Bonnie Hudspeth, in her role as Programs Manager for the Neighboring Food Co-ops Association, is here to bring you the tales of New England food co-ops SUCCESSFULLY working together to tackle the thorny issues of food insecurity, implicit bias, and the barriers we unknowingly put up around many of our food co-ops. Bonnie has several stories to share that highlight the great work being [...]
Our culture has a lot of beliefs about money that range from its worship to seeing it as the root of all evil. Food cooperatives especially have been historically conflicted about capital, once seeing it as the cause of destructive economic practices, to the point that raising money was once practically shunned. This left many cooperatives under-capitalized and some of them had to close [...]
By Thane Joyal 158 January - February - 2012 When many retail food cooperatives were formed in the 1970s, the distinctions among worker cooperatives, consumer cooperatives and not-for-profit corporations were not considered to be barriers to doing business in a culture of cooperation. Regardless of the legal form used to organize the business, in retail food co-ops across the country, members commonly worked, carrying [...]
By Thane Joyal 151 November - December 2010 The Uniform Limited Cooperation Association Act (UCLAA) and a variety of state statutes have provided new financing flexibility for organizers of food cooperatives. In addition, these business forms present governance considerations. Organizers of retail food cooperatives considering using the LCA form of organization should carefully consider and clearly articulate their decisions on the appropriate distribution of [...]
By Marilyn Scholl, Joel Dahlgren, Bruce Mayer 148 May - June - 2010 Creating solutions begins with building the foundation for the future you want. One of the remarkable things about cooperation is that mutualism encourages solution-oriented growth, built on a vision of the common good. How profitability and capitalization are handled in cooperatives is an indicator of how much the co-op is actively [...]
UPDATED: March 2016
By Marilyn Scholl 136 may - june - 2008 Interest in food cooperatives is growing, due both to increased interest in local, natural, and organic foods and to increased awareness of our economic vulnerability. More and more communities want the stability and accountability that a cooperative can offer. Cooperative ownership is an economic model that can create great benefits for our communities and member-owners. [...]
By Bill Gessner 129 march - april - 2007 Where we gonna get the grubstake? The 300 food co-op stores in the United States, owned by more than 400,000 consumers, face the continuing challenge of building capital if they are going to continue to grow and develop to serve their members and communities. As much as we might want to ignore this challenge, co-ops [...]
By Bill Gessner 086 January - February - 2000 Cooperatives need to pursue debt capital from members through the creation of member loan programs and member loan drives. The purpose of this article is to suggest some of the basic principles and organizing strategies that underlie a successful cooperative member loan program. However, this article is in no way an offering of or a [...]
