How we support our community

Thanks to you members who completed VFC surveys in October, the Board is gaining insights into your opinions about your business and its future. Most of the survey’s questions were about operational and business matters to which management will respond. The Board asked three questions, and this article deals mainly with part of the following question:

“Cooperatives are different from other businesses in several ways. Please indicate how important each of the following is to you:”

The response to “Co-op support for its community” was answered by only 14% of survey respondents, the lowest response rate of any of the categories. This leaves the Board wondering: why so few responses? Did respondents not understand the question? Or are they not aware of how VFC supports its community? In any case, we thought it wise to comment on the ways in which VFC does support its community.

So who is “our community?” It is principally the shoppers who depend on our services. We support them by being the healthy business that orders, buys, displays, and sells many of the items they need to, in turn, support their family’s health. Our staff works hard to match the items on the shelves to your values and tastes, to create a store that supports your interests. This is our core mission, and it is a huge support to those of us who depend on it. It’s easy to overlook the obvious; but if you imagine this community without the VFC, you start to appreciate anew what we have.

72% of our shoppers are also members of the cooperative. Our being a cooperative business gives you the right to participate in the direction and decisions of the Co-op through elections, voting on bylaws, attending Board meetings, offering opinions to the Board, etc. This type of support is an opportunity that requires work from you, participation, for you to experience it as support. Most of us, regardless of our level of participation, appreciate having the opportunity. The VFC Board would love to see even more participation from its membership, and we’ll keep working on making sure that our cooperative supports you members as it should.

The VFC community, however, extends beyond our members and shoppers to potential shoppers and members - those who might otherwise never be exposed to the alternatives our store represents. We offer a place to find products and services that are, we believe, healthier alternatives to much of what they’ll find at other stores – healthier for people, other animals, and the environment. We offer a friendly, inviting store that serves as an introduction to organic foods, local farms and goods, and other options that aren’t present at the average supermarket. We support our community just by offering that choice.

We support our staff by offering meaningful employment – a place where 52 people can earn money to support themselves and their families while working for a project that supports many of their own values. Those sorts of jobs are not easy to come by; which is why we usually have many eager applicants to work here and have a lower than the average rate of employee turnover. In the same survey question, 81% of those returning the survey rated “treatment of workers in co-ops” as “very important,” the highest percentage of the options. An inspired, satisfied, hard-working staff is what everyone wants.

The Board has policies on staff treatment that it monitors yearly, and management offers more training and development opportunities for staff every year. Let’s face it: the grocery business doesn’t usually generate many high-income jobs. The VFC, however, pays its staff better than most (if not all) local grocers. We will continue to maintain and improve our support for our community through offering a work environment that takes care of our staff.

We support local producers by offering them a place where their products can reach more potential buyers. This focus for our Co-op was reinforced in the survey’s next question:
“In planning for the future, I would like the VFC to focus on…”

78% rated “support local food producers” as “very important,” making it far and away the most highly ranked of the options listed. Our offerings show that we already do a very good job of supporting local producers, and in the future we will keep this as a priority.

Another way in which we support our community is by contributing to other organizations. We have given money, items for donation, management expertise and advice, and our presence and participation to assist the efforts of local charities, educational organizations, professional and business organizations, and other co-ops. Last year our total monetary donations exceeded $2,500. This occurred in a year without overall profit. As we return to profitability, this number should increase. It becomes very hard to choose which efforts to support, which is why we asked in the survey for you to rank some of the possible organizations to which we could donate. Management will discuss your responses in a separate article.

A final way in which the VFC supports its community is by being a center for community. We are not a “center” in the way that a “community center” usually is, hosting frequent community events, etc. We are more like a hub – a place to which people are drawn, where they have a sense of connection to their community. We are not “the” center for community, but rather “a” center for community. Do you ever gaze at the community bulletin board looking for events and offerings, or just reading the cultural tidbits between the lines? And when you enter, do you scan the aisles for folks you know? What’s the value to you of those simple connections? This is one of the Co-op’s easier ways of supporting the community – just be a place where people can see each other, engage, connect.

While we will continue to look for ways to support our community, we hope this article has served to raise your awareness of the ways in which we already do. When I walk into the VFC, I often feel an upwelling of pride in what we’ve done and are doing. A little town with a store like this!? Wow. That feeling? – That is community support!

Dave Ware
President, VFC Board of Directors