East End Food Co-op: 2012

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Our Future Location

Participants of the 2012 Eastwood Home Tour had sneak peak of the future location of the Houston East End Food Co-op!

After viewing the historic homes of the Eastwood community, the last stop of the Eastwood Home Tour was 4119 McKinney St. The former Monterrey Food Market has been gutted and is ready for a redesign for our Co-op! The building is from the 1920s and has a rich history in the East End. Many people stopped by to share stories, ask questions, sign up for more information about the Co-op, and even join the CO-OP! We began selling our first shares during the tour and many East Enders enthusiastically signed up!

The Co-op would not be happening without the dedication of many volunteers. We have many community members that are contributing to all aspects of the organization, from donating the space to redesigning the building to creating a website. Check out a few pictures of our volunteers below!

Yvonne Pruneda with her daughter- A family team!

Alex and Esther Luster

Want to become a volunteer, or join as a founding member? Email eastendfoodcooperative@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Membership Committee Meeting

The Houston East End Food Co-op membership committee met at the end of June to disucss and review the following issues:

1) A review of Veg-fest

Several HEEFC volunteers worked VegFest Houston. They did a great job of distributing and collecting surveys, engaging with the veg community, and building more interest and moment for a food co-op in the East End. Several HEEFC stakeholders attended many sessions that we found relevant to our work.

2) Location, Location, Location
Christine reviewed several location options for co-op. The committee decided we will research and inspect as many options as are feasible. We will collect the data and review before making further decisions.

3) Farmer's Market?
The committee discussed the idea of starting a smaller farmer's market in the East End to build community and momentum towards the idea of a co-op. Members agreed that this might be a great way to start and grow the co-op movement. Upon further research into the location issue, we will make a decision and start moving towards starting a farmer's market.

The next HEEFC meeting will be at the end of July. Please visit our facebook page or email eastendfoodcooperative@gmail.com to get more involved.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Membership Committee Meeting

The following is an overview of the first meeting of the membership committee. Please post any feedback on the comments section of this post. We are specifically looking for feedback on survey questions. If you have any ideas for questions, please let us know!

Agenda Items

1. Communication Systems

2. Community Survey

Communication Systems

Since most of the tasks of the committee include some kind of data collection, data analysis, or data tracking, the committee reviewed an online data management/communication system. The web address is www.neworg.com for anyone who would like to review the 5 minute video giving an overview of the program’s capabilities. This is a subscription based program. This does not require IT personnel or software purchase. The monthly fee is “about the cost of your telephone bill”. The main advantage is that individuals can go on line and key in their own membership data. This eliminates an army of volunteers doing data entry from paper membership forms.

Community Survey

The Committee identified the following steps to the survey process:

1. Define the purpose of the survey

2. Define the target audience

3. Create the survey

4. Logistics (getting survey out, getting survey back, collating data, etc)

Purpose of the Survey

This was the most difficult item to nail down since this is a new organization and we are all charting new territory both individually and corporately. We think that the main purpose is to determine community interest level and to obtain some data that would be helpful in choosing the appropriate site for the store and choosing the kind of products to offer initially.

Target Audience/Logistics

The committee members present were unanimously uncomfortable with a door-to-door approach. They preferred working with churches, civic associations, the East End Chamber of Commerce, the U of H business school, and local HISD schools.

Create the Survey

The committee tossed around ideas for survey questions. The members present were unanimously uncomfortable with a long survey. They felt that a short and simpler survey would be best.

The following action items were established:

1. Members are going to communicate with personal contacts to gain more information about the survey process.

2. More research will be done on existing co-ops and what technology they use as well as what survey process they used.

3. Survey Monkey will be researched as a possible tool for survey logistics.

4. A draft survey is going to be written and distributed to the committee before the next meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 8:15p.m.

The next meeting is set for April 11, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the home of Gerry Vander-Lyn (4404 Pease St).

Steering Committee Meeting #2

The Houston East End Food Coop Steering committee meet for the second time at Mandola's on March 7th at 6:30 PM. Over 30 people were there to discuss the next steps for the Co-op.

We received an overview of the board meeting, a sharing of best practices from a co-op in New Orleans, and then broke into three different committees to begin the on the ground work of starting a co-op.

The committee groups are as follows:

Planning
Membership
Finance

It was great to see so many more people at this meeting! At this point, each committee is meeting and working on different tasks and projects before our next big steering committee meeting. It's never too late to get involved! If you would like to be involved in a specific committee, please email Christie at eastendfoodcooperative@gmail.com.

Keep reading our blog and Facebook page for more updates!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Founding Board Members

The East End Food Co-op is pleased to announce the founding board members:

Christie Nugent

Robert Gallegos

Nory Angel

Paul O'Sullivan

Eric Cruz

Bolivar Fraga

Steve Parker

Jac Brennan

Michael Kukuk

Peter Klein

This board is the founding board to get the co-op off the ground. Please remember that once the co-op is up and running, we will have the "official" governing board elected by the members. There are currently three female members and seven male members.

As long as everyone accepts these volunteers as our founding board, then we are ready to move forward. The board hopes to have a board meeting as early as next week to discuss several important topics: incorporation, bylaws, member structures, feasibility study and fundraising/funding options to pay for the feasibility study. It is our hope that after the board meeting we can have a steering committee meeting to give better direction to the sub-committees.

There will be a lot of need for volunteers in the community to make the East End Food Co-op a reality. This task is a lot work, but will be such a huge benefit to the community that the rewards far outweigh the struggles we will have to get this off the ground. Everyone is busy and this process can seem overwhelming. Any bit of volunteer time you can give is hugely appreciated by the co-op!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Vision and Mission of the East End Food Co-op

The membership committee volunteered to begin work on developing a mission and vision for the Co-op. Volunteer Susan Green developed the mission and vision statements based on everyone's comments and feedback at the steering committee meeting. Thanks Susan!

In order for a mission statement to work, everyone must be invested in it, and we want everyone to have the opportunity to give feedback. Take this opportunity to comment on the mission statement and vision for the co-op. Without first developing a mission statement that we all believe in, we cannot move forward. Please use this post as a space to provide feedback, revisions, comments, etc.

East End Food Co-op Mission Statement:

We aim to procure food in a responsible way—local, organic, fair, fresh—to share with our community. We strive to improve access to responsible food in a community with few food resources.

Points to consider for a vision:

· full replacement to grocery store vs supplement to existing grocery options

· Neighborhood center

· Promotion of affordable, nutritious, and quick meals

· Provide difficult to locate grocery items for area vegans and others

· Promote connection and awareness to food and how it arrives at Co-op

· Lost-cost options

· Lone Star acceptance and supplement

What does everyone think?

East End Co-op: Our First Meeting of Minds!

On Wednesday, February 7th, 2012, the East End Co-op Steering Committee had our first meeting, kicking off the development of our very own co-op here in Houston. Take a look at this fine looking group!

We discussed the mission and vision of the co-op, potential locations, and also breaking into committees to work on the various start-up tasks, including business, finance, and membership.

Below is summary of the meeting from Christine Nugent:

We had the first Steering Committee Meeting last night and I really feel like it went great! We are always looking for volunteers and encourage everyone to give what time and talents they can. This is a community project and will be solely owned by its members, so it is a wonderful opportunity to be a part of something very special and a way to take ownership of the project from the very beginning.

I talked about an exciting pilot program that is happening in our city through Houston Department of Health and Human Services. I learned about this program at a Houston Tomorrow Meeting on Houston Food Policy Workgroup. I would HIGHLY recommend looking at attending some of these meetings to learn about all the new exciting things happening in Houston with the local food movement. So, the pilot program, is to integrate Lonestar/EBT at HDHHS Farmer's Markets in Houston. The farmer's markets are Sunnyside MSC (4650 Wilmington; meets 1st Thursday of every month) Lyons Clinic (5602 Lyons Ave.; meets 2nd Tuesday of every month) Magnolia MSC (7037 Capitol St.; meets 4th Friday of every month). Additionally, something called Farm Bucks will be introduced by the non-profit Wholesome Wave with the expectation that the city will get on board and take over the program. Farm Bucks double the value of EBT benefits for recipients when they choose to use them for fresh local food, thus providing a simultaneous benefit to Houstonians in need of food assistance and local farmers. This is something I am looking into and whether Farm Bucks can be used at the co-op for those purchasing local produce, meats, etc. If the answer is "yes", then in my opinion that is a huge boost to the viability of the co-op in our area.

Susan Green is writing a "Vision" for our co-op based on the discussions we had at the Steering Committee Meeting. As I mentioned in a previous email, there will be 3 sub-committees; planning, finance and community outreach. I encourage you to look at the files I am including in this email and see if your talents or interests correspond to one or more of the committees. We have tentatively planned a second Steering Committee Meeting for March 7th at 6:30 pm at Mandola's in Eastwood. I have a meeting tomorrow morning with the president of The Greater East End Management District, Diane Schenke and the Director of Planning, Patrick Ezzell. This meeting will include information about possible buildings for the co-op and feasibility of the co-op in our community. If we were to do our own feasibility study, it would cost a minimum of $10,000. So, having the information from the GEEMD that they have already done, is a huge savings. Once we have this information, I want to have a planning committee meeting next week because it is really important that we come up with a business plan and a more concrete plan for the co-op so the finance committee can start looking at grants and funding and so the membership/community outreach committee can start looking at campaigns to recruit members. If anyone is interested in attending the meeting friday with the GEEMD, please send me an email.

Another topic that was discussed was a name for the co-op. I came up with East End Food Cooperative Grocery Store or just simply East End Food Co-op, because it was simple, to the point and I wanted people to know exactly what we were trying to implement. However, I am very open to the idea of giving the co-op a unique name, so I am also including a file with names that were given to us by a marketing specialist. We are very lucky to have been given these names for free, so I want to at least look at them and get some feedback. The overwhelming opinion of those at the Steering Committee Meeting last night was to keep East End Food Co-op because there is a lot of pride in having something so unique and special in the East End. Please give some feedback and let us know what you think, either through FB or just send an email.

We also have a blog being started about the co-op. I apologize, I cannot remember the name of the woman who agreed to write the blog, but she is already a blog writer so I'm very excited she has taken on this project! Also, we need someone who knows about developing webpages and is willing to volunteer time to develop one for our co-op. If you are interested in volunteering for this, please send me an email.

Last item, I think it is important to make ourselves aware of all the unique projects, organizations and businesses that are promoting local foods in Houston. I would like to compile a list of all of these because I think we should support them and look for their help and mentoring opportunities for our co-op. The more we reach out to these, the better for our co-op. Please send me any information on local foods projects, organizations and businesses that you know of in Houston. On this note, I have a bike ride planned for this weekend to go visit the Last Organic Outpost farm and then to the new restaurant Local Foods in Rice Village. If you are interested in joining me, please let me know. It will be a leisurely ride and I am putting together a "safe" route. The great news is, Houston has VERY little traffic inside the loop on the weekends. Well, with the exception of a few areas, but we won't be in those areas.

What exactly is a food co-op?

If you are new to the food co-op world, it can be daunting to begin digging for information. Since corporate-run grocery stores dominate most cities, the idea of a co-op brings up a lot of questions. What do you mean, the community owns the grocery store? How is a co-op run on a day to day basis? Is a co-op a non-profit? Will it provide organic food or local food, or must it be organic local food? Below are some resources to help get you started.

The History
This video shows you the beginnings of the food co-op in the 1840s. It's very interesting to see how the co-op started as focused on food, and then grew to include education initiatives and other community programs. It also provides a modern perspective on the growth of co-ops.