Share the Love this February

John Tashiro, General Manager

Welcome to February, with an extra day this leap year to affect some positive change! You may have heard the recent news around our efforts to support the Underhill Country Store while they make the transition to cooperative ownership. Once the current owners indicated they would be closing the store this winter, the Underhill community quickly rallied to form the Mansfield Cooperative and gather Member pledges. We’re excited to assist in their efforts into mid-February with staffing, writing up procedures, conducting a market study and working together to figure out what a future collaboration could look like.  

One of the seven cooperative principles, Cooperation Among Cooperatives, leads us to support all sorts of Co-ops, fledgling and long-standing. We’ve not forgotten our own roots as a buying club in the last 1960s and early 1970s. Were it not for the incredible commitment and drive from Members, staff, the City and the broader community in conjunction with our cooperative network, we would not be where we are today. It is an honor and opportunity to give back and pay that support forward to other co-ops whenever we have the chance; we want the cooperative economy to grow and thrive.  

Speaking of giving back, I want to take a moment and share how proud we are to have Hunger Free Vermont as our partner. While we were shocked and deeply saddened by the recent theft of funds by an employee at Hunger Free Vermont, the dedicated staff continue to demonstrate their invaluable role addressing food insecurity and poverty. Their hard work to broaden school meal programs, influence state policy, and improve food security through the Teaching Kitchen as well as many other programs, has positive affects across our state. The Co-op will continue to partner with Hunger Free Vermont and other like-minded organizations to help find both short and long-term solutions to these issues that are complex and multi-faceted.  We encourage those who are able to donate to Hunger Free Vermont’s Phoenix Fund which will assist them in rebuilding their cash reserves and paying for expenses related to the related theft investigation.

I’d be remiss if I also didn’t include a monthly update on our South End expansion progress:

Logistics. Phase II of our environmental assessment is scheduled to finish within the month. The zoning amendment that would allow us to build a grocery store at the corner of Flynn Ave. and Briggs St. was reviewed and approved by the City Council’s Ordinance Committee early this month. The Ordinance Committee is sending the amendment back to City Council for a second reading and public hearing, hopefully at their February 16 meeting. 

Design. We have selected Freeman French Freeman as our architectural firm and DEW as our construction managers for this project. We are working closely with them and our partners at Pomerleau Real Estate on site preparation and building plans and design. We continue to work with consults and our staff on the interior layout of the store.

Community Engagement. By the end of February, we will have presented at every Burlington NPA and will be heading back to the Ward 5 NPA on February 18. This February 18 meeting is required before we can apply for zoning permits. We’re finalizing plans for larger community and Member engagement sessions in late February or in March to share some tangible building designs and gather your feedback. Once these dates are finalized, we’ll share them widely so that we can hear from a wide swath of our community. 

We are excited as ever for the opportunity to serve the South End community and we’re still on schedule to open the South End Co-op in June 2017.

As always, thank you all for your continued support. We are committed to serve you, our Members and the community. Looking forward to seeing you at the Co-op and wishing you our very best.