Update on Classes at the Co-op

By Meg Klepack, Outreach and Local Food Manager

As anyone who has tried to sign up for a City Market class in the past few months has noticed, our classes are overwhelmingly popular. In the past few years, we’ve increased our class offerings and have been able to reach more members of our community with food and herbal education each month – last year we saw the number of class participants grow 41%!

The popularity of our classes also leads to some increased costs and some concerns about folks signing up, but not showing up, for classes. In an effort to address these issues, we’re making a few changes starting with our February classes.

Most classes will now be offered for a nominal fee - $5 for City Market members, $10 for non-members. This fee will help pay for the cost of the materials used and compensate our excellent instructors. We also anticipate this fee will cut down on the number of people who sign up but don’t show up for the class.

This decision was not made lightly. We don’t want to turn people away from classes for lack of funds so we will make scholarships available to individuals unable to afford the class fee. Scholarships may be requested by emailing me at mklepack@citymarket.coop or calling 861-9753.

Our Pennywise Pantry tours, the Herbal Clinics, and various other classes throughout the month will continue to be free.

Class registration and payment will continue to be through the same online system we’ve been using. People without computer access or those wishing to pay by cash or check may stop by our Customer Service desk to register. Remember, you can also use our in-store computer kiosk to sign up and pay for classes.

At the same time, we’ll be instituting a new cancellation policy. We’re asking class attendees to give us 7 days’ notice if they need to cancel their class registration. This will give us enough time to issue a full refund as well as allow someone on the waiting list into the class (and give them enough time to plan accordingly). Refunds will not be available if we receive the cancellation with less than 7 days’ notice.

We look forward to continuing to grow and strengthen our educational offerings in support of our Co-op’s “Global Ends”: making sure our community has access to progressive social, environmental and healthful choices; residents enjoy an enhanced quality of life; the local food system is strengthened; the cooperative model is supported; and our owners have a sense of pride in their cooperative.

As always, feel free to be in touch with questions or comments about our classes at learn@citymarket.coop or by calling us at 861-9701.