by Sarah Larson, Board President
Your Co-op hosted the grand opening of Aubergine, the new eastside Willy Street Co-op community space, on Friday March 8th. It was a delightful buzz of energy, art, and community. The space connects with local jazz club Cafe CODA and is across from the Willy East location.
Creating community and providing opportunities for education and information-sharing are core parts of being a cooperative (see our explanation of the 8 Cooperative Principles here). Ever since the community room at Willy East has been in use for sorely needed storage, there has been a gap in our ability to do so.
Aubergine will feature artists and offer event space. Event space can be used to host a wide range of activities from traditional meetings and wellness classes like yoga to ones that leverage the commercial kitchen onsite for events like cooking classes. See upcoming events at willystreet.coop/events. Learn about renting the space at willystreet.coop/aubergine.
We are thrilled to see this space grow into use by our Owners and our community.
Update/note from the Board on Co-op staff appreciation: It was brought to our attention that we missed thanking Co-op staff in February’s Reader article. I can assure you it was an unintentional human mistake and not representative of how the Board feels or seeks to regularly express gratitude to and for the contributions of all Co-op staff. We know there would be no Co-op without the employees who staff the stores and create the experience for our shoppers. A big and hearty thanks to all our loyal Owners, exceptional Co-op staff, and talented management, for both another profitable fiscal year, and the grand opening of Aubergine.