by Jan Waterman, Co-op Board Member
So much in our world is changing so quickly. Our Co-op has changed. It looks different than the dear old Co-op we grew with over the last decades. It feels different. The ambiance in the building has changed. The ceiling is higher, the spaces are full of light, the shelves are taller, some of the faces are new. The staff is great—friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, responsive and ready to help everyone. And—wow!—we have so many new products to choose from. The Co-op still carries the foods we’ve come to depend on, and it also still carries the basic values we cherish.
One of the most basic values I cherish in any co-op is the intention to support and strengthen the community it serves. Electric co-ops, dairy co-ops, agricultural co-ops, hardware co-ops, food co-ops—all are formed in response to a sense of community which can be better served by people coming together and cooperating to strengthen and empower its members. That co-op members make decisions and take actions with the intention that it be a vital, beneficial part of its community—that, for me, is foundational.
At the Plainfield Co-op, that intention involves providing food and other necessities for members as well as for the larger community. It means supporting local farmers and producers by prioritizing purchases from them, which in turn strengthens our local economy and helps sustain our local food systems. It means doing business in ways that enhance beneficial connections, and support the health of all living beings, and the soil and water and air. It means stepping up when the floods hit. It means providing whatever we can as needed, as we’re able, to help our community thrive as a whole. It means we welcome and serve everyone.
Serving the community also means thriving as a business, in order to provide well for our employees, and support our expanded mission, as the staff and members have always done in countless ways.
Now on Route 2, our new store is able to offer many more choices, supplying a wider range of needs and different tastes. We have organic and conventional consumables. We have beer and kombucha. We have Caramel Cow Tails and high quality grass fed meat. All Souls organic tortillas and Joyce Fowler’s donuts! We have more fancy foods, and more foods that are affordable. We have hardware, pet food, garden supplies, a café, a deli, and now gorgeous live plants we can grow in our spring gardens. We have the opportunity to begin growing new relationships with a wider range of our local population. We have new customers to invite into our growing membership, and new faces to include in our expanding Co-op community.
“Everyone is welcome,” we say, and we mean it. We have something for everyone!
Inviting Your Helping Hands — Join the Building Committee
If you have builder’s skills, the Co-op could use your help. We have several needs, some immediate and some which will continue into the future. We’re looking for interested people who are excited about having a more proactive committee focused on identifying issues and future planning.
You can help our Co-op continue to be an attractive, thriving, and enjoyable place to shop for healthy food, hardware supplies, garden plants and more. Join a really great crew, already up and doing wonderful things. We have meetings once a month.
If you can spare a bit of time to contribute to the ongoing health of the new store, please get in touch with Mike Brosky at michael_a_brosky@yahoo.com or Jan Waterman, jmwinvt@hotmail.com
Thank you, Building Committee members, current and soon to join!