From the listserv-
The H Street Community Market is hosting a fundraiser and information
session next weekend. Please join us! Becoming a member is the best
way to show your support and help make this cooperative grocery for
our neighborhood.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
at Christ Church, 620 G St. SE (enter thru alley)
Description
OUR ORGANIC & BEYOND MENU:
* Forest-raised pork (smoked whole, served as barbeque)
* bbq chicken
* slaw with a vinaigrette
* warm bean dish
* bread from Rainbow Acres farm
* Local grilled tofu
* Williamsburg AleWerks beer -- Virginia-Brewed
* Ice Cream
COME MEET OUR FARMERS & PRODUCERS:
* Charles Haines of Williamsburg AleWerks -- beer.
* Dan Allyger of Rainbow Acres farm (Lancaster, PA) – ice cream, bread
& more
* Bill of Buffalo Creek Farm (VA) -- pork.
* Ben Byler (So. MD) -- Amish farmer pastured chickens.
FOR KIDS: Karen from Ipso Crafto will be on hand again with fun crafts
for all ages. Face Painting by Adondra. A play room for
toddlers/preschoolers will be available.
TO RSVP: Call Tim Fenton at 202-257-4277
Cost: $20 for members & $25 for nonmembers (kids are free!);
ABOUT THE MARKET:
The H Street Community Market has been incorporated since 2005, we are
working to open a food cooperative on Capitol Hill in the near future.
We are dedicated to making this a reality and ask that you join us in
our efforts by becoming a member, volunteering and attending events
with us. Please visit our website for our business plan, becoming a
member and much more.
Homepage
http://www.hstcommunitymarket.org
15 comments:
there is no business plan on the site.
Does anyone know of there plan location for the co-op and projected date for opening.
Byron - In the past, the H Street Community Market folks have indicated that they do not yet have a timeline for opening or a location selected. They have been looking for a suitable space (and they're not limiting their search to H Street, despite the name).
And if the fundraising total on their website is up-to-date ($40,355 raised), it looks like they've still got a significant way to go before they'll be able to think about a firm opening date.
I have been watching this. I don't understand how this works or what they are working towards. Can anyone explain the "business" side or big picture concept of how this co-op will actually come to be open?
Anon 10:23 -- My understanding is that they're working towards a community-owned/cooperative market in the vein of those that have been successful primarily (but not exclusively) in college towns. Take a look at the Harvest Co-op in Cambridge/Boston MA, the People's Food Co-op in Ann Arbor, MI, or the Common Ground Food Co-op in Champaign, IL. They're co-operatively owned grocery stores -- members contribute a certain amount of money each year, or volunteer time working at the co-op in lieu of money, and in return they get certain benefits (e.g. slightly discounted prices, a voice/vote in how the co-op is run, etc.). If the co-op makes money, that money is either put back into the co-op or is paid as a dividend to the members (depends on the particular co-op). Many such co-ops tend to focus on healthy foods, or on locally-produced foodstuffs, etc.; but that's not always the case.
The "What's a co-op?" link on the front page of the People's Food Co-op (link above) may help.
As Inked said, and especially given what's been posted about commercial rents/purchases prices around here these days, this is a long way from reality, unfortunately.
Anon 10:23 -- it strikes me after re-reading your post like you may not have been asking "what is a co-op market," but rather "what are they planning to do with the money they raise? how do they plan to get there from here?" If so, I dunno; and I confess I'd like to know more about that myself.
Chris...thank you. The second half of your post hit on my thoughts.
Does anyone know if a space is the biggest roadblock to getting this open? But I also noticed Mike's comment on what they have raised so far. Things just don't seem "realistic", although the menu for the fundraiser(which I hope would be indicative of the overall concept) sounds wonderful.
The H Street Community Market will be a member owned cooperative. In our case this means you buy a share of the cooperative "membership" which is a one time (refundable) fee of $100. We offer scholarships for membership, so not to exclude anyone...inquire for more details. There are no other fees involved, there is No mandatory volunteering. Membership provides perks which you can read about on our website (discounts for example). www.hstcommunitymarket.org (third peapod, first option)
We have raised enough money to keep the initiative alive and will also keep enough in reserve to pay our members back if we should not succeed. With that being said, we have every intention of seeing this to fruition and have been actively searching for a location, we have met with city officials, local property owners and developers over the last 12 months. One of our largest issues is the rising cost of property on H Street, BUT we are currently in negotiations with another food cooperative in the area who is considering opening another store or backing our store. This means we could open a very large and comprehensive grocery store that THINKS about what they put in the store. We will know whether this is going to happen by the end of the summer.
Other ways for us to raise large sums of money are grants; there are several grants that we can apply for that are very large (over 100k). We haven't yet worked out the kinks of offering member loans, this is how most cooperatives get started...for DC this is quite difficult due to MD and VA (long story).
Our website has most of the business plan as far as what we want to have in the store (local beer, organic deli and hot food, local food); what is left out is all the financial information such as the figures our market study produced. We offer our full business plan to ALL members.
I'd be happy to answer any other questions.
Karine (hstfoodcoop@gmail.com)
Project Manager HSCM
Thanks for the info, Karine. Just to make sure I understand the last full paragraph in your post, one has to become a member to see the full business plan?
Yes, the Board (7 people now) determined after we completed the Market Study that members had full access to the Business Plan and anyone else would have to be approved by the Board. I would like to highlight some of the information in the Business Plan that isn't on our website (I think it should be added in the future).
The community demographics can support a food cooperative, the larger the space the better. They recommended a minimum of 6000 sq/ft (which is the size of Takoma Park's coop). We would like to go larger in order to support the initiatives we want to include in our cooperative (community space including a community kitchen both of which would be essential to our nutrition and education goals), a larger fresh produce section enabling us to support more local farmers (our goal is to start out with a min. of 30% local produce and expand from there as we partner with more producers and realize the true demand); a butcher which would enable us to provide fresh, local, humanely raised and seasonal meat. Just to name a few.
For those of you unfamiliar with food cooperatives, they are a community effort and YES that means we start out with no funds and build from there. There are many unique ways to raise money, like partnering with universities and community members who have cash to invest and believe in the cause. H Street desperately needs more healthy food options for everyone in the community (by offering staple food items AT COST and balancing this out by offering more upscale/value added products to those who can afford them (still at or below the cost you would pay at Whole Foods). This is possible and has been done, we don't have corporate costs and we can be more "organic" or creative in how we run our business successfully.
A good resource for the current grassroots efforts to open more successful cooperatives is:
http://www.foodcoop500.coop/
We received a 10k matching grant from them and continue to receive guidance from the many long time cooperative experts they have on board.
A significant part of making the cooperative a reality in our community is building our membership base. We need 500 members before we can approach a lender we have 100 now, so come on you guys on the fence JOIN US NOW!
Karine (HSCM - Project Manager)
Thanks for the description Karine!
Seems like there is a lot of interest and questions out there...that is good. As an urban planner and financial advisor working on this project (TCG International is providing pro-bono services to HSTCM), I think it would be very useful to have another community meeting to share all work we have done thus far. This will be all the more important in the coming months as we have identified suitable properties and developed a financial strategy. Last year’s community meeting, where we discussed the overall concept, was very productive. Everyone had great ideas, which were then incorporated into the business plan. I suspect the fundraiser is more of an opportunity to chat informally while meeting everyone…and enjoy great food!
Sorry I"m slow to respond to this, and I hope someone with the Market project is still looking in on this thread. Anyway, regarding this:
"the Board (7 people now) determined after we completed the Market Study that members had full access to the Business Plan and anyone else would have to be approved by the Board."
I realize this is your choice to make, and I respect your decision. But for me, this comes across as "we have a great idea, and we'd like your financial support; but we're not going to tell you what we're going to do with your money until after you give it to us." That's discouraging.
I think this sounds like a great concept, with all the right pieces, but as Anon 10:57 states, the thing that holds me back is that it is not clear to me how this is going to happen. The website is amorphous on this issue. As was stated by the Coop the business plan "as far as what we have in the store" is on the website. I don't consider this the business plan. The information in the post from the Coop goes a long way to clarifying some issues, but none of these bench marks are public. As someone who would think about joining, I have real reservations about this actually happening. That may be real or percieved, but just my two cents(I would very much like to see it happen).
The Market rep left an email in the comments above. You might try contacting her with questions.
As one of the advisors to this project, I would say that only thing proprietary in the Business Plan at this point is the market study, since it was paid for and specifically speaks to the food/natural foods market in the area. That being said we have shared it with the community during the last public meeting, so perhaps it should be posted on the website. We will raise this issue at the next Board meeting in April.
The financial strategy is being developed now and really depends on site selection (big or small property, degree of rehab, etc.). However, the strategy will include a combination of the following: membership equity, public sector grants, TIF proceeds, New Market Tax Credits, private sector debt, membership loans and institutional investment. We have explored all of these and have made sure the organization’s legal documents are such to support any and all of them. The exact mix and structuring are starting to be negotiated right now and will be more concrete once a property is identified….we will have a more realistic budget for build out. The property issue is tricky on H St because there are not tons sites that can support a neighborhood grocery store. Alternatively, we have to identify a developer who has a project suitable for grocery retail. If you have good ideas please submit them to the email address on the website or come to the fundraiser and chat them up. Thanks.
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