Up and Coming Food Co-op Conference

Our dear friend and longtime collaborator, Rachel DB has left an indelible impact on her Dayton community and the start-up food co-op community. Rachel is facing a devastating health diagnosis - Stage 4 breast cancer - and we are reaching out to you for your support. A gofundme page has been set up to help with her medical expenses: https://www.gofundme.com/f/rachel-db-has-cancer.

You may also wish to support Rachel via her online shop: https://www.racheldb.com/

We invite you to support Rachel financially during her health journey.

Donate to Rachel DB has Stage 4 Breast Cancer, organized by Bridget Flaherty Rachel Dominguez-Benner is a Dayton treasure and right now, she needs our support… Bridget Flaherty needs your support for Rachel DB has Stage 4 Breast Cancer

Congratulations Foodshed Co-op!

May is going to be a busy month in startup food co-op land!

After ten years of organizing, Food Shed Co-op will open its doors to its 2,107+ owners and full community in Woodstock, IL on MAY 15th. We can't wait to make a purchase in their beautiful store!

Congratulations! DPFC!

Stop the presses, the date has just been announced!

*** Detroit People's Food Co-op will open it's doors for business for the very first time on May 1st of this year! ***

DPFC will open it's doors *just* shy of their 10th anniversary of officially incorporating as a startup food co-op in June of 2014 with well over 2200 member-owners and having nourished the growth of a national wave of Black-led startup food co-op organizing that is stronger than ever today!

It's official!

Up & Coming 2024 will be held at the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites, Kalamazoo, MI, Sept. 12-14.

Don't miss this opportunity to be part of THE only conference that's dedicated to the needs of startup food co-ops and it's not to be missed.

Mark your calendar for SEPTEMBER 12-14, and join us in Kalamazoo, MI for Up & Coming 2024!

**Health Protocols** (find full info on our site) We care about the health and well-being of Up & Coming Conference attendees. With COVID-19cases ticking up again, we are committed to being proactive and providing the following for attendees: masks, social distancing wristbands and hand sanitizer.

You will find masks and wristbands at the registration table, and hand sanitizer will be available throughout the conference.

Wristbands!
GREEN wristbands signal that the individual is accepting physical contact such as handshakes and “high fives.”

YELLOW wristbands signal that the individual is accepting limited physical contact such as “elbow bumps.”

RED wristbands signal that the individual would not like physical contact and ask you to respect social distance.

It's less than a week now and we'll be meeting up in St. Paul Minnesota for The River of Cooperation Up & Coming 2023 Food Co-op Conference! wooh! Coming in from the East, among the many registrations, we're expecting Fiddlehead Foods from New London CT, Assabet Co-op Market from Maynard MA, and Androscoggin Food Co-op from the North Country in NH!

All the pre-conference info attendees need (like Health Protocols) can be found on our site: https://upandcoming.coop/

Thank you, thank you! to our Silver Sponsors of The River of Cooperation Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference 2023: Shared Capital Cooperative , Kapatoes Insurance Services , Dorsey & Whitney LLP , Seven Acre Dairy Company , seven roots , Capital Impact Partners , Wegner CPAs , and Local Enterprise Assistance Fund. It is in part through the support of our sponsors, at all levels, that we're able to keep organizing this conference year upon year!

Seats Available on Thursday Co-op Tours 1 & 2! Reserve your seat by *Emailing* [email protected]. Cost is $35. Tours leave from the Intercontinental at 1:00pm and return by 5:00pm.

Co-op Tour 1 is headed to Eastside Food Coop, Wedge Community Co-op and Valley Natural Foods.

Co-op Tour 2 is checking out Linden Hills Co-op, Mississippi Market, and Co-op Partners Warehouse.

Tours are Thurs Afternoon 1p-5p.
Welcome Reception starts at 6p.
Each stop will include a short presentation and time to tour and shop before moving on.
Co-op Tours 1 and 2, and the Black Led Trip to George Floyd Square with Black Co-op Fellowship off-site are happening concurrently on Thursday.

Our third and final nominee for 2023 ***Best of the Best*** is The Butte Food Co-Op , a stage 2B startup organizing in Butte, MT.

Here's more: From the start, their startup food co-op has shown exceptional energy and organizing strength – from launching their owner shares with over 800 owners over just a few months; to taking on the hard conversations of the best future location for their co-op with clarity and honesty, even when it led to challenging community conversations.

Over and over, this co-op has show a commitment to building a food co-op that will last for decades through both self-education and unflinchingly taking on some of the hardest parts of startup organizing work, leading to their rapid movement through the development stages while illuminating the way forward for their peer startup food co-ops.

Our second of three nominees for the 2023 ***Best of the Best*** award is Community Food Co-op , organizing in the Austin Community of Chicago IL!

Read more about this early startup: While Austin Community Food Co-op is in the earlier half of its development journey, it has shown how powerfully the vision and talent of early-stage startups can enrich the overall movement, as well as how critical communication and education are to the movement. It has done this through creating one of the best startup food co-op newsletters, that our food co-op startup support providers and experts have ever seen, that models such excellence that it is shared among your startup food co-op peers as a template for what to aspire to in owner and community outreach.

Saturday's third and final content session (then we all come back together for a final closing session) includes two opportunities to hear from fellow co-ops like "Gem City Market: 5 stories about the Co-op" and the roundtable with Little Africa Food Collaborative , Market 166 Grocery & Kitchen , and Chicago Market in a facilitated discussion.

Here's the lineup:
Foundations: How to be a Startup Board Superstar
Business Development: Understanding and Using! Your Pro Forma
Peer Stories: Gem City Market: 5 Stories about the Co-op
Engage/Play: Offering Food before the Store: A Peer to Peer Roundtable
Big Conversations: Pursuing Grants: Stories from Start-up Co-ops

Our first of three nominees for the 2023 "Best of the Best" award is Detroit People's Food Co-op a stage 3B startup in Detroit, MI. We're beyond delighted they're registered and coming to the conference.

Here's more: This co-op has always organized with unapologetic dedication to their community through centering Black leadership as well as never taking at face value the idea that practices developed for an overwhelmingly white food co-op movement were right for
their community. Through their development process, this co-op has been open to, yet tested the practices the “experts” have put before them, finding that much of the “4-in-3 model” had value to their community yet adjusting it to their needs and generously giving feedback to the movement when it did not.
Through this process, they've not only led their startup with excellence, yet illuminated for
other Black-led startups and all experts in the startup food co-op field how the startup development model can serve Black-led co-ops, and where it needs to shift for the future of the startup food co-op movement to be strong.

Our second set of Saturday sessions will start at 10:30A (after a 15min transition time) and our superstar presenters are offering another six whopper topics:
Rooting Your Co-op in Community (Great for all!)
Market Feasibility and Its Role in Your Co-op's Feasibility (Great for 1-2A)
Telling a Story that Moves Mountains (Great for 1-2B)
Capital Stack Case Study (Great for 2A-2B)
Site Feasibility, LIVE! (Great for 2A-2B)
Mutual Aid and Our Co-ops (Great for all!)

If your co-op hasn't registered yet, there is still time! It's all on our site: www.upandcoming.coop

Our third of three nominees for ***Cooperative Citizen*** award is Dorchester Food Co-op , a stage 3C co-op in MA, closer and closer to opening every day.

Dorchester Food Co-op has shown deep dedication to the cooperative principle of “P6”, cooperation among cooperatives over the last two years through participation in FCI Live sessions about their GM hiring experience, peer group participation, and willingness to share knowledge and experience around grant fundraising.

In addition, as their GM came on board, John immediately showed the same spirit of P6, being willing to meet and share knowledge whenever possible.

It's not too long until we're meeting up in St. Paul, still time to register and read all the info on our site: https://upandcoming.coop/

Our second nominee for ***Cooperative Citizen*** is Food Shed Co-op a stage 3B startup in Woodstock, IL. Read on for what caught our attention for this nomination nod:

This startup food co-op has shown deep dedication to the cooperative principle of “P6”, cooperation among cooperatives over the last two years through both their board and GM’s participation in FCI Live presenting, committing to present their fundraising experience at Up & Coming 2023, sharing their experiences through peer groups, and sharing their documents all were helpful with peers.

This co-op embodies what P6 is all about and shows consistent commitment to the growth and health of the overall startup food co-op movement.

A hearty, hearty thank you to our Gold Sponsors of The River of Cooperation Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference 2023: Organic Valley , National Cooperative Grocers Association , Columinate - Catalysts for common good, Everything Co-op, The Partnership Fund, Mountain Rose Herbs, INFRA , The Cooperative Education Fund of Cooperative Development Foundation, aaaaaand Frontier Co-op. It is with our powers combined that makes the weekend. We so appreciate your support.

Our first of three nominees for ***Cooperative Citizen*** award is SunCoast Market a stage 3A startup organizing in Imperial Beach, CA.

This co-op has shown exceptional dedication to sharing its knowledge with its peers for years. Not only did their board share their expertise and experience with other startups over the last two years through the in the FCI Live series, and in FCI peer groups . . .

In particular, Kim from their board has donated hour after hour to share with other startups that have reached out to her about their grant efforts and overall funding plans; and their board has allowed FCI to share its capital stack planning document to educate and inspire other startups.

Still time to register and find info on our site: https://upandcoming.coop/

Saturday's first session across our six tracks will be another round of choice for our attendees (who are welcome to grab incl. breakfast from 7:30-9A)

From 9 to 10:15A we have
4 Pillars of Effective Start-up Outreach
Locking Down a Site: Nuts, Bolts, and Stories (a panel)
Community Organizing Tools for Engagement and Beyond
"Food Desert" Diaries: Dispatches from the Northside of Wilmington, NC
FCI Town Hall: Listening and Learning from You
and Dissecting the Definition of "Healthy"

All the info you might need is on our site! https://upandcoming.coop/accommodation/

In Search of Self-Care and Community Care talents and skills in our attendees! Friday evening we have a little window of time that we'd love some help with offering self-care and community care options like leading a walk, or hanging at the puzzle table. . . that sort of thing. Email [email protected] to help out!

Our third nominee for ***Startup Innovator*** is Northside Food Cooperative , a stage 2B startup food co-op organizing in Wilmington, NC!

***Here's what really attracted our attention for the nomination nod:

This co-op's ingenuitive work in building a deep partnership with their county government to come together and make a thriving food co-op a reality in a historically redlined neighborhood of Wilmington, NC that has been a USDA “food desert” for, decades makes the Northside Food Co-op an obvious choice for this nomination nod.

The work Northside Food Co-op and their county government are doing together could pave a new way forward for food co-ops to become a reality in communities across the nation.

Our second of three nominees for the 2023 ***Startup Innovator*** award is Rise Community Market a co-op that is NOW OPEN in Cairo, IL.

We're thrilled that a representative from Rise will be sharing about their organizing experiences in a facilitated discussion on Friday afternoon (A Tale of Two Co-ops).

***Here is some of why Rise is a Nominee!***

This co-op’s journey to opening a community owned food co-op has been innovative on numerous levels, showing a new way forward for rural communities that have been deserted by corporate grocery chains.

In a time when grocery stores are disappearing from small rural communities as their economies struggle, Rise Community Market has found a way to bring a food cooperative to their community in a manner that fits the resources and needs of their community, showing a way forward for many similar communities in the future.

A big, big thank you to our top tier Platinum Sponsors for Up and Coming Food Co-op Conference 2023: CoBank , National Cooperative Bank , and USDA Rural Development! It is through support like from our Platinum Sponsors that makes it possible for us to offer more than 40+ high quality sessions for startup food co-ops to learn from professionals and peers alike! Thank you! Thank you!

Registration for is still open: https://upandcoming.coop/registration/

Our first of three nominees for the 2023 ***Start-up Innovator*** award is West Georgia Farmer's Cooperative, a Stage 2B co-op with its origin in a longstanding .... well read on for part of their story!

This co-op’s journey to opening a startup food co-op is innovative – as an established Black-owned agricultural co-op that started in 1966, the had the vision to see the connection between opening a retail food co-op owned in partnership between the consumers and producers and the future of their local and regional food system is rare and powerful.

It will have great impacts on their community, and could set a path for many other agricultural cooperatives in the US to consider partnering with their communities to open food cooperatives as part of their commitment to their local food systems. This vision and potential impact has made West Georgia Food Co-op a natural fit for the nomination nod for our 2023 Start-up Innovator Award.

A cooperative who won't have to cross state lines to meet up in St. Paul! The Purple Carrot Market is organizing in Little Falls MN and will be joining the fun at Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference in September. Excited to meet up next month! Wanna join Purple Carrot and dozens of other co-ops at The River of Cooperation?! Registration (and much more) is still open: https://upandcoming.coop/

The Tours! We have a small window to report final numbers for buses . . . Sign up for Thursday co-op tours expires at 11:59PM August 11th! (Friday!) http://upandcoming.coop/registration/

🎉pip! pip!📣Three Michigan co-ops are already registered to meet up in St. Paul! Hoping you're as excited as we are to spend time with everyone from Detroit People's Food Co-op and North Flint Food Market Cooperative and Grand Rapids Food Coop . . . Get your registration in by tomorrow ⌛ to sign up for tours, and still get the early-bird pricing! https://upandcoming.coop/

Remember to register by Aug. 11 to book your co-op tour ticket! We have two great options for visiting local co-ops on Thursday, either are a great choice. It's all happening on our website: http://upandcoming.coop/registration/

Rounding out our Friday afternoon (before some self-care options and evening reception...) are another six sessions from our fabulous presenters. Early-bird extension is still in effect and all the news is on our website: upandcoming.coop/agenda