Frank and Beans—the colorful characters of The Real Food Show—are played by Jason Quick and Della Plaster (also a co-writer) of the Bellingham Circus Guild. The show utilizes comedy, juggling, and other circus skills to inspire positive change in the attitudes and behavior of elementary school kids.

In alignment with the seventh co-operative principle—Concern for the Community—the Co-op makes community giving part of its annual budget. But when preparing to write about the Co-op’s community giving it was not as easy as pulling up a spreadsheet and writing down a line total, because the intention of Concern for the Community is woven into many of our projects.

Thank you for joining us in supporting local farms, nonprofits, arts, music, and community organizations.

In our recent strategic planning process we clearly heard from you, our community, that local food system development, healthy food access, and community engagement are core issues you would like your Co-op to take action on. With this in mind, I carefully consider each request and opportunity to support our community to ensure we are responsibly stewarding funds to meet these goals.

A few projects that exemplify this are the Farm Fund, The Real Food Show, and Community Shopping Days.

The Farm Fund recently distributed $25,000 in Next Step grants to six farms. The Next Step Project is an innovative new venture of the Community Food Co-op Farm Fund, pairing grants with low-interest loans to support local farmers in expanding their farms to serve the wholesale market. The Next Step Project is designed to help farms reach a financially sustainable scale, and to increase the quantity of organic and sustainably grown food in Whatcom County.

The Real Food Show is entering its third year and offering 10 free shows a year to Whatcom County elementary schools. The shows are a hit and “Frank & Beans” have begun visiting elementary schools in other co-op towns to share the fun of eating real food to fuel a healthy body.

The Member Affairs Committee (MAC), which any Co-op member can join, awards 12 Community Shopping Days annually. July 1 marks the release of our Community Shopping Day applications for 2017 awards. If you know of a worthy organization, encourage them to visit the Co-op website and consider applying to be a CSD recipient.

MAC takes this grant funding selection seriously and reviews, discusses, and votes on each applicant to ensure that we have new organizations represented across diverse areas of our community every year. Applications are due by September 1.

In addition to giving back $103,000 in donations, grants, and sponsorships, the Co-op also offers member-owner use of the community rooms at both of our stores, by donation, for a wide variety of purposes too numerous to detail. The rooms totaled approximately 1,837 hours of community use in 2015.

And what about all of you? In 2015, Co-op member-owners and shoppers not only chose to shop at the Co-op knowing that your purchases benefit the community, but you also generously donated more than $20,261 at the register in support of your community.

Thank you for joining us in supporting local farms, nonprofits, arts, music, and community organizations.

Choosing to spend your valuable food dollars at the Co-op is what makes all of this possible.

Thank you for fostering the Concern for Community principle that is a foundation of our Co-op business and a vibrant and strong piece of the Community Food Co-op.

“I want to thank you for the donation from the CSD partnership! We are thrilled to have been selected to participate this year. It provides such great exposure for Sean Humphrey House. Your kindness means so much to all of us. Every bit of support we receive has a positive impact on the daily lives of our residents. Many thanks again from the residents, volunteer, Board of Directors and staff at SHH. Your thoughtfulness greatly adds to our residents’ lives.”

–Jeanette Campagna, Sean Humphrey House Program Coordinator.