by Kristina Kuhaupt, Customer Experience Manager
As another holiday season approaches, I reflect on our collective appreciation here at the Co-op for such loyal, active, and passionate Owners! The Co-op originally started out renting a small basement space on the eastside of Madison with a handful of volunteer workers. Almost 50 years later, our Co-op would not be where it is today without you, with now three locations on the north, east, and west sides of town, a production kitchen, and a new Eastside community space coming in the New Year. Sometimes when you go grocery shopping week after week, it is easy to forget how impactful your food and equity dollars really are. Well, I am here to remind you in gratitude—you make a tremendous impact on your local economy in so many ways. You, the Owners, help support not only more than 450 local makers, farmers, and producers (contributes to 34% of our total sales), but also approximately 380 local employees, and over $943,000 in community donations in fiscal year 2023! WOW! That is something to be truly grateful for!! It is amazing what working together as a community can accomplish in time, and with continual persistence to thrive no matter what is going on in the world.
Gifting Ownership This Holiday Season
Speaking of how grateful we are for our Owners, I wanted to take a moment and encourage you to consider gifting Ownership this holiday season, if gift giving is something you participate in during this time of year. I know from personal experience that receiving a gift of experience and access is a beautiful way to express gratitude that lasts not just for the moment, but an entire year or more. If you are reading this portion of my article, I would consider you to be a highly active Owner who cares about how the Co-op functions, and how one by one we can help change the trajectory of our food system and promote a personal nourishing wellness journey through not only the food we eat but also through community that the Co-op provides. This is a perfect experience to give loved ones this time of the year especially if they are unfamiliar with a co-op and what makes purchasing through us different in so many ways from a conventional grocery store/chain. If I sparked a gift idea for you, you can purchase gift Individual or Household Ownerships either at any of our Customer Service desks in the store or online at: www.willystreet.coop/pages/gift-ownerships. Thanks for considering this option during the holiday season. Cheers!
Community Reinvestment Fund Seeks Nonprofit & Cooperative Applications!
Last month we had a call out for Owners-at-Large to be considered for the Community Reinvestment Fund committee. Those applications closed Friday, November 17th and seat decisions have been made by the General Manager, in conjunction with myself. Thank you to all who applied and wanted to be part of active Owner participation! Although these committee seats are filled, I want to highlight that we are always looking for interest in Owners seeking to help shape the Co-op democratically through committee participation. There are other committees looking for participation throughout the year. If you are interested in checking out those committees’ scopes of work or to apply, please visit www.willystreet.coop/committees.
We are now in the phase where applications for the Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF) grant are currently open, and we will be accepting applications from local 501(c)3 nonprofits and cooperatives through January 31. The application can be found at www.willystreet.coop/crf.
We continue to conduct the application process early in the year so that organizations relying on funding for projects tied to the growing season will receive their funding earlier in spring. In addition, this year we evaluated the barriers to entry, qualifications, and total amount distributed based on our continued Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work, thus broadening the potential impact of this cycle.
Since 1992, the Willy Street Co-op Community Reinvestment Fund has been making a difference in the quality of life for our community by funding developmental and educational projects that promote food justice and/or access, creating/developing Cooperative businesses, sustainable agriculture, health and well-being, and social change. This fiscal year, the Board allocated $65,000 for this competitive grant fund, an increase of $10,000 from last year and $30,000 more than two years prior based on exponentially increased worthy grant requests over the years. Please note, that although the fund has increased dramatically over the last few years, this grant program is still very competitive and not all requests are able to be funded. Last year, we received 34 applications requesting $112,618 in funding, and we were able to fund 21 organizations.
The Community Reinvestment Fund Committee is interested in funding innovative, educational, and/or entrepreneurial endeavors that impact a large group of people, reach out to underserved populations, create jobs or develop skills, foster social engagement, and offer opportunities for diversifying partnerships and collaboration.
Grants are awarded to nonprofits and/or cooperative organizations benefiting Dane County with priority given to organizations run, operated, and/or benefitting marginalized groups and organizations with limited access to funding. Preference may be given to endeavors benefiting the Madison and Middleton metropolitan areas and organizations that have not been funded in previous years by the Community Reinvestment Fund.
Help Us Meet Our Double Dollars/Food Pantry Match Campaign Goal
We are halfway through our two-month matching campaign to support the Double Double Dollars Fund and our five partner food pantries: Goodman Community Center Fritz Food Pantry, Lussier Community Education Center, WayForward Resources, The River Food Pantry, and Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center. There are two simple ways to participate: Donate to Double Dollars using the $1, $5, $10, or $25 scan cards at the cash registers; or reuse bags for packing your groceries at checkout. Whenever you reuse a bag, we record 10¢ that we would have spent on a paper bag and instead contribute all those saved dimes to the Double Dollars Fund. When you support Double Dollars this November and December, we will match up to $10,000 to provide a check for our local food pantries to use to purchase fresh foods that are not as easy to get in the winter months. As of November 21, the campaign was off to a great start, with $3,645 for Double Dollars, and $3,645 for our food pantries. Let’s keep it up, and end the year by propelling our community food needs in the right direction.
As a reminder, Double Dollars is a nutrition incentive program to help those using FoodShare/QUEST purchase fresh or frozen fruits, vegetables, legumes, and seeds and seedlings for growing edible plants. The Double Dollars season runs from October to May at the Co-op and June to November at participating farmers’ markets. The Double Dollars Fund, with your cash donations and bag reuse combined, has provided more than $437,755 to the program since April 2017.
The Double Dollars match benefiting our food pantry partners is made possible through abandoned and donated Owner equity. When Owners leave the Co-op, their equity invested belongs to them and they are given the option to have their equity refunded or to donate it to use for charitable purposes such as this match, disaster relief matches, and the Community Reinvestment Fund grants.
Keeping Neighbors Warm & Madison Reading Project Book Store Collections
At Willy West until December 13, we are hosting the Middleton Tourism Commission’s Keeping Neighbors Warm Campaign. They are collecting new or gently used winter items (coats, scarves, hats, mittens, etc.) that will be given to WayForward Resources for distribution. Information about the 2023 drive can be found at https://visitmiddleton.com/keeping-neighbors-warm-is-back-to-collect-winter-outwear-donations.
Madison Reading Project Book Drive at Willy East & NorthThrough 12/15
Through December 15 Willy Street Co-op will be participating in the annual Community Book Drive to benefit Madison Reading Project to grant book wishes to local children this holiday season. Collection bins are at our Willy North and Willy East stores. You can participate by dropping off new books in the bins or by selecting a Book Wish from the bin to fulfill. With your help, the Madison Reading Project will help ignite a love for reading by providing 15,000 free books to children in Dane County this holiday season. Visit www.madisonreadingproject.com if you would like more information. Please keep in mind when selecting children's books to donate books with no harmful stereotypes in text or illustrations, and/or books with religious or religious holiday themes.
Come to any of our North and East locations and drop off a favorite book or two—thank you!
I want to wish you and yours a joyful end of the year filled with the magic of the season! Thank you for partnering with us throughout the year both in our efforts to provide locally sourced food and care for the community equally—your dedication to our cooperative efforts is truly appreciated! Cheers to a better world this New Year!