Volunteers Needed

Hello Downtown Food Project Supporters & Potential Members: 

We are just getting ready to launch our membership and marketing campaign.  Thanks to the hard work of Arketype in creating a name, logo and membership brochure (all of which will be unveiled very soon) we will be getting the word out in a much bigger way!  Some of you have said that you would like to volunteer to turn the vision into a reality. Now would be a great time! 

We’re looking for people who would like to help in developing awareness of the food cooperative grocery store and get the message out.  For example, we need people who would like to:

• Help in the development and maintenance of the website
• Get the word out by writing press releases and features about the grocery co-op and the need for it
• Speak to various groups about why we need a grocery co-op and why they should help get it started 
• Talk to future members at our booth at the Downtown and Broadway farmers markets. 

 If you want to be in on the ground floor of this exciting , and help bring a grocery store cooperative to downtown, this is a great time to get involved! Email:  Crystal@downtowngreenbay.com

From Vision to Reality

The steering committee of the Downtown Food Project is deep in the middle of developing a membership and marketing/capital campaign to establish a grocery co-op in downtown Green Bay. We’re working with Arketype on marketing with a new name and logo to be announced very soon.

If you know someone with grocery management experience who would like to work with the committee to make the vision a reality, please contact us at: Crystal@DowntownGreenBay.com.

Finding a Location & Site for Food Co-op

At her webinar on March 16, Debbie Suassuna of CDS Co-op distinguished between the co-op’s location and its site.  The location has to do with the characteristics of potential member/owners and customers–like education level, income, age, and job. Site requirements are factors like parking, easy access and exit, and visibility.  We have already decided that we want to locate in the downtown area. So, the question is how to bring together the best location and site requirements in downtown Green Bay.

Thanks to Volunteers: We Need You

We have recently gained a few more wonderful volunteers and want to take a moment to thank them! Arketype, a design and branding firm in Green Bay, has generously volunteered to help us develop a name and logo for the project – and we are incredibly thankful! We have also begun working with Jodi Arndt of Liebmann, Conway, Olejniczak & Jerry to move forward with articles of incorporation. Jessica Beckendorf from Advance, an arm of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce has also joined the steering committee. Thank you all for your time and support!

The steering committee will be taking some additional steps in the coming weeks and are hoping to lean on some of you or your friends’ expertise for assistance:

• We are looking for architectural services to develop a store layout, floor plan, provide building elevations and conceptual cost estimates for an existing building renovation.
• We are also looking for someone with grocery store management experience to lend their expertise.
• We are looking for entrepreneurs who have used a shared commercial kitchen to help on the feasibility of our proposed kitchen venture.
• We will also need some individuals interested in marketing or public relations to help us reach out into the community.
Please let us know if you, or someone you know, would be interested in helping us take the next steps in moving this project forward.

We are also looking for volunteers for some fun, upcoming events, specifically the Green Parade that is taking place during Earth Week on April 24th at 11 am. Please let us know if you are interested.

Commercial Kitchen Survey Still Open

The Downtown Food Project is conducting an online survey of people who are looking for a certified commercial kitchen to prepare their food products for sale.  If you are interested in this possibility for your business, your input in the survey would be very useful to our planning. The link to the survey is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KitchenNeeds , and it is still open.  Thank for your help!

Gessner on Ways to Capitalize a Co-op

At the second webinar on Tuesday, March 9, Bill Gessner of CDS Consulting Co-op discussed the ways that grocery co-ops are capitalized.  He stressed the importance of member equity shares as the most critical source.  Other sources are member loans, fundraisers, donations, and grants. Altogether the funds from these sources should be 50% of the total funding. The rest can come from bank loans and other loan sources such as city/community loans.

Downtown Food Project on Facebook

We’re on Facebook too as Downtown Food Project. Become a fan and help us make progress and keep track of your interests.

Gessner on grocery co-op feasibility

About ten of us were at the Brown County Extenion office on Feb. 16 for the first cds consulting webinar on starting a grocery co-op.  Bill Gessner of cds consulting, who was the featured speaker at this event, said that we need to build member support as part of the same process of studying the feasibility of the co-op project.  He stated that for a new grocery co-op to be successful we would need 800-1000 members at a membership equity share of $200.

In case you missed the first webinar

For those of you who did not have a chance to watch the cds consulting Feb. 16th webinar on Developing a Shared Vision and Building Alignment for a Food Co-op, here is a link to the webinar slides and a short article.  A video of this webinar will soon be posted at this same site.

http://cdsconsulting.centraldesktop.com/cbld/doc/5277877/w-DevelopingASharedVisionAndBuildingAlignme

Webinars on starting a grocery co-op

You are invited to any or all of the webinars on starting a grocery co-op. They will be held at the Brown County Cooperative Extension at 1150 Bellevue St. in Green Bay at 1:00 pm on the dates listed below. You can also sign up as an individual by clicking on the link to cdsconsulting and follow the webinar at your desktop.

Topics and schedule

    * Developing a shared vision and building alignment
       <http://www.cdsconsulting.coop/node/559/#1>
      Bill Gessner
      Tuesday, February 16
      2:00 pm E / 1:00 pm C /12:00 n M / 11:00 am P

    * Capitalizing your co-op
      <http://www.cdsconsulting.coop/node/559/#2>
      Tami Bauers and Bill Gessner
      Tuesday, March 2
      2:00 pm E / 1:00 pm C /12:00 n M / 11:00 am P

    * Choosing a location
      <http://www.cdsconsulting.coop/node/559/#3>
      Debbie Suassuna
      Tuesday, March 16
      2:00 pm E / 1:00 pm C /12:00 n M / 11:00 am P

    * Developing and managing a timeline
      <http://www.cdsconsulting.coop/node/559/#4>
      Bill Gessner
      Tuesday, March 30
      2:00 pm E / 1:00 pm C /12:00 n M / 11:00 am P

    * Preliminary Store Design
      <http://www.cdsconsulting.coop/node/559/#5>
      PJ Hoffman
      Tuesday, April 13
      2:00 pm E / 1:00 pm C /12:00 n M / 11:00 am P

    * Hiring and guiding a project and/or general manager
      <http://www.cdsconsulting.coop/node/559/#6>
      Bill Gessner and Carolee Colter
      Tuesday, April 27
      2:00 pm E / 1:00 pm C /12:00 n M / 11:00 am P