Board Notes, Annual Meeting Recap: Remember, this is YOUR business! You OWN it!

Greeting Fellow KCFC Member-Owners!

On Sunday, September 24 we held the Kitsap Community Food Co-op’s Annual Members Meeting. This was an opportunity for member owners to get more detailed information about the operations of the co-op and meet with board members. It was our first in-person meeting in 3 years and I want to extend a big THANK YOU  to Crane’s Castle Brewing in East Bremerton for hosting the event.

For those of you who were not able to attend you can download the presentation here but I wanted to share a couple of highlights. 

• Board Elections: We are pleased to welcome our newest board member Lou Baum. Bringing with her a wealth of experience in retail management and community organizing, we’re looking forward to Lou’s contributions to furthering our vision of access to quality food as a  fundamental human right.
  
• Connecting Community: Over that last year KCFC volunteers helped coordinate or participate in several events focusing on improving our community through local food. From holding our Grow & Sow events and hosting a Grocery Story book study with Kitsap Regional Library, to selling locally produced food at the Bremerton Community Farmers Market and sponsoring the Manette Edible Garden Tour, KCFC has been actively involved in supporting the community.
  
  In late August, KCFC volunteers staffed a booth at the Doc Luvs Kids Day event where 100’s of backpacks, school supplies and free haircuts were offered to help students and their families prepare for the new school year. KCFC shared about our FLOWER program which provides access to quality food for families.
  
• State of the Co-op: Store Manager Nathan Anderson-Hobbs and President Jeff Allen shared information about the operations of our store (the business you own). There are a lot of pressures that conspire to make the operation of a grocery store, especially a small community owned grocery store, extremely difficult. Cost of goods goes up, costs of labor goes up, the cost of rent goes up, all of which (and more) make margins (profitability) very tight.
  
  Over the next few months, the board will be looking to adjust some levers to help improve our profitability in both the short and long term. But the most impactful thing that supports your business is people coming into our store to shop. Here’s a bit of data that Nathan shared:
  
  • We rely heavily on our most engaged member-owners. The 25 households that shop at the store the most, represent 18% of year-to-date sales.
  • Member-owners represent 49% of gross sales.
  • 477 unique members have shopped at least once this year.
  • Average monthly sales for members is around $40.

The takeaway? Shopping at the store matters a lot! Increasing our average sales by just $200/day would help us to balance out many of those pressures on our margins. 

Know that the staff, the board and our many volunteers are working hard to provide you with access to the quality, local food you joined the coop for. Of our over 1,400 member-owners, 477 of you have shopped at the store at least once this year… THANK YOU!!! If you haven’t been to the store in a while, come check us out. Or maybe check out our new online store where you can pick it up later or have your grocery items delivered to your home via DoorDash.

In short, the Kitsap Community Food Coop’s vision of improving access to quality and local food to everyone in the community continues to shine. And as we grow so will the community that we are all a part of.

Remember… “COMMUNITY” is our middle name 🙂

Cooperatively,

Jeff Allen

President, Kitsap Community Food Co-op 

Reach out to members@kitsapfood.coop to get engaged!