The Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference
by Liz Hawley, Education and Outreach Coordinator
Cooperative Principle Six: Cooperation Among Cooperatives—“Cooperatives serve their Owners most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, regional, national, and international structures. You are more successful when you cooperate with others who know how to cooperate.”
Principle Six was in the spotlight in early March when nearly 300 fellow cooperators descended upon Madison to further the cooperative movement at the Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference. This group of people represented co-ops from across the country that are in different stages of starting up, from the nascent stages where the problem the group is trying to address is recognized, and the idea of a co-op as the solution is born; to co-ops that are in the feasibility and planning stages who are talking about market studies and pro formas; to co-ops in their construction phases and preparing to open their doors.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Eleven years ago, Indiana Cooperative Development Center (ICDC) and Bloomingfoods Market Co-op in Bloomington, Indiana joined forces to offer a training event for start-up food co-ops. Both organizations were receiving calls and requests for assistance from a number of start-up groups, and so was born Up & Coming/Up & Running. That first training event was one day and had 35 attendees including speakers. For the first seven years, Up & Coming/Up & Running was held in Bloomington and co-hosted by ICDC and Bloomingfoods. By 2016, the conference had outgrown the space and was looking for a new home. ICDC reached out to Food Co-op Initiative (FCI) and a new partnership was formed, and then they moved on to identifying a new food co-op to host the event. They approached Outpost Natural Foods in Milwaukee, and after Outpost agreed, the conference moved to Milwaukee for three years and thrived under this new partnership. At the expiration of the three-year commitment, the conference was again looking for a new food co-op to host. In 2020, the conference moved to Madison, where Willy Street Co-op will serve as host for three years. This year, registration was at an all-time high—more than 290 people representing 65 new start-up co-ops from 27 states.
HOST DUTIES: TOUR AND NETWORKING RECEPTION
As host, we welcomed co-ops from across the country—from Sitka Food Co-op in Sitka, Alaska to SoLA Food Co-op in Los Angeles to North Flint Food Market in Flint, Michigan. As the host co-op, we were given the opportunity to lead a tour bus full of people around our city.
First, we visited Food Enterprise and Economic Development (FEED) Kitchens on Madison’s north side. Here the group learned about how the FEED facility, which includes five commercial kitchens, is an incubator for food businesses, nonprofit organizations, vocational training programs, and individuals seeking to prepare food to sell to the public. This facility also has a training kitchen available for nonprofit groups and cooking teachers to teach food service and preparation skills so that people can get work in the foodservice industry.
A number of Willy Street Co-op’s vendors prepare their products in FEED Kitchens, including Mango Man Salsa, Ernie’s African Kick Sauce, Mojo’s Majik, and Madame Chu condiments. Willy Street Co-op also carries baked goods made by those in the FEED Bakery Training Program, which is a job training program that serves un/under-employed residents of Dane County by providing baker training and job placement services to program participants.
From FEED Kitchens we traveled just down the road to Willy North. This tour stop provided insight and visuals for newly emerging co-ops to consider. We discussed many things—from city grants, store design, merchandising, product selection, to the Access Discount program and Double Dollars. The tour attendees were so curious about our Co-op, and they really picked our brains about the thought process behind planning and opening our third store. It was enjoyable for those of us leading the tours to reminisce about the time we spent planning and preparing to open Willy North and to remember what the store was like when we first walked in the doors and the changes we have made since opening. Since we opened in 2016, the store has changed tremendously; we’ve added a Juice & Coffee Bar, a made-to-order sandwich station, an extra register, a conference room, and offices. It has certainly been a journey!
Once again we loaded up the bus and traveled to Just Coffee Cooperative. Just Coffee Cooperative is a worker-owned coffee roaster dedicated to creating and expanding a model of trade based on transparency, human dignity, and environmental sustainability. They work to build long-term relationships with small-scale coffee growers to bring you great coffee. Just Coffee was founded to work with Zapatista coffee farmers in Chiapas, Mexico when coffee prices were at an all-time low, but they found it was not easy to find partnerships with local roasters and regional importers. So the founders took an unconventional approach and began buying coffee beans from the farmer co-op in Mexico and roasting their own coffee. When Just Coffee first began distribution in Madison, they delivered all of their product by bicycle, but over the years they have grown and are now available nationwide, which makes bike delivery logistically challenging.
Following the tour, Willy Street Co-op hosted a networking reception at Delta Beer Lab. This reception was an opportunity for cooperative organizers to share stories and challenges about their journeys to open new stores in their neighborhoods. Seeking advice from others who had recently gone through this process was both inspirational and cathartic—starting at the beginning stage of community organizing through opening the doors to a new store can take years! We were also able to feature a number of local vendors who have national distribution at the reception, connecting them with potential new retail outlets.
THE WORKSHOPS
The conference itself features workshops for co-ops at all three development stages as defined by FCI—stage 1: organizing (brings about the organization), stage 2: feasibility and planning (brings about the business plan), and stage 3: implementation (brings about the open store and satisfaction of owner/member needs). Over the course of three days, consultants and co-op peers offered more than 50 workshops to help guide these new co-ops in their journey to open a store; topics ranged from feasibility studies to hiring the general manager to creating a welcoming co-op culture. Our Willy Street Co-op experts presented workshops and shared their knowledge as well—Principle Six in action!
After months of planning for the conference, I am filled with gratitude for everyone who helped make it a success—Willy Street Co-op staff who served as session monitors and our experts who shared their knowledge in workshops, tour stop hosts, vendors, and of course, ICDC and FCI. Putting on a conference takes many hands, and we could not have done it without any one of you!