by Paula Schnese | Feb 13, 2021 | Community, Economy, Environment, Food
The topic of bringing a Trader Joe’s to Benicia has once again popped up on social media. In some ways, it is encouraging to see so many people who live here voice support for new grocery options in our area. But it is disheartening because there is already a growing grassroots effort under way to bring a food cooperative to town. It’s a more sustainable and equitable option. One that I am convinced if more people knew about, they would abandon their calls for another chain.
When I’m out talking to residents of Solano County they tell me, “I wish you would bring the food co-op to our town.” My response is simple, “Every town should have a food cooperative. But it’s a matter of having people in your town with a vision to get it started.”
I’d like to clarify a few things and share a few ideas because there seems to be some misinformation in these social media threads.
- You do not need to be an owner to shop at the store. We need owners and non-owners to shop at our store. The owners will simply get more discounts, discounts that eventually pay for the ownership. So that’s a no-brainer. In addition, the owners have a say in to what goes on in the store. Owner shares are $300 with a $5 service fee per household. Payment plans available.
- Big government and big business do not care about our little town. WE care about our little town! Time and time again, history has shown that when people unite and work hard for a purpose, things change!
- Food cooperatives have grown up! No longer are they the hippie, granola, food buying clubs of the seventies. Today, food cooperatives are well-oiled machines that drive the cultural and economic centers of communities. They come in all shapes and sizes and are unique to the needs of each community. They have personality!
- Given the choice, why on Earth would anybody choose to have a cookie cutter store that looks exactly like the store just down the highway which lines the pockets of a German billionaire than to get behind the idea (and a grassroots effort that is actually happening now! In our town!) of having a beautiful, unique, thriving, community owned store that puts millions of dollars back into our community. It’s because people don’t yet know the potential of a food cooperative. These people would rather stick with a broken system that is familiar to them, (broken because it’s intended to keep the rich getting richer and the rest of us working harder and harder), than to have the tenacity to created a new system!
- Just ask Kim and Luke of Fairyella Pure Pops (formerly Ice Pops), our town jewel. For the past seven years, while we were out playing every weekend, they were tabling at farmers markets. When they finally made it into the Whole Food Market, they thought they had made it, but NO! They have been put through the ringer by Whole Foods Market. WFM bullied Fairyella into sales and promotions for their profit (FPP took the hit for these discounts) and didn’t honor the terms of their contract agreements, (keep the product stocked regularly) causing slow sales and lost opportunities to scale up and go national. Mind you, FPP loves food co-ops! They sell to food co-ops all over the Bay Area and have a more equitable relationship with them. They will sell their pops in our store! As a result, FPP plans to quit shipping to retail and restructure as a non-profit in hopes to deliver to hospitals, schools and continuer their relationships with local food co-ops, at a better price for all.
- One of our core values is community. “CCFC is rooted in our community, owned by our community and we reinvest in our community” and that is why having a commercial kitchen in our store is so important to us. This commercial kitchen would be used for several things: education for school aged kids, cooking classes, and renting to food producers at a very reasonable price so they can actually make a profit on their product.
- When our local food vendors order raw materials to make their products, we could join forces where we can order in volume so they can get a discount. These are just a couple of ways that cooperatives work together to: a. Help their suppliers create a successful business where they can live a higher quality of life and enjoy their families instead of being stressed to the max by big grocery and b. Bring the cost of food down while still making a profit. See, in a food cooperative nobody has to be exploited to bring the cost of food down. Instead, we work together to find solutions so that everybody benefits.
- We know there are doubters in our community. Just know that we are not doing this alone, we are not reinventing the wheel. There is a proven model that has been used in communities all around the country. it will only be a matter of time until we get to the tipping point and then to our goal of 1200 founding owners.
- Other towns have successfully brought on co-ops that are thriving and provide a framework for a business model that can and will work for Solano County.
- We really are creating history here and there will come a day when people will use the phrase “before the co-op and after the co-op” when talking about the history of our town. The question I have for all of you is “What side of history do you want to be on?”
As an incentive to attract new founding owners to CCFC, Fairyella Pure Pops has gifted our latest Owners from February with a free case of Watermelon Pure Pops (18 pops ea.). Eighteen households will be receiving this special Thank You gift. Now that is the kind of cooperative spirit I’m talking about. More of this please! Thank you so much Kim and Luke!!
For more information about Cultivate Community Food Co-op and to become an Owner, find all our links here: https://linktr.ee/cultivatecommunityfoodcoop
This feature article was written by Paula Schnese, founder of Cultivate Community Food Cooperative.
by Paula Schnese | Sep 5, 2020 | Community
A wide swath of stressors: the pandemic, economic recession, wildfires, racism and the upcoming election to name a few are putting a major strain on our mental health. Any one of those things can be enough to trigger stress, depression and anxiety let alone multiple concurrent stressors. It’s more than many of us can bare. As a result of all this stress, many people become withdrawn; isolating oneself can be a way of coping. This, however, has been found to have a detrimental affect on our health and well being.
Two things that can be very helpful for our well being during these uncertain times:
- Social connection, safely at this time (via phone calls/video conferencing). Being around others gives us comfort and we ought to be intentional about setting dates for social interaction.
- Have self compassion.
Loneliness is a public health crisis, according to Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States States, under the Obama administration.
“As common as loneliness is and as harmful as it can be, the opposite of loneliness, social connection, can be an extraordinary powerful force for improving our health, enhancing our performance in the workplace and at school, and for helping to heal some of the rifts that have developed in societies around the world as we’ve found it harder to dialogue and more prone to polarization.”
This idea of community is so important. Social connection is transformative! Looking back at our evolution, we realize that when we were away from our tribe we were stressed; so many things could harm us when we were alone. As a result, the stress hormones kicked in until we got back to our tribe. Today, when we are in a state of loneliness our brain is programmed to do the same thing, but now, finding our tribe may take far longer and having those prolonged stress hormones in our bodies can be bad for our health. Working collectively is the reality of our experience as human beings…. “If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together”
Cultivate Community Food Co-op has ‘community’ in our name. This was by design as we intend to connect the people in our area into one large inclusive community. Know that we have a place for everyone in our food co-op. Giving of service is another way to help avoid loneliness. When we are serving others we feel good, it lifts our spirits. In addition, we stop thinking about our self so much and the ruminating in our brain (that shows up when we are lonely) goes away. We have many ways for people to serve at CCFC. Together, we can “go far” in developing our community owned grocery store. Please take a look at our Volunteer Intake Form
If you are feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, disconnected, hopeless and/or depleted at this time, know that you are not alone. Here is a podcast with tools that can help you cope with what you are feeling now during these dire times. How to cope in a time of Cumulative Stress and Anxiety– KQED Radio
If you are feeling lonely, again, know that you are not the only one. Here is an interview with Dr. Murthy that shares how you can start to feel better by connecting yourself with others.
Healing Loneliness: Community and Belonging in the Digital Age.
by Paula Schnese | Dec 13, 2019 | Economy, Featured Articles
Last month, the question was asked, “Who Owns Your Grocery Store?” by Jon Steinman, author of “Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants,” at his only Bay Area stop of his North American book tour, Cultivate Community Food Co-op, (CCFC). Read on to find the answer to this question for the Benicia/Vallejo area.
CCFC had been invited to speak about the development of Solano County’s first food co-op at the Progressive Democrats of Benicia’s (PDB) monthly meeting. Paula Schnese, CCFC Board President, spoke briefly about why the food co-op is so needed in Solano County. Mr. Steinman spoke as a guest of CCFC at this PDB meeting and his powerful presentation was full of information showing us just how much control grocery giants have over our food system. He continued with a message of hope identifying food cooperatives, grocery stores owned by the people who shop there, as a better alternative. He then went on to show us the many ways that food co-ops are positively affecting local communities.
A few reasons why we need Cultivate Community Food Co-op:
- 45% of Solano residents live in a “food desert”, with limited access to nearby healthy food choices;
- 860 farms exist in the county, 541 of these farms are less than 50 acres in size and 527 generate less than $25,000 per year;
- Solano farmers grow $250-350 million annually in agricultural produce, much of which is exported overseas or to other parts of the US;
- Solano residents spend over $1 billion dollars annually on food related expenses, but this money isn’t re-invested right back into the local community;
- Most of the retailers are national chain stores with limited offerings of organic and locally produced foods and uneven concentration in higher income neighborhoods, and;
- In low income neighborhoods of Vallejo, 75.5% of all stores are liquor stores, corner stores, or convenience stores. One-third of these stores sell no produce or fewer than 5 types of produce.
Jon Steinman is an author and host of the internationally syndicated radio show and podcast Deconstructing Dinner and has spent 13 years investigating every facet of the food supply. It led him to the conclusion that the grocery store is, hands down, the most influential force shaping food, the planet, and our health.
So, who owns our grocery stores? In the U.S., four companies control 60% of grocery sales. Locally, that number is higher with one or two stores being in reasonable proximity to residences. Grocery stores really are the food system’s gatekeepers.
“If 10% of our weekly food budget is at a farmers market, what about the other 90%? It’s almost certainly being invested in a grocery store. So what are we investing in?” Jon Steinman
What ARE we investing in?
Who owns our grocery stores in the Benicia/Vallejo Area?
There are five national chain grocers in Benicia and Vallejo where shoppers spend most of their food dollars: Safeway, Raleys, Walmart, Grocery Outlet, and Dollar General. In addition, many residents leave the area to shop at Trader Joes and Whole Foods.
Safeway is headquartered in Pleasanton CA and owns 900 stores. It employs over 250,000 people. It was bought by Albertsons in 2015 for $9.2 billion after being acquired by private equity investors led by Cerberus Capital Management.
Raley’s Supermarkets is a privately held, family-owned supermarket chain that operates stores under the Raley’s, Bel Air Markets, Nob Hill Foods, Food Source and Market 5-ONE-5 banners in northern California and Nevada. The company was founded in 1935 by Thomas P. Raley in Placerville. His grandson, Michael Teel, became the majority shareholder in mid-2015 and currently serves as Chairman. Raley’s employs around 12,000 people. Headquartered in West Sacramento, CA, Raley’s is the dominant supermarket operator in the Sacramento metropolitan area. Raley’s owns 129 grocery stores.
Walmart opened its first store in Rogers, AR, in July of 1962. It is a publicly traded, family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family. Sam Walton’s heirs own over 50 percent of Walmart through their holding company Walton Enterprises and through their individual holdings. Walmart was the largest U.S. grocery retailer in 2019, and 65 percent of Walmart’s $510.329 billion sales came from U.S. operations.
Grocery Outlet (GO), based in Emeryville, CA, is owned by Hellman & Friedmann LLC, the current principal owner. GO was founded in 1946 by Jim Read. Grocery Outlet’s net sales rose to $2.29 billion in 2018. Grocery Outlet currently has 323 stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington and aims to open 32 new stores during 2019. In filing its IPO in 2019, the company said it sees an opportunity to open more than 400 additional stores in its current market area plus another 1,600 locations in neighboring states, with the potential for as many as 4,800 stores nationwide over the long term.
Dollar General opened its first store in Springfield, Ky. on June 1, 1955, and the concept was simple – no item in the store would cost more than one dollar. The chain of 15,472 low-cost variety stores as of March 2019 has become rural America’s grocer of choice. The low-overhead formula: fewer staff, less floor space, and no perishables. That model has spurred rapid growth for the chain in 44 of our 48 contiguous states, particularly in areas that have been slow to recover from the recession. In an article entitled, “Tulsa says no more Dollar General” published in The New Food Economy, Tulsa, Oklahoma is curbing exploitation of black neighborhoods. In the article, Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper says, “I believe their business model is to seek out food deserts and communities that have no other options, and then they can make it more difficult for other retailers to come in and be successful, particularly, quality, full-service grocery stores.”Dollar General is worth $25.6 billion!
Trader Joe’s (TJ’s) has 503 stores nationwide (as of November, 2019) in 42 states and Washington, D.C. The first Trader Joe’s store was opened by founder Joe Coulombe in 1967 in Pasadena, California. German entrepreneur Theo Albrecht (owner and CEO of Aldi Nord) bought the company in 1979 as a personal investment for his family and held it until his death in 2010, when ownership passed to his heirs. TJ’s is a privately held company now owned by T.A.C.T. Holding, Inc. Headquartered in Monrovia, CA. T.J. has 10,000 employees with a Revenue of $13.8 billion
“The chain ranked low on Greenpeace’s sustainable seafood report card. The packaging is excessive, with even the produce sealed in plastic. The business model forces consumers to buy in quantities large enough to encourage waste. And most of Trader Joe’s products are made on equipment shared with everything you might be allergic to (dairy, nuts) or philosophically opposed to eating (dairy, meat).”— Cameron Scott, San Francisco Chronicle, 2013
The retailer has been characterized as “notoriously secretive” and has been criticized for a lack of transparency by management about the sources of products such as organic milk.
Whole Foods (WF) opened its first store in Austin, TX, in September 1980 and its headquarters are still based there. With over 500 stores, WF has 91,000 employees. Amazon bought Whole Foods for just under $14 billion in June, 2017, the retailer’s largest acquisition ever. The purchase holds implications for the future of groceries and the entire food industry.
And there you have it! These are the people who own our grocery stores!
Now that we have this information, let’s ask ourselves another question: Is this where we want to be spending our food dollars? Currently, we are lining the pockets of the richest people & companies in the country.
According to the National Grocers Association, there are no independent grocery stores in this area. As Jon Steinman shares in his presentation with a slide of a large Safeway food truck, “The truck comes in and unloads food from far away and then loads up the truck with all of our food dollars and drives far away.”
Mr. Steinman’s message of hope:
“So where can eaters find greater assurance in the future of their grocery stores? My research and experience within the food system leads me to only one model. That is the consumer cooperative—food co-ops—full-service grocery stores collectively owned by their customers.” Jon Steinman
“What defines a consumer food co-op? Rather than any one individual or company owning the grocery store, consumer food co-ops spread ownership out to however many people want to become a shareholder,” said Jon Steinman
“Food co-ops are change generators; they’re an economic development strategy; a stimulator of food education and skills; they incubate small scale food based businesses looking to get their foot in the door; they employ more people and pay higher wages than chain stores; and they are a hub of community and connection,” explained Jon Steinman
“At a cooperatively owned grocer, the head office is not only in the community served by the co-op, it’s almost always located directly inside the store itself. With the head office located inside the store, the co-op grocery store becomes home to more jobs, including more full-time positions. Marketing managers, human resources, finance, outreach, any positions that would otherwise be located at a distant head office are instead located within the community.” he wrote.
Jon Steinman’s book tour has ended now. His tour took him across 34 states to visit 128 consumer-owned grocery stores (food co-ops) and another 20 in development. He is back in Nelson, British Columbia with his family in time for the Canandian Thanksgiving.
Last week Jon wrote an opinion piece for Yes Magazine entitled, (what else?) Who Owns Your Grocery Store? Please make sure to read this powerful piece. You can also purchase “Grocery Story, The Promise of Food Co-op in the Age of Grocery Giants” on our website.
