By: Anya Firszt, General Manager, Kristin Esselstrom, Willy East Site Director, and Kristina Kuhaupt, Customer Experience Manager
Greetings from your local Co-op during this harvest season!
As the chill in the air grows, so does the desire to reflect on this past year. We are grateful for all of our locations and their surrounding communities, but we are especially fortunate to still have the location where our Co-op originated on Williamson Street. We don’t take our deep roots in the Williamson-Marquette neighborhood for granted. This neighborhood is extremely tight-knit and has been through a lot in the past several years. We have seen this neighborhood grow, adapt, and heal; all with grace and resilience.
Neighborhoods are the fabric of our work, home, school, events, and lives. Today, we want to recognize our neighbors, including those experiencing financial hardship and who are unhoused; who are part of our Willy Street community. Over the past couple of years, in particular, we have seen community resource challenges as major cuts in local, statewide, and federal budgets have made it harder to get assistance. Seeing firsthand what happens when resources are scarce can be heartbreaking, especially in the neighborhood we call home. The Williamson-Marquette neighborhoods are home to several organizations that provide support to community members struggling with food and housing insecurity. As demand for support from local organizations increases, these issues have become more visible at our East Co-op location on Williamson Street.
Our inclusive environment policy states, “At Willy Street Co-op, we strive to create and maintain an environment to shop, work, or gather that promotes respect and safety for our staff, customers, vendors, and community members.” For us, “Everyone is Welcome” is not just a tagline. We recognize that in addition to endeavoring to make our customers feel welcome, we also provide important resources for our community. We have public bathrooms and indoor seating areas with outlets. It may not seem like much, but some community members have shared that these resources have provided a sense of security and relief from difficult circumstances.
We also find it important to provide tangible weekly resources people and organizations can count on. This includes, but is not limited to, donations to our local food pantries, being a supporter of Community Shares, and offering sometimes daily one-on-one support to individuals experiencing a difficult situation by providing water, fruit, and/or a granola bar with a pamphlet of community resources at hand.
We acknowledge these are very challenging issues, and your Co-op does its best to help address them; but ultimately, they are larger societal issues we can’t solve alone. Creating lasting change takes the whole community working with government agencies.
The Co-op has generous, thoughtful customers, and we have seen the many ways they support other members of the community. We respect how our shoppers navigate potential options to support our neighborhood. Some might want to donate to Community Shares by CHIP-ing at our registers; others might want to buy extra food during a shopping trip to donate it to our connected food pantries; others feel called to give directly to the individuals in need. At the same time, some might not be in a position to support our neighbors financially or might not feel comfortable giving by using these methods or giving at all. All responses are valid, very personal, and not to be judged.
We want to pause here to acknowledge those living next to the Co-op. We hear and understand the unique challenges you face by choosing to live in this neighborhood. As your neighbor, we try to be mindful of any impacts on your everyday living experiences. We acknowledge that our store and our parking lot is a resource to this neighborhood in many different ways. We offer support for local businesses and community events by offering the use of our parking lot after we close for the night. Local residents can also use parts of our lot for snow emergency parking. Because we do allow the use of our lot outside of business hours, it also can be a place where people may congregate after bar time or where our unhoused neighbors may seek refuge for the night. We understand that this may result in disturbances that impact our close neighbors. We continue to explore options that balance our support for our business, other local businesses, and neighbors with the impacts of those decisions.
So how can your Co-op be welcoming to all in these circumstances? We have taken a dual approach over the past year in particular.
Co-op staff members routinely make rounds outside the store during open hours. While we look for any trash, carts needing to be returned, or safety concerns, we also look for anyone who is not adhering to our “no loitering” policy. This includes anyone asking for money or not using our spaces for their intended use. Our goal is to approach anyone on our property with respect and kindness, while consistently informing them of our policies. If someone is in need of support, we let them know what we can offer, including bottled water or a piece of fruit, and we offer to connect them with local resources to support their well-being and build rapport. We also respond to concerns brought to us by customers and neighbors in a similar manner, only involving outside authorities when a situation escalates to the point where we are concerned for the safety of the person, our customers, or our staff.
That said, there is a key distinction to be made between the Co-op property and areas such as the sidewalks and the space between Willy East and the fire station, which we don’t own. Your Co-op is not able to address many behaviors that take place on public property, such as people asking for money. Although we don’t have control over these areas, Co-op leaders continue to attend community meetings and discuss how we can better work together to address issues arising in our community.
We want to hear from you! If you have any thoughts, questions, and/or opinions you would like us to consider on this topic, please fill out a Customer Comment form at any store location or on our website at: willystreet.coop/contact-us.
As we look to the upcoming holiday season, may we all reflect on how we can better support one another as neighbors.
