Welcome to our June newsletter. We now have over 700 paid members! Thanks to everyone who has joined so far and helped us spread our co-op’s mission in our community. In case you missed it, we are in Edible Boston this month! Go find a copy and share it with a friend. This infographic covers the basics behind what we are trying to build:

*“Cooperation nation” infographic from Edible Boston!*

We Need You!

If you’re not yet a co-op member, join over 700 members by investing in the Charles River Food Co-op. Lifetime memberships are $200, and cover the entire household, available at:

https://charlesriverfood.coop/join

Help us create a wonderful food store to benefit yourself and the community. You can also help us spread the word by forwarding this email, printing and posting a flier on a local community bulletin board, or sharing our posts on social media.

And remember that current members are welcome and encouraged to join our board meetings, every other Monday night from 8-9pm on Zoom. See how we work and learn about ways you can help. Email us for dates and to get the meeting link.

Member Spotlight

This month we’re spotlighting CRFC member Mark Jurman (Member #338), who lives in Auburndale. He is a retired science researcher and high school biotech teacher.
Mark has previously belonged to two other food co-ops, starting in 1975 when he joined a co-op in West Philadelphia as a working member hoping to meet like-minded people. He moved to the Boston area in 1992 and joined the Boston Food Co-op located in Allston, where he was also a working member.

Mark worked there every Sunday in the refrigerated storage area, stocking things like milk into their showcases from the back. He accumulated a lot of empty cardboard boxes that he took to another part of the store to be broken down. That’s how he met his wife of 28 years—she was the working member assigned to break down his boxes. Talk about meeting like-minded people!

The Boston Food Co-op no longer exists. We asked Mark where he buys his produce now that Russo’s has also closed. He says that in the growing season he goes to both the Newton and Waltham farmers’ markets. The rest of the year he reluctantly shops at Star and Whole Foods.

Mark’s favorite vegetable these days is the shiitake mushroom. He enjoys frying them in a wok, experimenting with achieving different levels of crispiness. He loves their texture, though he admits it’s a bit rubbery—something his wife and two daughters are not so excited about.

Message from the Board

This month we are working on upping our marketing efforts, starting with renewing our social media ad campaign, which has been fairly effective for us in the past. If you have any ideas about how we can raise awareness of our co-op, please let us know by emailing info@charlesriverfood.coop.

We continue to get new ideas and learn about best practices by meeting leadership teams from other co-ops and by participating in the national co-op community. We were recently featured in FCI’s 2022 impact report (see page 8 for some familiar faces).

We also had a well attended open house on May 22. If you missed it, you can find the recording here and you can read the slides here.

Thank you to the folks who have stepped up recently to volunteer, especially Kathy Diamond and Scott Shurr who helped put out this newsletter! We are still looking for volunteers. Here are our highest current priorities for volunteers:

Board candidates (especially someone who can serve as treasurer)
Join (or lead) the election committee (commitment starts now through our election in the fall.
- Organize the board election process
- Recruit and screen potential board candidates
- Plan our first annual Owners Meeting event

If you’re interested in any of these volunteer opportunities (or others), please reach out to us at info@charlesriverfood.coop.

Community News

Waltham Fields Community Farm Fundraiser

We recently contributed a Charles River Food Co-op membership to the Waltham Fields Community Farm for their annual fundraiser. Congrats to Brian S., who is now member #700 in our co-op! We donated a membership based on Co-op principle 6: Cooperation Among Cooperatives, which says that co-ops serve their members best by working together.

Boston Area Food Co-ops make progress

The Assabet Co-op Market (assabetmarket.coop) recently opened in Maynard. The co-op began when a group of people met in 2012 to talk about opening a community-owned grocery store. Ribbon cutting for the new co-op, with more than 2100 owners, was on May 31. They are located at 86 Powder Mill Road.

The Dorchester Food Co-op (dorchesterfoodcoop.com) will open at the end of July in the Bowdoin-Geneva commercial district, bringing fresh, affordable produce to one of Boston’s most underserved neighborhoods, long considered a food desert according to co-founder and board member Jenny Silverman.

Dean’s Beans is converting to a worker co-op

The Boston Globe recently published a story about Dean's Beans Organic Coffee Company (deansbeans.com), a roaster of organic and fair trade beans based in Orange, MA. The owner, Dean Cycon, decided to retire from his role at the helm. On July 1, the company will officially become a worker cooperative. Employees can buy a voting share (at Dean’s Beans, this was $5,000) to become worker-owners, entitling them to a voice in business decisions and a slice of the profits.

Co-op Principles: Democratic Member Control

We wanted to highlight why our co-op is different from other organizations, and we'll be doing a monthly segment on each co-op principle for the rest of the year!

Cooperatives are democratic organizations, which means that the members get to choose who runs the co-op. It also means that the elected leaders (the co-op's board of directors) are obligated to serve on behalf of the members and make decisions that represent their wishes. We are embodying this principle by conducting our first annual board election this fall. If you are interested in serving as an elected leader of our co-op, please contact info@charlesriverfood.coop to find out more about how you can run for a seat on the board.

For more information about the 7 co-op principles, check out the International Cooperative Alliance website.

As always - thank you so much to all of you for your support and please spread the word by forwarding this email to a few friends.

In co-operation,

Melissa, Tim, Nick, Jen, Lew, Thomas, Benny, Lissa, Christina (and thanks to new newsletter contributors, Scott and Kathy!)

P.S. If you missed any of our previous newsletters, you can find them on our website.

We reached 700 members!