Hello New Orleans Food Coop member-owners,
This is an exciting time for the New Orleans Food Coop. We have finalized our plans for our store, and construction is to begin this spring. As always, we need your help!
The membership committee has set an ambitious goal—1000 members by June 30th. We are asking our current members to help us out by simply writing a letter. The idea is to send an appeal letter to folks you believe would share in the vision of having a cooperatively owned grocery store in New Orleans.
We have included two different sample letters written by other co-op members. Please feel free to copy these letters, use them as a guide to write your own, or change the letters in any way to personalize them. Of course, creating your own entirely original letter is great too.
Thank you for your help.
Yours in cooperation,
Membership Committee, New Orleans Food Co-op
Letter #1
Dear Friends,
Buying good, local, healthy, affordable food should be a whole lot easier than it is. It shouldn’t require getting on the highway or lining the pockets of big corporations.
Help is near. In early 2011 the New Orleans Food Coop is going to open its full- service grocery store committed to providing good, local, affordable food to New Orleanians. The store will be located on St. Claude Avenue at St. Roch as part of the Healing Center. I can not wait!
I am writing you to ask that you join me in becoming a member of the New Orleans Food Co-op. Aside from being a ton of work, opening a grocery store is expensive, and one way co-op grocery stores can afford to open is by building up member equity. Here’s how it works: make a $100 equity investment, which actually makes you a part- owner of the coop (you can do this all at once or in small $20 increments— whatever works for you.) Once the co-op is on its feet and turning a profit you receive a patronage refund based on the amount of money you have spent there. Most importantly, by becoming a co-op member, you help make this quality neighborhood grocery store a reality.
Here’s where to go to join:
http://nolafoodcoop.org/join/
Please feel free to ask me any questions.
thanks,
xxxx
Letter #2
Hello, friend.
I apologize for this impersonal e-mail, but I’m attempting to squeeze my great desire to help the New Orleans Food Co-op into my schedule. I have carefully chosen the people to whom I’m sending this message, so in that way it is personal. I believe my appeal below will be of interest to you.
In case you don’t know, the New Orleans Food Co-op is a group of people who are working hard to open a member-owned grocery store in New Orleans. I have been a member of the co-op since March 5, 2005. I have also served on the board of directors and the membership committee.
I believe the benefits of having a cooperatively owned grocery store will be many. We will have a say about the products our store carries. We will offer a daily point of sale for local farmers, local food producers, and other local businesses. We will make healthy, local food affordable.
As individuals, we have limited power to create powerful changes in our local food economy. As a group, however, we can grow the future for our generation and for those that follow.
Our hard work to open a storefront appears to be on the verge of bearing fruit. We have finalized our plans for the store which will be housed inside the Universal Furniture building, and construction is to begin this spring. The location is on the corner of St. Claude Ave. and St. Roch Ave. The building will be redesigned as a healing center, and we are excited to be a part of it, along with an organic restaurant, yoga studios, gallery space, a women’s center, a street university where people can give classes on anything from second-line dancing to filling out tax returns, and more.
As a demonstration of our viability, consultants that the NOFC is working with would like us to be at least 1500 members strong by the time we open. Currently, we have 635 members, many of whom have joined due to their excitement about our opening.
To help us meet our goal, I am asking you to consider becoming a member of the New Orleans Food Co-op. Right now, since the storefront is not yet open, we are asking for a $100 equity investment to become a member. Currently, the benefits of membership include the right to vote at all member meetings and eligibility to serve on the board of directors. There will also be a patronage refund program: when the store begins to see a profit, some of the profits will be returned to the members based on how much they shopped there. Member benefits will also include members-only specials and other member economic benefits that will be developed with the help of our general manager. Joining as a founding member now will give you the opportunity to help make those decisions about our future. If you have limited income, you may become a founding member for a payment of $25. We will also accept installment payments if a whole payment is not practical for you. We want membership to be accessible to as many people as possible.
This month, you can find us at the Hollygrove Market on Saturday mornings, in case you’d like to ask questions. The volunteers at the market can show you the designs for the healing center, if you’d like to see how it’s going to look.
If you’d like to join on-line, we have a form you can use to do so:
http://nolafoodcoop.org/join/
Online payments are accepted via PayPal. Alternatively, you may
print out our membership application here:
http://nolafoodcoop.org/
And mail it in with a check for your payment.
If you are already a member, I encourage you to make an appeal to your friends, encouraging them to join. The greater we are in number, the greater certainty we have of effecting the change we desire. If you are the spouse or partner of a member, I encourage you also to join.
Feel free to forward this email to any others you know who might like to help us take ownership of one of our most precious local resources—our food.
Thanks for taking the time to consider my appeal.
In love and cooperation,
xxxxxx
New Business
