she offered is called “MICRO-INEQUITIES TO MICROAFFIRMATIONS” and the objectives were to raise awareness of the unintentional, yet harmful, things we may be saying and doing every day to our coworkers and the citizens we serve; examine strategies for dealing with those situations; offer ways to turn those micro-inequities into micro-affirmations that actually strengthen morale, build more cohesive work groups and improve productivity, as well as employee and citizen satisfaction. We subscribed to a 5-part webinar series for managers on workplace culture improvement and the workshops were attended by all managers in 2014: Strengthening Accountability & Positivity in your Co-op’s Workplace Culture, Changing a Workplace Culture, Strengthening Your Culture During Expansions, Identifying & Eliminating Structural Pitfalls that May Hurt Your Culture and Building Strong & Effective Managers and Teams.
Justina Prenatt
We rebranded our Global Ends Policy, posting it in key locations in an effort to get more attention to our Ends Policies.
Danielle Goldstein
We worked more closely with the American Herbalists Guild to get more attention paid to the classes our Wellness Manager is doing at the store which included: Healthy Digestion, The Herbal Body, Herbal Aphrodisiacs, Spring Cleanse & Herbal First Aid.
President
Vice President
Jennifer Gustafson Secretary
Bob LeRoy Treasurer
Sarah Oram Alanna Hibbard Kelly Fain Pauline Heyne Josh Littlejohn Daav Wheeler Rosemary Fletcher Jean Karpen Board Assistant
French Broad Food Co-op 90 Biltmore Ave. Asheville, NC 28801 Tel:828.255.7650 info@frenchbroadfood.coop www.frenchbroadfood.coop
Monday-Saturday 8am to 9pm Sunday 11am to 7pm
We enhanced our partnership with Living Web Farms and we have scheduled multiple classes hosted by them which will happen at the Co-op instead of at their facility. These include How to Cook Healthy and Quick, Healthy Eating Tips for People on a Limited Budget, Sauces 101, Vegetable Roulette (teachers tag-team to give out creative recipe ideas for seasonal veggies), Fermentation, Things You Could Be Cooking from Scratch, Something on meat agriculture/culinary/butchery/charcuterie, Winter Salads (could also do a broader salads class), Using Whole Grains, Resetting Digestion, Alleviating Food Allergies, DIY Spice Blends (can also do growing spices). 2014 saw the continuation of an annual educational event for the Co-op, called the Urban Homesteading Fair for the 2nd year in a row. This event featured over 30 vendors and educators presenting ideas and products, including: bee keeping, mushroom growing, poultry raising, mead making, permaculture, alternative energy sources, bread oven building, hops growing, alternative education, herbal medicine making, and fermentation. In addition to the outside exhibits, several educational classes were held in the community room above the Co-op. A Non-GMO Shopping Guide and a Non-GMO Shopping Tips brochure were available for free at the registers for the whole month of October and are continually available by the front door. Posters detailing which brands were funding either side of the state level GMO labeling initiatives were posted in the store and on our website. Our Produce Manager situated a recipe station in his department on the front display, directly across from the front door. We got worker owners more involved with demos in the store and have made the program much more consistent. FINANCIAL HEALTH: A financially viable, transparent, ethical cooperative with equity growth, patronage refund, and community investment.
Interpretation/Operational Definition: The FBFC will strive to have business transactions that are always ethical, transparent and open to scrutiny, balancing the needs of all stakeholders equally – Co-op owners, staff, vendors and creditors. The FBFC will provide full disclosure to the Board of our financial health and financial transactions in general. Our business will be conducted so as to produce sufficient income to provide owner patronage refunds, owner equity growth and community investment. Even with the implementation of a Living Wage for staff, the Co-op remained profitable, with a higher net profit than the NCG benchmark for financial viability. Our thrifty staffing levels were recognized by our national organization and I was asked to present our methods at both the regional and national levels. We grew labor levels very conservatively because of all the competition we knew was coming and as sales have risen, our labor as a % of sales has become notable. In the words of the Chief Operating Officer of the National Cooperative Grocers (NCG), this has placed us “among the most productive operators in the system.” We have the 3rd best level of productivity in the entire national organization of Co-ops and this is remarkable considering our size. The Co-op broke sales records in 2014 for largest week ever and the largest day ever, which is significant considering all the new competition we are experiencing. Equity growth:
STAFF ENVIRONMENT: A respectful, responsive, and safe work environment in which a fairly compensated management, bargaining unit, and worker owner team has a strong sense of ownership in the success of the Co-op. Interpretation/Operational Definition: The FBFC will make sure that our staff feels respected and all owners of the Co-op will be responsive to one another in an atmosphere of tolerance and approachability. Our staff will also feel fairly compensated for their work and will join in the feeling of ownership of the enterprise and the success thereof. Data: We became Living Wage Certified in early 2014! That had a dramatic impact on wages for non-management staff, especially in relation to how out of line we were in 2013 with NC’s average wages. 2014 saw an increase of $3/hour for entry level staff. Details are below on how we compared to other businesses in NC in 2014.
We got new computers for staff who use them and new front end software to make checkout data collection much easier. We had an all-staff training where we watched a 20 minute video about customer service and then engaged in 40 minutes of discussion. It was apparent at both sessions that staff felt engaged and that it was a very positive exercise. Each quarter, managers received updated department strategy sheets with goals and discussions take place with the whole group, for how we can enhance each department’s results. We held a 29th anniversary party for Roz Marlowe, our ailing employee who will not likely be working at the store for much longer. The staff survey for 2014 was accepted by the board and deemed positive overall. Fulfilling the Co-op’s Ends continued on page 10
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Self-Help Credit Union Self-Help Credit Union is a member-owned, cooperative, community development credit union with a mission to create and protect ownership and economic opportunity for all. Self-Help serves more than 18,500 members in Western North Carolina, providing responsible financial products and services, including home and business loans; checking, savings and money market accounts; IRAs and CDs; and online and mobile banking. Our members include individuals, organizations and businesses of all kinds who share our commitment to socially and environmentally responsible, community investing. And Self-Help has been making loans for homes and businesses in Western North Carolina for 40 years! Some of these businesses include Blue Ridge Biofuels, Salsa’s, FLS Energy, West End Bakery, French Broad Food Co-op, and numerous child care centers.
Pictured: Jane Hatley, Western Regional Director for Self-Help; Franzi Charen, co-founder of Asheville Grown Business Alliance; and former Self-Help employee Abby Suarez
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You can invest in your community too! Consider opening a Go Local CD by visiting Self-Help’s branch on South French Broad Ave. in Asheville, this website: www.self-help.org/golocal, or stop by the French Broad Food Co-op on Tuesday, March 17 from 11 am – 1 pm to speak to a Self-Help employee in person! www.self-help.org
Greeting from the Deli! Greg Mosser, Deli
Breakfast is here! Since mid-February, the GO-Kitchen-Ready program has been supplying us with tasty hot breakfast. Available from open until the lunch menu goes out at around 11AM, our breakfast menu includes biscuits made with Carolina Ground flour and local eggs! Don’t forget to pile on the sweet potato hash!
In the meat world, we’ve got Asheville’s own Wild Salmon Company’s salmon fillets in the freezer again, after a year without. Their lox and hot-smoked salmon portions are rounding out the meat cooler as well, hiding among all the other great stuff we’ve got in there. A reminder – all our 1-pound packages of ground beef from local sources (Hickory Nut Gap, Apple Brandy, Wright Farm) are $5.98 each every day – the best price in town!
Also, we’ve finally got real Emmenthaler Swiss back in the cheese case, along with a special limited edition farmstead cheese from Yellow Branch with tomatoes and basil…they only make it once a year, so get it while you can!
ALMOST SPRING! By Melissa, Health & Body Care Manager
Ahh! We are almost there! Spring, with all of its warmth and growth... so delicious after a cold and dark winter. It is kind of amazing holding onto hope throughout the winter and finally seeing small signs of life: buds bursting, more light and lifted moods, the smell of the earth thawing and teeming with life. Every year is a delight. And every year, spring rushes in with a million activities and a huge to do list. For many of you, Spring is a challenge due to allergies. This area is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, which means LOTS of pollen. My favorite way to support the body during this time is to support the liver. Spring is traditional “cleanse” season and including great herbs like dandelion root, burdock, yellowdock, milk thistle and tumeric can actually help minimize allergies (when taken over time) as well as improve digestion after a winter of heavier fare. Bitters, as many of these blends are called, are not just for cocktails! Include them daily before meals to improve digestion, hormonal balance and skin problems. Bitters also help to clear excess estrogens from the body, which many of us can benefit from in this age of plastics and pseudoestrogens. We have many terrific bitters blends including Urban Moonshines bitters in original, orange, and maple. One of my favorite over indulgence remedies is about 1/2 oz. bitters mixed with tonic water. This is wonderful after a heavy meal or too many beers at the local tap room. Very refreshing. It is also time for the suncare and insect section to reappear! Don’t forget, as you spend more time in the sun, to protect your skin. That includes increasing your intake of antioxidants. Berries, vibrantly colored fruits and vegetables, green tea...all of these will help protect you. One of my favorite Antioxidant syrups:
5 Berry Syrup
1 part Hawthorn berries 1 part elderberries 1 part bilberries 1 part rosehips 1/2 part goji berries Mix 1 cup of the berry blend with 4 cups water, cover and simmer for about an hour unreduced by 1/2. Strain and add 2 cups of raw, local honey and mix together well. Keep this refrigerated and enjoy as a soda (mix a tablespoon with 6 oz. of mineral water), by the spoonful, stirred into yogurt or over ice cream.
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This is the season to forage for those new wild greens! Chickweed, nettles, dandelions, violets...oh my! So many weeds to choose from. Consider: Taking an identification or foraging class! Buy one of the many great wild food and foraging books we have! Get in the kitchen! Gain food security by eating right out of your yard or neighborhood. Here are a couple of my favorite wild food recipes, just in time for Spring: page 6
Dandy Dip
1/4 cup plain yogurt 1/2 cup cottage cheese 1 cup fresh dandelion greens garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste Blend all together well in a blender or food processor and use to dip veggies, bread, or crackers. Feel free to embellish with other tasty herbs such as tumeric, thyme, etc. Makes 1 cup.
Susun Weed’s Creamy Violet Soup 2 Tbsp. olive oil 1 cup leeks (sliced) 4 cups violet leaves 4 cups water salt to taste 4 cups milk
Saute leeks in oil for 3-5 minutes and add chopped violet leaves. Add water and salt and bring to a boil. Cook for 15 minutes, then puree in a blender or with an immersion blender. Reheat, adding milk and warming thouroughly. Garnish with violet flowers and/or a dash of nutmeg. Great warm or cold. Check out Healing Wise by Susun Weed for more great recipes! I have been really excited about the permaculture principle of looking at what is growing around you and utilizing it. I love vanilla, kava, damiana....many herbs that do not grow here, but I am really excited about looking at our native plants (and in many cases) invasives and utilizing those more often. What antibacterial herbs do we have? Herbs for belly issues? Anti virals? Look around and begin to know these plants and their uses. Also, consider leaving lambs quarters and purslane and chickweed in your garden. These plants are often nutritionally superior to the plants we normally grow for food. And, they are less work! I hope Spring brings goodness and warmth to you all. Continue to check out our aisles for great new products to meet your health and beauty needs. And meet me at the Urban Homesteading Fair, where we will be learning and concocting herbal goodness again this year.
on a side note:
In the news lately, I’m sure many of you have heard of the report on herb adulterations from various big box stores. Unfortunately, this is often what happens when certain herbs become popular really quickly. The reality is, these are agricultural products. The world can only produce so much each year. This year, for instance, the Asian market has bought the majority of the maca harvest out of Peru. That means drastic price increases and out of stocks for the rest of us. Each year, around February or March, we see out of stocks in bulk herbs because last years harvest is gone. Until the new harvest comes in and is dried and processed, there is none to be found. It often happens that some companies will do anything to increase sales...even if that means adulterating (aka lying). My recommendation is this: don’t buy herbs at a big box store. They do not specialize in these products, cannot help you with these products, and most often have no idea how they are sourced, by who, what country, irradiation? We work hard to know this information. We look to companies that have been in business for 30 years or more and who often grow at least some of their own herbs. Companies like Eclectic, Herb Pharm, Gaia Herbs, and Red Moon Herbs grow, wild craft, and/or ethically source their herbs. Most of them test for purity as well. We know that many of the Chinese herbs and foods coming out of China are likely to have heavy metals and contamination in them, so we are working to source more locally. We continue to do this work because it is important. We, just like you, want to know that the herbs and supplements we are taking are good quality. The reason we shop at a Co-op and health food store is because we want better quality than the mass market provides. Good luck getting help from big box or internet source. This is why it is so important to shop local. shop small. Most definitely shop your co-op! If you have any questions about any of our products, please ask. We would love to help!
Green Blessings, Melissa
Have you picked up your new Co-op card?
New owner cards are ready for pick up at the registers. Come and get yours today! Also, Co-op Worker Owners will be making calls to our entire ownership database to make sure we have all of the correct information to reach you and send you updates, deals and coupons. You can update your information over the phone or in the store next time you shop. We look forward to seeing you. page 7
Healing with Purifoy Flower Essences Lorin Purifoy, BA
“I am working with some essences from Purifoy Flower Essences and they are so powerful and wonderful. This is exactly why I chose to work with her essences as opposed to a local ‘herbalist’. This is something else, something better. I can so connect with her Journeys because I do this all the time... Follow the call of Spirit wherever it takes me, always leading me to the most transformational experiences, to powerful messages and secret places...I believe Lorin’s essences were the key, allowing the changes and other work I was doing to really integrate and to open me to receive spiritual healing...This is Sacred Medicine. She is a powerful Healer working for the greater good. I am so grateful for this experience and her support and also honored that I can support her.” ~Kristen A. - Victoria, BC, Flower Essences are Vibrational Remedies that carry the unique ‘signature’ of the Flora (tree, crystal, etc.) within a medium of water that’s ‘activated’ and then stabilized with brandy. They are not an extract as a tincture would be, nor is there a scent like an essential oil. Essences are true energetic remedies that vibrate very fast, just as our nervous system does and as a result, there’s an energetic match. We can receive healing, clearing and balancing to our emotional, etheric, mental and physical bodies from working with them. Animals also respond very well to them. Purifoy Flower Essences vibrate at a high frequency and are crafted predominately from local wildflowers by connecting with the Devas (plant spirits) with reverence and ceremony. Every step, from creation to bottling is an Intuitively Guided process, conducted with love and care. Purifoy Flower Essences can work in a ‘layering effect’, bringing awareness around blocks, patterns or beliefs that you are ready to change, as well as giving you gentle emotional support. The Essences know how to adjust to your needs each time you use them. Purifoy Flower Essences offer a wide selection of potent remedies. Also offered are Essences from Hawaii, Power Spot Essences from Belize, Trees, Gems/Crystals, an Elements and a Chakra set, blends around specific intentions, healing mists (essential oils and intuited vibrational essences) custom, personalized blends and practitioner kits.
Lorin Purifoy, B.A., sole proprietor and Creatrix of Purifoy Flower Essences, is also an intuitive healer, sound shamaness, Facilitator and Carrier of the Feminine Healing Arts through The Fountain of Life (www.thefountainoflife.org). She holds Plant Spirit and Healing Circles, Remote Healing journeys, Sacred Cacao Ceremonies and transformational sessions in person or by phone. She resides with her partner surrounded by the Pisgah National Forest in the South Toe area of NC. www.purifoyfloweressences.com
Lindsay Majer Speaks at the Co-op on Food Insecurity in Asheville Daav Wheeler
We were broke, the kids were hungry, and the only place nearby to find food was a corner store. We were at Lindsey Majer’s presentation on “Nourishing Community: Food (In)Security”, doing the Food Insecurity Exercise, which gave us a glimpse of a situation that families are experiencing right now in the Asheville-Buncombe area. Our problem was how to feed our family for a week with the $117 left over from our other monthly expenses. “Maybe if we had canned baked beans and white rice for dinner...” Then Lindsay brought us the news that the children needed $60 for new shoes. That was it. We gave up. We just weren’t going to make ends meet that month... But in real life, when you have two kids depending on you, you can’t give up. You have to keep going. “And 15.5% of the families in Buncombe County are currently facing food insecurity,” said Lindsey to her audience. “Think of the stress that causes in our community.” Lindsay is the social enterprise and food program manager for the training and community development organization Green Opportunities (GO). She was at the French Broad Food Co-op (FBFC), speaking not just about nutritional deprivation in our area, but also about food relief efforts and the innovative solutions her organization and others are creating to build sustainable systems for food access in low-income neighborhoods. Poverty is usually a causal factor of food deprivation, but only one of many, because the causes are complex. The Asheville metro area currently has a low unemployment rate of 4.1%, but there are many people who are underpaid, even though they may be working a full-time job or several part-time jobs. Likewise, inadequate transportation can make it hard to get to a supermarket to buy fresh food items, or a family can find themselves living in a “food desert”, where no supermarket wants to locate. For a financially-challenged family, everything is harder. There is help. In the Asheville-Buncombe area, there is an outpouring of concern for the hungry, and groups are working on different approaches to raising nutrition levels. For six years GO has been performing a valuable service to the community by offering life skills and job training for poor and at-risk individuals. Now the organization is taking the next step to include food production and business start-ups, all the while making sure that the benefits of
these efforts are cycling back into the neighborhood. They offer Kitchen Ready, a food service training program that is moving into food sales, and have plans for gardens and greenhouses. The FBFC is a supporter of GO and a collaborator in the work of the organization. The Co-op, in the person of Bobby Sullivan, our general manager, is aiding the development of an innovatively designed neighborhood food center in the Southside Community, which presently has no local grocery outlet. Stephen Smith, Robert Morgan, and Anna Marie Smith, are GO graduates now on the Co-op staff. These interactions between FBFC and GO are proving to be beneficial to both groups. Hopefully, we will be able to maintain and expand this supportive relationship. We send many thanks to Lindsay for speaking to the FBFC about the important topic of food insecurity in our community. Watch for more speaking events at the Co-op about efforts in our town to build sustainable food systems and how we as FBFC members can participate. Providing nutritious food is our priority. Let’s work to see that all the community is well-fed!
Would you like to help the FBFC develop a “Nourishing Communities” program? Let’s talk it over as we dig in community gardens, deliver food to the sick and stranded, gather food stories, serve in free kitchens, or other Food Service activities. Email :Clare Schwartz, Outreach Co+ ordinator, at outreach@frenchbroadfood.coop or DaavWheeler at (828) 989-6805. Our power is our people. Let’s go to work for our community. Kitchen Ready serves lunch from 12:00-2:00, Monday through Friday at the Arthur R. Eddington Center, 133 Livingston St. in Asheville. Meals are provided on a donation basis and are open to the public. If you need a meal, you can find a meal there; or you can go to support the work of Green Opportunities. Either way, enjoy your lunch and donate as generously as you can.
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Fulfilling the Co-op’s Ends continued from page 3 COMMUNITY: Within cooperative values, an ever-widening circle of community members with healthier and more environmentally restorative lives. Interpretation/Operational Definition: The FBFC will operate with the objective that our work will result in more people living healthier and more environmentally restorative lives. We will also work to incorporate a broader demographic of people sustaining and improving on the health and environment of their communities as well as realizing improving personal health for the individuals therein. DATA: Our work with Green Opportunities (GO!) continued as we stayed engaged with their “Retail Ready” program, which is planning the opening of a grocery store around the end of 2015. The Development Group for the project includes members from GO!, Green Sage and the Ujamaa Freedom Market. We also nurtured the start of their “Kitchen Ready” program, by having them supply breakfast to our hot bar. Organic Growers School (OGS) has become a much more significant partner, as we are now one of their main sponsors. This includes sponsoring a whole tract of classes on Food Security at the Spring and Fall conferences in 2015, as well as a tract hosted by us on the topic of Co-ops. They will also be helping us with our execution and marketing of the Urban Homesteading Fair in 2015. Our partnership with Living Web Farms will ramp up significantly in 2015 with a whole slew of classes at the Co-op, detailed in the Education section of this report. Our FBFC Wednesday Tailgate Market is perhaps our closest and most important local partner. 2011 was a year that saw an intense transition in their ranks, but their sales remained steady and 2012 proved to be a great year for them. 2013 got even better due to our facilitating their ability to process EBT and credit/ debit transactions at the market, totally almost $14,000 of extra sales for their market over the course of 2 years. We will continue to work with them to continue to help them increase sales, especially by doubling the size of the market and making it much for visible from the street. We have continued our sponsorship of the SE Wise Women’s Herbal Conference. This involves providing thousands of dollars of food at cost for the conference. The American Herbalist Guild become a new partner in 2014. In 2015 they will help promote and sponsor Melissa Fryar’s classes here at the Co-op and they are already sending people to us for supplies and resources for herbal projects. As an organization they provide legal and scientific data to keep herbalism relevant, legal and growing. The FBFC will continue its relationship with the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) by being its top sponsor. We gained this status by contributing to their non-profit LEAF In Schools & Streets and we recently upped our sponsorship level by contributing food to the festival. Our camp page 10
store there has been very successful and this will continue through 2015, while we will also further develop our relationship with their non-profit. We now consider Just Economics a community partner and beyond being certified by them as a Living Wage Business, we are looking for opportunities for further collaboration. We unveiled a newly branded Back to Basics program featuring a comprehensive group of staple food items at an affordable price and there’s a complete list of the items on the website. The goal here is to make it less of a barrier for low-income people in our community to shop here on a regular basis. We got new patio furniture to make the Co-op a more comfortable place to hang out. We added a Co-op Calendar to the website, so owners and consumers can keep up to date with our events. We have restarted regular Owner Potlucks and they have had consistent attendance. They feature discussions among the attendees, mirroring those at the Annual Owner Meeting about how owners would like to see the Co-op transform in the next few years. Their notes are taken down and used by admin staff. We got new shopping carts and they have been well received. They are bigger than the grey ones and much safer for carrying kids. We had our parking service repaint the lines in the upper parking lot. New owner cards were distributed to owners in 2014, as they came through the checkout line. Even expired owners got them, hoping that it will inspire them to renew their ownerships. Owners received a rebate for the third year in a row and this time, because of our new POS system, we were able to give them store credit instead of paying it out. Because their rebate amount was flagged at the register when they came through the line, we had a record redemption rate. After a disappointing start to the year, our Fall owner drive was wildly successful and ownership has continued to rise dramatically into 2015. The following is recent ownership data: