East End Food Co-op: February 2012

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.