Early Summer 2015
News from the Lexington Cooperative Market
LexTalk Matt and Katie are invested!
Justin is invested!
Cynthia is invested!
! er th ge to l te er H to p -o co a g n ri b ’s Let We need our owners to help finance our next step. Our co-op on Hertel is closer than ever. A year from now, our famous flourless chocolate cakes will be emerging from ovens on Hertel as well as Elmwood. Tony Weiss strawberries will be ringing in the summer in two co-op produce departments. Sixty new co-op staff will be welcoming new owners who walked to their co-op from their homes on Huntington and Parkside. But before we can take this next step, we need to raise $2 million in Preferred Shares from owners who are NYS residents. Every single owner should take pride in the increasing positive impact we are having in Buffalo and Western New York. A second store will give the community more of what they value: • more local and organic food • create more good co-op jobs • offer a friendly co-op shopping experience to more people • assist more co-op start-ups like Breadhive and Urban Roots • support more community groups who provide access to food like the Food Bank of WNY and MAP’s Mobile Market Even if you don’t expect to shop on Hertel frequently, this growth will benefit our Elmwood store and the local cooperative movement by building our cooperative economic and advocacy strength.
A Co-op on Hertel won’t happen without our owners’ investment and support. Over one hundred owners, 20% of our amazing Co-op staff, and every member of the Board of Directors has already invested in our BIG Direction Capital Campaign. This capital campaign is purposefully designed to be a win-win-win. Those able to invest will see financial returns each year through dividends, the Co-op will be able to leverage outside funding to build our second store, and we all will see more cents on the dollar returned to the local economy as we enjoy each stalk of local asparagus in the spring and each crisp Dan Tower local apple in the fall. We want to thank each and every owner who has considered this Preferred Shares campaign, expressed their enthusiastic support of our expansion to Hertel, shops in the store and pushes us to continually do more good in the world by bringing our BIG Direction values to life. The bottom line is that as a cooperative business, what we do, we do together. I invite you to learn more about Preferred Shares in this newsletter and on our website. Let’s bring the Co-op to Hertel together!
Jennifer Nalbone, your Board President