Hello Monadnock Food Co-op Members!

The summer typically is about eating the rewards and bounty of winter and spring planning with delicious vegetables like fresh summer corn, tomatoes, berries, and more. For the board’s nominating committee, the summer is a busy time of year as we reach out, recruit, and meet via Zoom, potential co-op members to serve on the board.

As with each year, we will have three, three-year term board seats open. Two long time serving board members will leave the board, Jay Smeltz and Lisa Mahr. David Sayles, who holds the third seat, will run again! We would like to take this time to encourage you, our Members-Owners, to vote for the board candidate slate when voting begins in September. Next month, you’ll learn more about each candidate. It’s so important to have an active voting membership each year. Voting matters and your vote matters to us.

We also encourage you to consider running for the board next year. Serving on the board is a real pleasure. You get to know the ins and outs of your favorite store, support our co-op at a deeper level, provide guidance for its long term sustainability, and work with some of the most dedicated fellow board members and community members. As part of the board, we are looking for diverse points of view, backgrounds, and experience as well as age, race, and ability. I encourage all of you to consider learning more about serving on the board.

We know this is a very trying time in everyone’s life and the idea of adding more things can be daunting. However, we also recognize that member-owned co-ops are historically more stable and resilient than the typical business model because of the strength in our shared ownership of our co-op store. Our co-op has seen this resiliency, and the support from members and shoppers have resulted in our exciting expansion.

The board of directors hopes all of you continue to be healthy and safe during the pandemic.