Welcome and thanks for coming. Why we are doing this—opportunity to turn your enthusiasm into action and support the Co-op opening. We want you, as Co-op supporters/member-owners to stay in the loop so you can communicate with others
Introduce: concept of messaging and that Rich will talk about it. Why how we answer questions is so important.
Co-ops started in the 1840's in England as a way for people to save money. People pooled their money and bought food in quantity which got them a volume discount. And the fact that they didn't need to make a profit also helped to keep costs low.
Visualize: 12,000 square ft in downtown Keene behind Armadillos Burritos. Place to eat outside, etc. When you walk in the doors, you see local food displayed and you recognize the names of the farmers/local producers who grew it. Bulk, etc. Full service food store The Monadnock Community Market is a food cooperative (a cooperatively owned food store) that will provide local, natural, and healthy food for the Monadnock Region and serve as a community gathering place, offering community education around food.
We will be located in downtown Keene on the Railroad Square site. Our founding Co-op Committee--and then Board of Directors--spent over 2 years reviewing potential site locations in Keene. In 2009, we hired CDS Consulting Co-op to do our Market Study, and they reviewed three potential site locations and assessed factors such as adequate parking, ingress and egress, retail synergy, etc., and found that all three sites--including our Railroad Square site--had sufficient parking to meet our sales goals and our community/member-owner needs and vision. Our future site in Railroad Square will: Allow our Co-op to meet its sales potential and be a viable business--when it opens and long into the future. Meet the vision of the founding member-owners and the community (Friends of Center City Survey (2007); the Keene Master Plan (2010); and over 12 regional surveys the Co-op conducted from 2007 - 2010) for our store to be right in the downtown, help make our community a more "walkable" and bikeable community, be accessible to seniors and other community members without cars, and bring vibrancy into the heart of the region's central gathering space.
ON Avg., NH farmers make: $6,112 dollars/year and VT triple that…more markets. Education and training: (cooking, nutrition, and food preparation and preservation classes, etc.)
Strong local economy: every dollar spent at the co-op and other local businesses has roughly three times as much local economic impact as a dollar spent at a non-locally owned business. We joined as a member of Monadnock Buy Local…
We will open next summer, but THIS ALL DEPENDS ON Raising 1.63 million dollars of member equity, member loans, grants, etc.
We have over 630 member-owners today, but we need 1,000 to open. Co-op Potluck: contact me!
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