From Soil to Sovereignty: Good Food For All
Over 140 co-operators gathered to celebrate Neighboring Food Co-op Association’s Eighth Annual Meeting, “From Soil to Sovereignty: Good Food For All” at Greenfield Community College for a day of peer-led networking, learning, and workshops for co-op development. Special thanks to our sponsors for their support and collaboration, including CoBank, National Cooperative Bank, and the New England Farmers Union, Cabot Creamery Co-op, Organic Valley, Associated Buyers, Cooperative Development Foundation, Cooperative Fund of New England, Simply Voting, CUNA Mutual Group, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, the Association of Vermont Credit Unions, Food Co-op Initiative, and Shared Capital Co-op.
Presentations:
- From Soil to Sovereignty–Good Food for All, Ruth Tyson, Union of Concerned Scientists, NFCA AGM 2019 Keynote
- NFCA Annual Meeting & Gathering Board and Staff Reports, 2019
- Addressing Climate Change Workshop & Afternoon Session, NFCA AGM 2019
- Integrating Impact Into Co-op Planning: The Balanced Score Card, Daniel Côté, Saint Mary’s University Co-operative Management Education, NFCA AGM 2019
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Assessing & Demonstrating Your Start-up Co-op’s Success, Stuart Reid, Food Co-op Initiative, and Siobain Mitchell, Assabet Village Co-op Market, NFCA AGM 2019
From Soil to Sovereignty—Good Food for All
This keynote presentation was given by Ruth Tyson, Coalitions Coordinator for the Food & Environment program at Union of Concerned Scientists, from Neighboring Food Co-op Association’s Eighth Annual Meeting & Celebration. Tyson facilitates the Good Food for All Coalition, which unites grassroots and national organizations around a vision for a just, equitable, and sustainable food system. “Your co-ops are already contributing to this work because you are putting people’s needs before profit,” said Tyson. “But how well does your co-op represent your community’s demographics? What are you doing to increase this representation and participation? And how can you, as an association of co-ops, use your collective purchasing power and policy advocacy to support racial equity in the food system?” These questions provided an opportunity for dialog among attendees on successful strategies for inclusion and how our co-ops can do more.
NFCA Annual Meeting & Gathering Board and Staff Reports, 2019
Reports by the NFCA Board of Directors and Staff on highlights from our activities and progress in 2018, and our priorities for 2019.
Addressing Climate Change Workshop & Afternoon Session, NFCA Annual Meeting 2019
This presentation from the afternoon of Neighboring Food Co-op Association’s Eighth Annual Meeting & Celebration includes the Neighboring Co-operator Awardee (Patrice Lockert Anthony), presentation on Addressing Climate Change, and important upcoming event dates. The “Addressing Climate Change: From Advocacy to Operations” workshop covers how co-ops and their members can work together to differentiate ourselves as more sustainable, community-based businesses.
- Terry Bowling, NCG, Facilitator
- Cat Buxton, Board Member, Upper Valley Food Co-op
- Kari Bradley, General Manager, Hunger Mountain Co-op
- Ed Fox, General Manager, Co-op Food Stores
Integrating Impact into Co-op Planning: The Balanced Score Card
This presentation from NFCA’s Eighth Annual Meeting features methods our Food Co-ops can use to integrate our identity and impact into strategic planning and reporting. Professor Daniel Côté of Saint Mary’s University Co-operative Management Education program offered an introduction to the topics to be covered in the next Executive Education co-op business training planned for this October 24-25th, 2019, in Greenfield, MA, and facilitated sharing of lessons learned from co-op leaders who participated in the training last Fall.
- Erbin Crowell, NFCA, Facilitator
- Daniel Côté, Saint Mary’s University
- Lexa Juhre, General Manager, Fiddleheads Food Co-op
- Patty Smith, Operations Manager, Willimantic Food Co-op
- Danny Spurr, Board President, Fiddleheads Food Co-op
Assessing & Demonstrating Your Start-up Co-op’s Success
To be successful, your Start-Up needs to make a compelling case to prospective members, investors, grantors, and lenders. This workshop for start-up food co-ops at Neighboring Food Co-op Association’s Eighth Annual Meeting & Celebration outlines Food Co-op Initiative (FCI)’s new Feasibility Assessment tool and how it can help your start-up analyze your plans and data so you can better understand what lies ahead and identify areas that need to be addressed. As part of the presentation, Siobain Mitchell (Assabet Village Co-op Market) includes how using a feasibility assessment has benefited their membership recruitment and their Co-op’s development.
Presenters:
- Stuart Reid, Executive Director,Food Co-op Initiative
- Siobain Mitchell, Board President, Assabet Village Co-op Market