Letter: Common Share Food Coop Seeks Board Members

By Lisa Depiano, Monica Garcia, and Madeleine Charney

We greet you at a time when many of our freedoms in our country are under threat, leaving some of us feeling helpless. Getting involved with Common Share Food Coop is a way to exercise our local collective power! When you get involved with the food coop, you strengthen food justice, help create local democratic jobs, support our farmers, uplift diversity and cultivate resilience in our community. When you get involved with the food coop, you’re saying “business as usual” doesn’t cut it.

So how do we move forward? On the one hand, we are closer to opening the store than ever! See SUMMARY OF PROGRESS BELOW.

On the other hand, we come to you as a three-person board in full transparency to say we need you now. We often get asked “when will the store open” and we like to say “we move at the speed of the community”.

As many of you know we are an all volunteer board of members (like you) who have rolled up their sleeves and said it is time to get to work to get the doors open. In fact, our community’s plan for a brick and mortar food coop in Amherst cannot move forward with full integrity unless we bring eight new board members onto the team this spring.

We need to have our full board capacity to be able to sign lease documents, launch the capital campaign and start hiring.

To be a board member you  don’ t need to have opened a grocery store before. What you do need is commitment, belief in our purpose and a willingness to learn or lend your skills in grant writing, business development, community engagement, IT, and fundraising.

Join Us

• Board members’ roles and expectations
• Fill out the board application or contact bod@commonsharefood.coop with questions
• Joining a Circle (aka committees) is another way to help the food coop succeed.

Now is the time to act and co-create to support the Amherst community to thrive in these uncertain times. Together we can bring on the joy that fuels our purpose.

Community Meeting 4/15 at 6 p.m.
To find our more information and to get involved Please join us at a special, time sensitive member-owner meeting on Tuesday 4/15 at 6pm at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst, for more information and to answer your questions. More information below.

We look forward to working with you,

Lisa Depiano
Monica Garcia
Madeleine Charney

Common Share Food Co-op Board of Directors

COOP MEMBERSHIP OWNER MEETING
When: Tues. 4/15 6pm- 7:30pm
Where: at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst, 121 N Pleasant St, Amherst, MA 01002
Zoom option: HERE

And mark your calendar for our annual meeting on Sunday June 1st at the Mill River Park Pavilion where we will hopefully welcome eight new board members and celebrate the ability to move Common Share Food Coop into the future. Together.

Summary of Common Share Progress
We are in active lease negotiations with a property owner for a new mixed use building

The location for the store is:

• On the ground floor
• On a main entrance to town
• Walking distance to high density housing
• On a bus line
• Walking distance to Fort River Elementary School and other shops
• Includes community meeting space
• In an area of town without a full service grocery store<

Almost 1000 households have become member owners (942).

Store designers from UNFI have been hired to start doing a floorplan; they are coop industry experts

Lawyers are drafting capital campaign (fundraising) documents

Business plan and proforma show profitability