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Food for Thought

Keeping the Gifts of Life in Motion 

Dear Member Owners, 

I made a long sleeve t-shirt with the new logo at our December 12 screen printing workshop – and a tea towel and a few t-shirts. My daughter brought my grandgirls along and they made sweatshirts and t-shirts. It was great for my spirit to connect with other community-minded folks and to the simply cheery act of creating! 

At the screen printing event, I found out that a friend of mine had no idea I was one of the founders of Electric City Food Co-op, which rebranded recently as Electric City Community Grocery (ECCG)!
 

Being Part of an Ecosystem

Their surprise was curious to me; although I am, in fact, Member Owner #1, my motivation as a founding member in 2013 has always been to help grow a flourishing ecosystem of Member-Owners, farmers and vendors in the Mohawk River Valley, and has never had an ego-system of 1!

From the first 55 Member-Owners in 2013 to 1123 Member Owners as of December 29, 2024, the Board of Directors has had many identities, locations assessed, bylaws amended, and the cost of investment dropped, and the project rebranded. The Co-op keeps going. Through the years, many Member Owners have actively participated by serving on the Board, hosting tables at festivals and community events, donating, soliciting friends and family to engage, and partnering in innumerable ways. Some Member Owners have moved away, some have forgotten about their original investment, and some have passed away. It’s been a long journey!

Perhaps you know some of the other original Incorporators: Amber Allen Vorgang, Alex Brownstein, Marcia Galka, Meredith Mack, Carolyn Sabol, Robin Schnell, Ellie von Wellsheim, and myself, Kat Wolfram. As the talk of re-incorporating to accommodate Preferred Shares progresses, a new set of incorporators will emerge. Stay tuned!

As ECCG continues to evolve, every Member-Owner in our community has a role in strengthening our local food system. The wild success of the Schenectady Greenmarket demonstrates the power and potential of diverse community members working together to build a robust, resilient, and democratic local food system. Opening ECCG is the next step toward this vision – providing a market for local farmers and vendors throughout the week that will nourish our diverse communities and address food insecurity in unique ways. 
 

My Inspiration

Over the past 12 years, my role as a Member Owner has taken many forms, but my motivation and commitment to participating in creation of our food cooperative has been steady. Food co-ops are a way to make a difference in many areas I care the most about - support local farmers, advance food sovereignty to increase food security and health equity, and care for the land that sustains us. 

• Food co-ops have the capacity to influence the food system. As independent grocery stores, food co-ops prioritize investment in communities they serve by including a high proportion of locally produced foods. On average, co-ops purchase 20% of their products from local sources, compared to just 6% for supermarkets. 

• Food sovereignty empowers communities to find ways to address hunger and health disparities. Rather than the big grocery store chains deciding what we eat, the food co-op community decides. Food co-ops can avoid ultra processed foods. Did you know? In the United States, UPFs [Ultra Processed Foods] make up over 73% of the food system, as well as two-thirds of the average diet of a child. Research suggests that nearly 12% of American kids demonstrate behavioural indicators of addiction in response to UPFs, a problem that Morgan & Morgan believes persists because of targeted marketing to these young demographics. Read the article: Big Food Hit with First-of-A-Kind Lawsuit for Marketing ‘Addictive’ Ultra-Processed Products to Kids. That 73% of our American food system consists of ultra-processed foods is a shocker to me!

• Food co-ops care for the Earth when they reduce packaging with bulk shopping, choose fair trade products, and be intentional about ways to minimize environmental impacts. 

• The best? Food co-ops are responsive to the community in ways large grocery chains cannot be. Having a full service grocery store in a vibrant part of town and with proximal access to the major mobility hub in downtown Schenectady is going to be a chapter in the extraordinary revitalization of Schenectady with easy access to fresh, wholesome food for its residents, visitors, and for those that work in downtown.

And… the most beautiful thing about a cooperative is cooperation and participation!

What's yours to do? 

You can boost the work of ECCG leaders in many ways:  

• Talk to friends and neighbors about the co-op and encourage them to join and share social media posts on Facebook and Instagram

• Contribute your time and/or talents: fundraising, legal, financial, accounting, event planning, policy wonking, IT, etc. You can learn more and sign up here: Volunteer Interest Form. There is a role for anyone and everyone!

• Contribute to the Dream Team Fund to accelerate our store build out. Although we have over $4.1 million committed by partners, this is all in the form of reimbursable grants. In other words, we greatly need cash on-hand to pay for ongoing startup activities like lease deposit, architectural fees, and NCG professional services..  

• Preferred shares are coming in 2025. This will be another way to invest in our community-owned grocery.

• Now that ECCG has a 501c3 fiscal sponsor, you can make a charitable donation by writing a check made out to Cooperative Development Fund of CDS with Electric City Community Grocery in the memo line, and sending it to ECCG at P.O. Box 1416  Schenectady, NY 12309. I’ll soon be a South Carolina resident; as such, I cannot invest in the Preferred Shares as a MO so donating to CDS will be an alternative way to contribute. To learn more, please email eatlocal@electriccityfood.coop or call 518-250-6298.

• Make suggestions about inventory.

• Send letters of gratitude to the Board. PO Box 1416  Schenectady, NY 12309

• Keep up with all the news by familiarizing yourself with the website (electriccityfood.coop/)  and reading the newsletters.

• Speak up often by calling or writing to Schenectady County and City officials to express your effusive gratitude for co-funding the project with the community. Or speaking at Privilege of the Floor at Legislative or Council meetings or writing Letters to the Editor. Let them know just how large a community of supporters we are! 

We can do more together than we can do alone. It is going to take all of us!

It’s been a long journey! And yet… the commitment to consequential community development and to environmental sustainability remains. The leadership - both elected and volunteer – is strong and quite frankly, impressive in its governance, vitality, and skill set. The Board has deep connections with organizations most effective in food co-op development and with Metroplex, the County, and the City: in partnership, they are making this happen.

I do love a triple bottom line business model in which profit is used to increase benefits for people while sustaining the planet. 

I shop at food co-ops wherever I travel. I am so excited about having a food co-op in Downtown Schenectady!

In cooperation, 

Kat Wolfram, Member-Owner #1