“Across the country, people are recognizing that cooperatives are trustworthy, responsive and major assets to their communities. What makes co-ops different from other, investor-controlled businesses is the people who own it. Shoppers who depend on a store to meet their needs are the owners and investors in co-ops.
Instead of maximizing stockholder returns, the co-op will strive to serve the members, customers, local producers, store employees and the community at large–keeping the business balanced and sustainable. Your loan is an essential part of the capital that will create this strong, independent grocery store. It is an investment in quality food, meaningful jobs, and community education. Please consider a loan now. The co-op needs you, and you need the co-op!”
Stuart Reid
Executive Director, Food Co-op Initiative
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“I envision Fairbanks Community Cooperative Market as one venue that can help with food security by providing a reliable local outlet for many smaller producers. We can still buy the more exotic foods from far away, but we can buy a lot more of the basics much closer to home.”
Tom Paragi – see full article here
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“After considerable rumination can only agree that the cooperative is of vital importance to us, and indeed people everywhere should be engaged in a similar effort. Having read Slow Money by Woody Tasch and also Ultrametabolism by Mark Hyman I am seeing the world quite differently.
As a child I had polio and over recent years my mobility has been declining, severely. I learned of the possibility that this may not simply be an effect of the polio when reading Ultrametabolism. Toxins and allergies can cause joint inflammation. This seemed unlikely however I started on an organic diet, no sugars of any kind, no engineered foods, and pretty much nothing out of a box. In just two weeks my mobility has recovered to the way it was 10 years ago and I am both ecstatic about this and suddenly an evangelical community focused whole foods advocate.
It makes my toes curl, now that they can curl again, to see a child munching on their corn fructose and trans fat made thousands of miles away mass produced concoctions, their parents totally ignorant of the multifaceted consequences.
Thank you. Power to the Coop!”
Paul Morgan
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“The availability of diverse and safe food is a vastly under-rated luxury of our modern life. Having it readily available when we want it, in great diversity, and affordably, is a treasure which too many take for granted. A Cooperative grocery could improve and localize our food supply, and for that and many other reasons,
I am a board member of the Co-op Market effort, and a willing lender, and here’s why:
An established food Cooperative, stressing local production of healthy vegetables, fruits, meats, and seafoods, is not only a huge asset, it is a wonderful insurance policy for all our friends and neighbors. We now import a vast majority of our food. This is insecure, lowers its quality, and makes us less self-sufficient. All of us would be healthier, more food-secure, and the community more resilient if we develop increased production of local foods. I have committed $5000 to a board member portion of the financial nest egg we want to use to build the Co-op. This can and likely will be one of the most important community actions we can take for our future.
Won’t you join me in a community effort to build a food source and market we can be proud of?”
Rich Seifert
Board member and finance committee co-chair.
