General Managers' 2007 Annual Report

Changes in Personnel

●      We saw changes this year again in the leadership of the Co-op.  In August, as the current management team of Pepper Bush, Goldy Goldstein, and Erica Buswell sailed by our one year anniversary as a General Management Team, we were searching for both a new deli manager, as well as a new IT Coordinator.  Former Deli Co-manager, Chuck Smith, decided that he wanted a chance to learn a new trade, and former IT Coordinator, Tom Clemetson, couldn't resist an opportunity to lend a hand to another community organization, Toddy Pond School. Both exiting department heads left big shoes to fill, and we were fortunate to be able to promote Zafra Whitcomb into the IT position.  We found Amy LoBiondo, who came to us from LaMontanita Co-op in Albuquerque, NM, to take over our deli operations.

●      The Produce department went through a series of managers over the course of the past year.  In March, existing manager Julie Wight made a decision to take a job offer in Hawaii, and we were pleased to promote then assistant manager Genevieve Morgan to a management position. After Genevieve went and got herself married this fall, we were again looking for a new manager, and we were able to promote then assistant Tom Luther to the helm.  Admittedly, we had concerns for how all this transitioning would affect the members of our growing community that have been supplying us with quality local food for this key department; we felt good about being able to maintain at least some consistency and minimize the damage to the farmer-consumer relationship by promoting from within.

●      Two new Floor Managers were trained in the past year.  We were able to promote Kate Harris and Judith O'Donovan into positions of leadership to be responsible for keeping the store running in the hours that a General Manager isn't available.

Co-operation Among Co-operatives

●      2007 was also a year that has seen growing interest in the development of co-operatives throughout the state.

●      Co-operative Maine, a new organization forming to promote state-wide Co-operative Development, formed in April, and both Board and Staff members have been active in its development.  We are in a unique position, with 31 years of success behind us, to be able to mentor new start-ups and bring more awareness to other existing co-ops in our community.

●      The new Portland Food Co-op is getting closer to being able to open its storefront.  We've held numerous meetings with various different members of PFC, to brainstorm, guide, and share resources.

●      New potential food co-op start-ups in both Waterville and Bucksport have reached out to us for information and resources.  It might be time to develop a packet, or something, that we can hand out to folks looking to start new food co-ops.

●      We've also been available to mentor a potential start-up producer's/artisans co-op in the Montville/Liberty area.

Community Networking

●      We saw tremendous growth in our business relationships with a number of community organizations during the course of the past year.

●      In November, and March of this year, we partnered with Food For Maine's Future, the UU Church of Belfast's Green Sanctuary Committee, and WERU to bring an Eat Local Challenge to our community.

●      We've been working with the Waldo Independent to bring you a newspaper column every other week called “Co-op Connections” to bring info to a larger community about what's happening in our co-op as well as the greater co-op movement.

●      We continue to play an active role in the Downtown Business group in order to help keep our downtown economy strong.

●      We've been working with three different local food pantries, as well as the Waldo County Action Program, to put more healthy food on the tables of area families in need.

●      The book sale that we held during our annual Customer Appreciation Day helped us to raise $400 dollars each to donate to New Hope for Women, Stone Soup, Food For Maine's Future, and Knox County Animal Shelter.

●      We worked with both the Belfast Adult Education Program, as well as Mainely Girls, to provide classes on healthy cooking and eating.

●      Staff and Board members have played an active role in various discussions about how to improve producer-consumer relationship, including panel discussions at MOFGA's Farmer to Farmer Conference, the Maine Feeds Maine Seminars, and the new discussion alongside Belfast City Councilor Jan Andersen to bring a local food processing facility to Belfast.

●      We continue to work with the Troy Howard Middle School Garden Project to bring you fresh, local, mesclun mix and herbs every Friday.  This year, during blueberry season, we also brought to you low-bush blueberries from the Belfast Blueberry Co-operative.

●      We continue to buy from our usual local growers and producers in many departments throughout the store that we hope you have come to know and love from year to year.

Outreach Programs Growing

●      Our offering of educational programs continues to grow.  The book/movie club that we developed to educate ourselves about the political issues inherent to the food industry has attracted some interest.  We kicked things off with Michale Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and a year later are now on to his book In Defense of Food, with some other books in between.  A small but dedicated group of people have kept this program going throughout the year. 

●      Thanks to the generosity of so many members who were willing to donate part or all of their patronage dividends to the Equity Assistance Fund that we established in the past year, we were able to provide for 21 individuals to receive full assistance with the payment of their equity share in order to become members.

●      As awareness of the impacts of Eating Locally continues to grow throughout the nation, we keep working to bring you more information about how we can do this, too, here in Maine.  The Eat Local Challenge that we helped to co-sponsor this past November was a huge success. Over 100 people showed up to the celebration potluck, where we dined on a wide variety of harvest goodies and contra-danced the night away.

●      We've done lots of work to re-format our website this year, and have added a blog feature to encourage another forum for open member discussion on a variety of topics.  Check it out! www.belfast.coop/blog We've also created an option for you to have our bi-monthly member newsletter delivered to you via e-mail.  If you would like to take advantage of this option, please drop a line for Fran Clemetson, our Education and Outreach Coordinator: fran@belfastcoop.com.

New Benefits and Opportunities for Staff

●      Our Employee Assistance program, implemented in March 2007 has become a great resource for many of our staff members.  This program allows staff to take advantage of free counseling services on a number of topics, legal to emotional, as well as offering a wealth of information on making healthy personal and lifestyle choices.  We have also used the services of our EAP extensively as a training tool for the professional development of staff at all levels of service.

●      We developed a training library this year, which contains books, DVDs, and other publications which can further illuminate our mission in action for all staff members.  Individuals who take advantage of the library by checking materials out are rewarded with paid time off.  It has been a fun and successful endeavor.

●      We gained two new staff bathrooms this year, in conjunction with the remodeling of our walk-in cooler.  Call it one of the best, and most artfully constructed, benefits we have been able to provide!

Membership Update

●      At our fiscal year's end in September, our total membership rounded out at 2, 452 members in good standing.  During FY 2006-2007, we gained 319 new members, a total of .9 new members a day.

Recycling Report

We continue to recycle an array of materials, with help from working members.  On a weekly basis, we recycle

●      4 large boxes of paperboard

●      1 large box of flattened aluminum cans

●      1 large bag of brown paper

●      1 large bag of office paperboard

●      3 large boxes of newspapers/catalogs/magazines

●      1 large box of #2 plastic jugs, bottles, and containers

●      1 large box of glass bottles and jars

●      1 large dumpster's worth of cardboard

●      This year, we boxed up nearly 350 burnt out fluorescent light bulbs that are currently awaiting pick-up for recycling.

●      In addition, we have been composting nearly all of the food wastes from deli production, as well as cullings from the produce department; collected all incoming packing materials and redistributed them to local vendors for the use of shipping their own products; recycled all the copper piping from the changeover to our new walk-in cooler, and found new homes for the 3 refrigeration units that were replaced by the new walk-in.

Departmentally Speaking

General Merchandise-Cheryl White

            There have been a few changes in the gift area of General Merchandise in the past year.  We have moved in an only fair trade direction.  We started carrying more eco-friendly products.  As always, we keep an eye out for “Made in Maine” products.

            As for petfood, I am always on the lookout for the best quality products.  The co-op has brought in new products like petfood mixes and dehydrated meats.  There is a “Made in Maine” shelf for both cat and dog products.  I have been keeping in touch with Dr. Herzig to keep up on the new and best products. 

            During the last year there was a major recall on several petfoods.  We didn't carry any of the products on the recall list but, I had to do a lot of research into the products the co-op was carrying.  I called every petfood company for verification on how their petfood is made.  Any company that wouldn't come clean about their practices was discontinued.  The Solid Gold line was sent out of the store and smaller companies were brought in:  Stella and Chewy's, Grandma Lucy's, Natural Planet, Sojo's Farm, and ZiwiPeak.

Deli—Amy LoBiondo

            The deli is going to be changing over this spring and summer.  We are receiving and installing new cases this month to streamline and make more attractive your deli shopping experience.  We will be offering more grab 'n' go items, an area of shopping that is growing as our world becomes busier and people are eating less around the dinner table and more on the go.  We expect this transition to be challenging and exciting.  Please bear with us as we work through the bumps along the way.

HABA—Rani Howe

           HABA sales were up significantly this year.  Burt's Bees was bought out by Chlorox.  Their service to us has greatly declined.  They have dropped products; newer additions are not up to former Burt's quality standards.

           Our most “popular” supplements continue to be omega 3's from fish oil, digestive enzymes, probiotics, and this year, Vitamin Dз.  New Chapter is giving us deeper discount programs for more sales and a new permanent display with video coming for free in April.  Prices on many brands have made their annual winter price jumps.  We are continuing to weed out slow movers and are now focusing on cleaning out items with questionable ingredients: difficult if it's a popular product.  Check out the new adjustable shelving for the NOW etc. side of aisle 3.  Thanks Richard Gray!

Grocery, Frozen and Dairy—Caryn Knudsen, Grocery, and Mike Jacobs, Dairy and Frozen

            The grocery, frozen, and dairy departments continue to expand and evolve on almost a daily basis.  Many new products have been added over the past year and well over a dozen new local vendors have joined the Co-op family.  The products these company produce fill niches in all areas. . . from candy to crackers, ice cream to condiments, and even Maine grown popcorn.  New local butter, eggs and yogurt from “just up the road a piece” have all developed a strong following as well.  Our co-op is always on the lookout for new Maine companies to support and sustain and we are very proud to do so.

            Probably the biggest news is the addition of our walk-in dairy cooler.  What a difference it has made to not only our customers but to our staff as well.  The ability of being able to “stock from the back” has been an enormous help, as we are no longer in the way of our customers when product is being put out.  The transition from the old coolers to the new was a fairly smooth process.  Though the aisle was much narrower for a few weeks there was hardly a peep of complaint!  It was as though every single shopper knew that it would all be worth the bit of extra congestion in the end.  We are so thankful for everyone's patience and understanding during the construction.  It was definitely worth it!

Maintenance and Facilities—Phil Prince

            Since the last annual meeting our new dairy, produce and beverage walk-in cooler was constructed and moved into. It has provided us with many months of near care-free service while providing exceptional and attractive access to our merchandise. The Pendelton Lane exterior wall of the store was insulated, wood-sided and stained and awaits the rehanging of a wonderful wooden sign that was last displayed in the old store on lower Maine Street.

            We have assembled a stable, energetic, and dedicated maintenance staff who have kept the store clean, safe, and fully functional. We have instituted a bi-weekly extra evening person  for the purpose of accomplishing special tasks and regularly scheduled maintenance.

            The department worked extra hard this winter dealing with the copious amounts of snow, ice, slush, and sand keeping the parking lot and entrances clear while coping with slippery conditions in the colder back of the store and getting our delivery trucks safely in and out.

            Again we met the challenge of dealing with the maintenance problems that presented themselves and continued to plan and carry on our improvements to our physical plant.

Grocery Perishable—Goldy Goldstein

            Sadly, we lost one of our longtime local vendors to a new husband in New Hampshire.  Amy from Cedar Street Bakery sold her business to Lindsey Shortz, of Let Them Eat Cake, who has now joined our list of local vendors.  Lindsey makes cookies, cakes, and sweet breads and will be resuming baking bread for retail sales on March 24^th.

            Lil' Lads continues to be popular.  Popcorn, tarts, granola, whole grain breads, crackers, and almond butter continue to sell very well.

            We are designing a new display area for the breads, in conjunction with our deli case remodeling, which will feature new bread racks alongside our incoming Customer Service/Family Education Area.

            We continue to provide excellent and popular products from a variety of local vendors, including Little Notch, Tuva Bakery, Daily Bread, and Borealis Breads.

Meat and Cheese—Jim Allen

            Our latest exciting news in the Meat and Cheese Departments are the new coolers that will be arriving this week (3/17!).  We've purchased a new cooler which will display and make available for viewing a variety of fine imported cheeses that we can cut to order.  Also coming is a new self-serve meat case for the majority of our fresh cut meats, which will also allow us to make steak available as cut to order.  You'll notice another new case as well, which we've ordered with a plan of being able to make FRESH fish available DAILY!

Beer and Wine—Eric White

            Much of the Beer department got integrated into the new walk-in cooler, providing us with an opportunity to get new racks.  We continue to offer a large selection of local wines and beer, along with a new selection of Fair Trade Organic Wines.

            Wine sales increased in 2007, and we added in monthly bargain sales that members and non-members alike can enjoy.  Sales to members continue to remain excellent in the wine department. 

Bulk—Finn Moulton

            The Bulk department accounts for 11.2% of store sales.  This year, thanks to Crown O'Maine, we are now carrying 100% Maine grown rolled oats, whole wheat bread flour, buckwheat flour, and spelt flour.  Look for them on the metal rack between the produce department and the egg cooler.  Another local vendor, Fiddler's Green farm will soon be offering Maine grown and ground corn meal.  We've also added Wicked Joe's coffee to our coffee selection, which is roasted locally in Brunswick.