by Anya Firszt, General Manager
Hello dear Owners. Welcome November! ’Tis the start of the 2021 holiday season.
Thanks!
Please allow me to take a moment to say thanks to the people I work for and with: our staff, for doing an amazing job in every aspect of this organization; our local vendors, for growing and preparing such fabulous food for us to eat; and, you, our wonderful Owners, for choosing to shop at the Co-op and keeping our doors open for business. Thank you one and all!
Thanksgiving Day is closer than you think!
This time of year, I shuffle my peach and blueberry cobbler, fresh tomato, basil, and brie pasta, and gazpacho recipes to the bottom of the deck in exchange for chili with corn dumplings, chicken pot pie, and all those Thanksgiving Day holiday favorites!
I love nothing more than rummaging through my collection of recipe cards and pages torn from magazines that all have scribbled notes about more or less of this, that, or the other. My mouth is watering already!
You can find everything you need at the Co-op to prepare your Thanksgiving Day feast. We’ll have turkey and not-turkey options, sweet potatoes, squashes, cranberries, and stuffing fixins to name a few items.
The Bulk departments are once again open and stocked with a wide selection of nuts, dried fruits, grains, flours, herbs and spices, sweeteners and honey, and oils for your baking and making ingredient needs.
And, if pie-baking is not in your wheelhouse or space in your oven is not overly abundant, we will again have pies, pies, and more pies—six kinds, whole or halves, plus vegan and gluten-free Apple and Pumpkin—ready for eating.
Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center pies!
Please don’t forget that the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center Thanksgiving Pie sale is going on now! Louisiana Sweet Potato Pecan and Sour Cream Apple pies can only be ordered by calling 608-257-4576. Note: pies will not be sold in our stores this year.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion—next steps
I want to update you on the progress we have made on some of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) journey. Last month, we made it a priority to provide managers and supervisors with training to increase awareness about DEI topics such as biases and microaggressions. We started this work at Willy East and have advanced the training to each of our sites including the Production Kitchen and Central Office.
Additionally, we are continuing our work with Step Up: Equity Matters to finalize an 8–10 hour self-paced, on-demand training series for all staff focused on Uprooting Bias and Microaggressions that will begin at the end of this month. We plan to integrate this training into onboarding and orientation of new hires.
If you are interested in learning more about our partner in this journey, Step Up: Equity Matters, check out their website at www.stepupforequity.com.
Services and Staffing
As I reported earlier this fall, staffing was a huge challenge for us at that time, and that has not changed. We are having a hard time hiring to fill the open shifts in our staffing schedule. The applicant pool is low due to many people deciding to exit the labor market. If ever there was a time when you thought you might want to work for Co-op, now is it! Apply online for full-time and part-time employment opportunities at www.willystreet.coop/employment.
We are continually evaluating our current staffing levels to determine if further reductions in hours of some services or temporarily eliminating other services (mainly in the Juice & Coffee Bar, salad and hot bar, and meat counter) are needed to adjust for this labor shortfall. Bear with us while we work through these challenging times.
Holiday hours this month and next
- November 25: Thanksgiving Day: Open Hours are 7:30am-2:30pm
- December 24: Open 7:30am-6:00pm
- December 25: CLOSED
- December 31: New Year’s Eve: Regular Hours 7:30am-9:00pm
- January 1, 2022: New Year’s Day: CLOSED
FY2021 Annual report
You can expect to see our last fiscal year’s annual report in your mailbox or inbox in the coming month.
Until next month, stay healthy.