by Kenna S. Eaton

Each month, I report to the board on how we are progressing on our long-term goals, which we call our Ends. These Ends reflect our aspirations—what we want to accomplish—and they are what makes us different from a regular grocery store. We publish these reports as a blog to keep our member-owners up to date on what we are doing.

The reports are organized by our five Ends, although not all are discussed in every report. Our refreshed Ends say that, as a result of all we do—

- Our community is well-served by a strong cooperative grocery store, integral to the lives of our customers, our farmers, and our producers.

- Our community has a resilient local and regional food economy, supported by our Co-op and our community partners.

- Our staff and board have the knowledge, skills, and passion to make our cooperative thrive.

- Our members and customers are proud to shop at a local cooperative grocery that is working to reduce its impact on the environment.

- Our community is informed, engaged, and empowered to join us in making a difference.

July General Manager’s Report

In early June, in reaction to the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, MN, we published a statement of solidarity and posted “Black Lives Matter” on our reader board and flags in our store in support of both #BLM and diversity (June was Pride Month). Certainly, this time has been extremely challenging for all of us in so many ways as we dig further into our feelings of overwhelming anger and loss. Co-op staff are committed to making the value of inclusion—one of our seven Food Co-op values—the focus of our internal work in 2021, and we will look at how we can be both more welcoming and more accessible to our diverse community.

Market Relevance

A hearty THANK YOU once again to our board and other co-op members who continued to volunteer two days a week during most of June to shop for members who were unable to do so for themselves. That free service wound down late in the month due to decreasing need by customers and as volunteers were called back to work at their regular jobs. We segued into staff picking (i.e. shopping) the orders plus offering a separate service delivering the groceries to members’ doorsteps by bike (www.peddlerpt.com). We continue to work through the various issues surrounding online ordering as we install an e-commerce platform that will make ordering goods easier for shoppers, because we plan to offer a curbside grocery shopping service beyond the COVID crisis.

June sales were close to budget with a slight increase in the number of transactions over May. With the increase in the number of shoppers, we decided it was time to resume regular shopping hours (8am-9pm, 7 days/week). We’re hopeful that outdoor dining will re-open in July.

And we are hearing that supply-chain interruptions will continue to make it difficult for us to source our normal selection of products, both food and non-food, for the next 12-18 months. But for some good news, in our Wellness Department, we now have three new Field Day liquid soaps that are Co-op Basics.

Food System Development

In the last month, we brought in five new Local 5 products, including one from a new farm called Mozaic Gardens. Mozaic Gardens is one of the businesses housed under Mozaic Enterprises, located on the old Yarr farm in Chimacum. Jefferson Land Trust and the LandWorks Collaborative helped Mozaic purchase this property. We also brought in 17 Local WA items–six of those are Golden Glen and Samish Bay cheeses, part of the Puget Sound Food Hub.

Thriving Workplace

We spent the recent months ensuring that we followed all the rapidly changing regulations in terms of reporting illness and wearing masks, that everyone was able to take leave as needed, and that open shifts were covered (often with temporary staff). With the addition of COVID-related leave entitlements, ensuring our staff had the information and access to all the options got a bit more complicated to manage, but our HR and Finance teams made sure that we follow all requirements while supporting our hard-working staff. And in recognition of the continuing challenge of these times, we decided to extend the COVID-19 stress pay of $2/hour through the last Saturday in July.

Environmental Stewardship

The Product Research Committee will be re-examining the sources of bottled water that we stock, updating work done in 2016.

Outreach

Marketing staff were very busy this past month preparing the latest edition of Around the Table, our seasonal newsletter, and helping create all the materials related to the Annual General Meeting (held virtually this year) and board elections. They generated many COVID-19 related signs, too, but perhaps had the most fun designing fresh new pun floor stickers encouraging social distancing.

We are working with our local partners on both the Eat Local First campaign and 2021 Farm Tour. Due to the coronavirus, both events will be virtual this year—and it seemed smart to combine those events into one larger, more impactful social media campaign.

This month we made donations to the Jefferson County Anti-Racist Fund, the Port Townsend High School Graduation Party, and the Quilcene Booster Club.