Free Range Food Co-op

Monthly Newsletter

Monthly Calendar

Board meetings, work sessions, and events

Open to all FRFC owners!

Tuesday 8/2

Saturday & Sunday

8/6 - 8/7

Saturday 8/13

Board Work Session

6:00-7:30pm

at Oak Hill Assisted Living in Grand Rapids (masks required in person) or

Click to join via Zoom

Tall Timber Days

Schedule of Events

Visit our booth at the Old Central School

*Volunteer opportunities available -- see below

Party in the Park

9:00am-4:00pm

at the White Oak Tractor Club grounds in Deer River Schedule of Events

*Volunteer opportunities available -- see below

Tuesday 8/16

Wednesday - Sunday

8/17 - 8/21

Board Meeting

6:00-7:30pm

at Oak Hill Assisted Living in Grand Rapids (masks required in person) or

Click to join via Zoom

Itasca County Fair

Visit our booth at the fair

*Volunteer opportunities available -- see below

Team meetings

If you are interested in joining a team, email us at:

freerangefoodcoop@gmail.com

Monday 8/1

Wednesday 8/3

Sunday 8/7

Community Investment Campaign Planning Team

6:30-7:30pm

Planning & implementing the campaign

Marketing Team

6:00-7:00pm

Marketing & social media

GM Search Team

6:30-7:30pm

Finding our future General Manager

Tuesday 8/9

Monday 8/15

Board Development Team

6:00-7:00pm

Strengthening our board

Site Selection Team

7:00-8:00pm

Securing the best possible location for our store

Community Investment Campaign Planning Team

6:30-7:30pm

Planning & implementing the campaign

Our first Volunteer Orientation and Potluck held at Gunn Park on July 14th featured a cooperatively furnished meal and current updates on the store opening process. 28 current and future volunteers gathered to meet each other, share food, and learn more about why volunteers form the foundation of a successful start-up food co-op! If you would like to join your fellow co-op owners in building community through this member owned grocery store serving Itasca County and beyond, please visit the volunteer page of our website to learn more.

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities

*THIS WEEKEND!*

August 6th and 7th

We need volunteers for our booth at Tall Timber Days. This was a terrific event for us last year, & we are hoping to have the same success this year!

Shifts available:

Sunday, 8/7 9:00am-1:00pm

Sunday, 8/7 1:00pm-5:00pm

Contact Lois to sign up now!

218-355-0581 (Text or call)

Saturday, August 13th

9:00am - 4:00pm

We're participating in Party in the Park in Deer River this year! This is a fun event that benefits local organizations and community groups.

Deer River owners, look for an email from us about volunteering to represent your co-op in your community, or contact Lois to sign up now!

218-355-0581 (Text or call)

Party in the Park event flyer

Wednesday - Sunday

August 17th - 21st

The fair is a really successful event for us, and we are required to have someone at the booth the entire time the building is open. That means 96 hours of volunteer time is needed ! Can you step up and help?

Multiple shifts available - Click this link to sign up now:

I'll volunteer at the fair!

Friendly Reminder: If you haven't done so already, please complete the brief volunteer survey on our website. Tell us how you can help build your co-op!

Volunteer Survey

There's a lot going on in the world today. A great way to start making a difference is at the local level, within your own community. Be a part of shaping the future of Itasca County by helping us build a cooperatively-owned grocery store. Learn about joining the co-op board of directors.

Candidates should be committed to:

The mission & vision of Free Range Food Co-op
Attending twice-monthly board meetings
Being an active member on a co-op team
Contributing at least 10-15 hours per month to co-op work (including meetings)

A board term lasts for 3 years (or less if you are appointed to fill a vacancy) and provides opportunities to:

Engage with other co-op owners
Build your community by helping open the only food co-op in Grand Rapids
Grow in your skills, knowledge, and connections while creating a more equitable food system

Email freerangefoodcoop@gmail.com to request a meeting with a current director for more information.

Learn more about the board of directors

Site Selection FAQ

"Why don't we start small and grow into a larger store over time?"

Great question!

The professional research done on recent start-up food co-ops found that the smaller the co-op was, the more likely it was to fail. Of the last 20 co-ops to open in the 1,500-2,000 square foot range, 17 have closed. It used to be true decades ago that stores could open small, grow slow, and scale up over time (like the co-ops in Virginia and Grand Marais). Unfortunately, market conditions and competition from other grocers do not support this method of development in today's market. To remain profitable, we must carry a large enough volume and diversity of products to serve as a one-stop shop for most people. Free Range Food Co-op will be a full-service grocery store, not a niche market shop, and this requires the square footage to offer a full range of traditional groceries alongside the local, natural, and organic lines of products.

We learned at the Up & Coming Food Co-op conference this year that a 6,000 square foot footprint is the “magic number” where most co-ops are successful and remain open for the long-term. This is excellent news for us, because our professional market study done in 2017 and updated in 2021 reflects the ideal co-op store size for our region is between 4-6,000 square feet. Our Site Selection team takes this size recommendation into consideration with every potential site, along with dozens of other location parameters.

Tune in to next month's newsletter for more commonly asked questions about site selection!

"As an FRFC owner, I value the opportunity to take part in building our co-op from the ground up. This unique aspect of co-ops helps ensure that all owners have a chance to participate and convey their opinions in the many aspects and inner-workings of projects or teams, express their unique talents in a meaningful way, and strengthen our community by working together on a common goal with common values! Plus, not many people can say they helped create a grocery store from scratch!"

-Lydia Williams, owner #912

Join Lydia as a co-op Volunteer!

One major thing that makes co-ops different from most grocery stores is that at least half of the start-up funding comes from owner investments! With those funds, we will purchase equipment, renovate our future site, hire staff, and fill our shelves with healthy local products. We will raise the funds through owner investments and donations during our upcoming Community Investment Campaign.

By raising our own capital, we reduce our dependence on commercial lenders and put the new store on more solid financial footing. The sooner we can raise the funds, the sooner we can open those doors to our store!

Co-ops are created backwards by design: the customer base is grown (all 954 owners and counting!), THEN the funding is raised and the store is built! All of these things contribute to food co-ops having a much higher business success rate compared to other small businesses (about 87% of co-ops opened since 2006 are still open!)

There's a tried and true method to the madness, and the development timeline (view it on our website here) is one way to visualize the path to opening our store. While the number of owners does not need to be identical to the plan, we can see we are SO CLOSE to the next phase! Stay engaged and watch for opportunities to lend a hand in our Community Investment Campaign.