We stand in solidarity with our Asian American and Pacific Islander staff, Owners, customers, and community. We denounce racism and white supremacy. We recommit ourselves to making Co-op Market a safe and inclusive space for all members of our community.
Like cooperatives everywhere, we embrace Concern for Community as one of our core principles. We believe we all have the capacity — and responsibility — to effect change.
What can you do? Here are a few resources to counter racism, support Asian Americans, and help communities heal.*
• Learn the basics of bystander intervention. This site provides training on how to protect your neighbors and co-workers when bias and harassment occur in front of you. For the basics on bystander intervention, click here.
• Support allies of the Asian community with your dollars. One example is the Asian Pacific Fund’s Solidarity Fund, which specifically goes to organizations working to address anti-Asian sentiment.
• Take a stance on social media. Use the hashtags like #StopAsianHate and #StopAAPIHate.
*Thank you to National Co+op Grocers for identifying these resources.
PSA: Positive COVID-19 Case
12/20/20
To Our Owners & Community,
In the interest of transparency, we want to inform you that we have learned that one of our staff members has tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This is our first COVID case.
The employee last worked at the co-op on Wednesday, December 16. They sought testing on Thursday after exposure to someone outside the co-op who had tested positive. Our employee received their positive result Saturday and informed us later that day. They never exhibited symptoms while at work.
This employee works in the grocery department receiving and stocking freight and has moderate contact with the public. They wore a facemask at all times while working and did not have prolonged close exposure to other employees or shoppers. (Prolonged close exposure is more than 15 minutes within six feet of another person.)
Throughout the pandemic, we have followed recommendations from state, local, and national health authorities. We are contacting the Alaska Department of Health & Social Services and will follow any additional guidance.
We have informed all of our other employees and encouraged them to seek testing. Our co-op has a generous sick leave and vacation policy, and we will work with staff members on a case-by-case basis to ensure that they have the support they need. As part of our standard policy, we ask that any staff exhibiting symptoms of respiratory illness or fever stay home, contact their supervisor, and notify their physician.
Our co-op prides itself on its cleanliness and food safety standards, and we are taking multiple steps to serve you, care for our staff, and be a responsible member of our community. We have implemented rigorous daily cleaning practices, including frequently sanitizing and disinfecting the store’s high touch areas (e.g., freezer door handles, bathrooms, and bulk food bins). We disinfect shopping carts after every use and clean check stands regularly throughout the day.
Furthermore:
• We screen all employees for temperature and symptoms before each shift.
• All staff self-monitor throughout the day and stay or go home if sick.
• We require employees and shoppers to wear cloth face coverings at all times while in the store. The only exception is for employees who are eating in our break room. We allow only two people in the break room at any given time.
• We ask all employees to maintain 6-foot social distance from others.
That we have remained COVID-free for 10 months – even with more than 300 shoppers in the store almost every day – is proof that these precautions are effective. We will continue to employ them.
Our primary concern right now is the wellness of this employee, other staff, and our community.
If you have any questions about our COVID-19 policies, please contact Shaun Sims, Interim General Manager.
Thank you for your support as we do everything possible to keep our community safe, healthy, and well fed.
A Letter of Gratitude
As 2020 draws to a close, we pause to reflect. In the darkest days of this strangest of years, we find our hearts warmed by gratitude.
We are profoundly grateful to you, our Owners and community, and to our staff. Thanks to all of you, we’ve navigated 2020’s uncertainties and surprises, and now we find ourselves poised for a healthy New Year.
It would be impossible to describe 2020 without mentioning the challenges. The pandemic forced us to reinvent the way we operate – more than once. We closed our Deli seating area, revamped our Bulk department, started a curbside grocery service, and created new cleaning protocols. At the same time, wildfires, severe storms, and even a derecho created shortages and disrupted supply lines from Seattle and beyond. Like almost all small businesses, we’ve had a hard time finding stockers, cashiers, and buyers, so we’ve sometimes had to operate with a skeleton crew.
So much has changed for all of us. We expect the challenges and disruptions to continue for some time. Yet here we still are, in some ways stronger than ever, taking care of each other.
For this, we say thank you.
To our community:
• Thank you for continuing to shop with us. You’re making fewer shopping trips, but you’re buying more when you do come in. Our 2020 projected sales growth was 4%, but our sales are more than 10% higher than last year. Your support during the pandemic has been phenomenal.
• Thank you for wearing a mask in the store. You’re helping us keep our employees and our community safe. We especially appreciate those who don’t believe masks are necessary but wear them anyway. Your generosity of spirit helps reassure others in a time when so many are afraid.
• Thank you for your generosity and concern for our community. Although you’re making 16% fewer shopping trips, Lend-a-Hand donations are up 5% this year. July round-ups increased by 10%, and September was 14% up! (Owners, don’t forget to vote for next year’s Lend-a-Hand recipients. Learn more here.)
To our staff:
• Thank you for showing up day after day, despite the risks and stress. We know you didn’t sign up to be on the front lines of a pandemic, but you’ve risen to the challenge. This year has revealed how essential your work really is. We are grateful for your dedication and cheerful service.
• Thank you for shouldering extra responsibilities and filling in wherever you’re needed. You’re keeping our store clean, safe, and stocked.
• Thank you for handling difficult interactions with grace and kindness, always. You are an inspiration.
As we look ahead to 2021, we are excited to welcome our new general manager, Rich Rosenberg. He comes to us with extensive leadership experience and expertise in groceries, specialty foods, and deli and prepared foods. He has held leadership roles at Whole Foods in Austin; Balducci’s in Bethesda, MD; and most recently, Fairway Market in New York City. Expect to see Rich at the co-op later this month. When you do, say hello. He’ll be getting acclimated to life in the Far North, and we’re eager to see where his enthusiasm and knowledge can take us in the coming years.
In cooperation,
Co-op Market Board of Directors:
Art Gelvin, Brian Kassof, Anduin McElroy, Chase Nelson, Madeline Patterson-O’Dell, Hilary Shook, Rich Seifert
Shaun Sims, Interim General Manager
P.S. If you wondered whether you’d missed our annual newsletter, which we usually print in October, expect a report on 2019 after the first of the year. COVID, staffing issues, and our GM search interrupted our regular publishing process.
Owners: Help select our 2021 Lend a Hand recipients
It’s time for our Owners to choose which local nonprofits receive our Lend a Hand register round-ups in 2021.
Twenty-eight nonprofits applied, and 12 of those have never received Lend a Hand donations. We invite our Owners to select 11 of them for our monthly register round-ups. (We reserve December for a giving tree and round-ups for the Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living.)
Please review the applications linked below before completing the Lend a Hand selection survey. By request, we have arranged the list into two groups: nonprofits that received Lend a Hand donations in the past and those that have not. You can also see the number of years an organization has benefitted in parentheses. To view prior years’ totals, click here.
Click here to vote. As always, each Owner account is allowed only one vote, so please discuss your choices with others in your household before voting.
Our survey will remain open through December 24th. Please contact Kristin Summerlin, Marketing & Owner Services Manager, if you have any questions.
The following applicants have never received Lend a Hand funds.
• Delta Junction Trails Association
• Downtown Association of Fairbanks
• Fairbanks Concert Association
• Guys Read/Gals Read
• Interior Alaska Cancer Association
• Interior Alaska Land Trust
• Kids Voting
• KUAC Friends Group
• Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitors Center
• North Star Community Foundation
• Santa’s Senior Center
• UAF Alumni Association
These applicants have received Lend a Hand round-ups in prior years. The number of years is indicated in parentheses.
• Alaska Songbird Institute (1)
• Bread Line Inc./Stone Soup (8)
• Breast Cancer Detection Center (2)
• Calypso Farm & Ecology Center (3)
• Fairbanks Animal Shelter Fund (5)
• Fairbanks Community Food Bank (4)
• Fairbanks Resource Agency (1)
• Fairbanks Senior Center Meals on Wheels (3)
• Friends of Creamer’s Field (6)
• Georgeson Botanical Garden Society (4)
• Green Star of Interior Alaska (5)
• Literacy Council of Alaska (5)
• NAMI Fairbanks (1)
• North Star Imagination Library (1)
• Northern Alaska Environmental Center (3)
• The Folk School (3)
2020 Annual Meeting Agenda and Guidelines
Co-op Market 12th Annual Owners’ Meeting: 4 p.m. Saturday, October 24, 2020, via Zoom
It’s almost time for our Annual Owners’ Meeting! Wondering what to expect? Here’s our agenda.
We’ll be meeting virtually, via Zoom, and so we’ve created a set of Virtual Meeting Guidelines with important rules and instructions. Please read them before attending our meeting.
NOTE: Registration is required. Please RSVP here. When you register, you will receive the Zoom login information by email as soon as we’ve confirmed that you are an Owner.
Our meeting will start at 4 p.m., but you can enter the waiting room starting at 3:30 p.m. Please come in at least 10 minutes early to be sure you don’t have any technical problems.
During the business meeting, you will be asked to vote by poll to approve the agenda and the minutes from last year’s meeting. You can read the minutes here.
We look forward to seeing you Saturday!
Please join us – virtually – for our 12th Annual Owners’ Meeting!
NOTE: Registration is required. Please RSVP here.
Each year our Owners come together as a community to get an update on the state of the co-op from our board of directors and general manager. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will hold our 2020 meeting virtually, via Zoom.
Please join us!
Our agenda will include:
• Election Results
• State of the Co-op
• GM Search Update
• Q&A Session
• Prizes!
This year’s guest is William Deal, Western Corridor Development Manager for National Co+op Grocers. (NCG is our co-op of retail food cooperatives.) William has served our co-op as a consultant and advisor. He’ll discuss challenges & opportunities facing the cooperative community nationwide.
Owners must RSVP for the meeting. If you are on Facebook, we have also created a Facebook event to help you keep up to date.
Save the date and register ASAP for an opportunity to receive one of 50 gift bags filled with samples and treats!
When you RSVP, you will receive the login info for Zoom via email. We encourage you to try connecting at least five to 10 minutes before the start of the session on the 24th. If you haven’t used Zoom before, you can find video tutorials here.
Questions for our Q&A session should be submitted ahead of time via email. Please send us your questions before Friday, October 23rd.
Though we can’t meet in person this year, we hope you’ll join us to celebrate our achievements and learn about what’s in store for your co-op.
Masks required: No exceptions.
Note: We are no longer giving away free masks to those who forget, so please be sure to remember your mask.
Because we are responsible for keeping our employees and our community safe, we are not making any exceptions to our mask policy. Every person in the store who is older than five must wear a cloth or paper face mask that covers both mouth and nose at all times. People who are unwilling or unable to wear a mask, for any reason, cannot enter our store.
Please note that mesh masks are not acceptable, as they are completely ineffective at containing the virus. We reserve the right to ask customers to leave the store if they enter wearing an item obviously intended to undermine our policy.
We understand that there are many reasons why someone might refuse to wear a mask. For those who do refuse, we offer curbside shopping as a reasonable accommodation. If that option does not work for you, other stores offer a delivery service.
Our policy is based on advice from medical professionals in our community, as well as state and national health authorities. All of them agree that wearing a face mask is the simplest way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 when in public.
While our shoppers spend approximately 10-15 minutes in the store once or twice a week, our employees are exposed to hundreds of people every day. Some of our staff members are medically vulnerable, and some live with elderly or medically vulnerable family members. We will not endanger them. In addition, if the virus were to spread to our employees, it would be impossible for us to keep the co-op open for our community.
Thank you for wearing a mask. We appreciate your kindness. Most of all, we hope the virus can be brought under control until a vaccine is developed – and then we can all meet each other face to face again and see each other smile.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact Shaun Sims, Interim General Manager, or members of our Board of Directors.
Call for Candidates: We Need Your Voice on Our Board of Directors
Calling all Co-op Market Owners! We need your voice on our board of directors.
Cooperative Principle #2 is Democratic Member Control, and our co-op is governed by a seven-person board of directors. Board members are Owners and are elected by their fellow Owners. This year, we have three seats with three-year terms up for election.
Serving on the board is a great way to be more involved with your community, and you’ll be helping shape the future of your co-op.
Candidate applications are due August 31st. Candidate packets, including an application form, are available here, or pick one up at Customer Service.
Update: Finding the Next General Manager for Our Co-op
Hello Co-op Market Owners!
We have begun our search for the next person to lead our co-op into the future, and we wanted to update you on our progress. In this time of economic uncertainty and disruption, it is critical that we find the right person to help us navigate the chaos, maintain our financial strength and growth, and operate in accordance with our mission and values.
In May 2020, we promoted our retail support manager, Shaun Sims, to serve as our interim general manager. The board of directors then established a budget and timeline for our search and formed a search committee. To help us, we hired Carolee Colter, a consultant with extensive experience supporting co-op boards in hiring general managers. Carolee is a member of Columinate, the national consulting cooperative that helped us open our doors and operate successfully.
The search committee includes Rich Seifert, Art Gelvin, Brian Kassof and me. Because we value input from current staff about this critical hire, we also asked Amber Hernandez, the co-op’s bookkeeper and HR assistant, to serve on the committee. The final selection will be voted on by consensus by the full board of directors.
The first step in our search was to gather input from the Co-op Market board, the management team and staff. We conducted a survey to determine the qualifications and experiences we should seek in our next GM.
Based upon that feedback, we determined that our new general manager should possess these qualities and experiences:
1) Strategic Thinking
2) Business Planning and Financial Management Skills
3) Managing People, Team Building and Leading
4) Embrace of Co-op Values, Service Orientation, Integrity
5) Retail Grocery Experience
After finalizing the job description, we will advertise the position both locally and nationally. We will reach out to community organizations and other cooperatives. We’ll also publicize it on our website, on Facebook and Instagram, and through our newsletter. If you use social media, we hope you will share our announcement with your friends and colleagues.
We would like to hear any ideas you may have about possible candidates or places to send the announcement. Please feel free to contact the search committee with your questions and ideas.
In cooperation,
Chase Nelson, Search Committee Chair
Please help keep our employees and community safe. Mask up!
Since late June, new COVID-19 cases have skyrocketed in Alaska and in our community. Public health authorities continue to recommend a combination of social distancing and wearing face coverings as the most effective way to prevent the spread of the virus.
Starting Monday, we will require all customers and guests to wear a face covering in our store. Whether a cloth or paper mask or a scarf or bandanna, the face covering must be worn at all times and must cover both the mouth and nose. The only exception is for children ages 5 and younger.
If you forget to bring your mask, we will provide one. Stop at the Customer Service desk before shopping. If you prefer not to wear a mask or have a medical condition that makes it impossible, we do offer reasonable accommodation by shopping for you through our Curbside Grocery Pickup program. There is no charge for this service.
Our employees have been required to wear masks while working since early April. We wear our masks to protect you, and your masks will help protect us.
While our shoppers generally spend 10-20 minutes in the store once a week, most of our 30 employees work in the store five days a week, eight hours a day. We currently serve between 300 and 375 customers every day. This represents a significant potential exposure to COVID-19 for our staff, and we are determined to do everything we can to keep them – and you – safe.
Thank you for the care and concern you’ve shown our employees as we’ve adjusted to the challenges of operating during a pandemic. Maintaining a safe, welcoming shopping environment continues to be our priority, and we are grateful for the trust you’ve placed in us.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact Shaun Sims, Interim General Manager, or members of our Board of Directors.
