Our full business plan will be published before our big October 10th community meeting. In the mean time we’re sharing bite-sized parts of it for you to have a look at, comment on, throw rocks at and (hopefully) praise. Remember: these co-op details are not set in stone. Our work so far has been meant to get the process started. Your feedback is welcome.
Today let’s talk about our mission statement. From the Center for Business Planning (www.businessplans.org) comes this definition...
“The mission statement should be a clear and succinct representation of the enterprise's purpose for existence. It should incorporate socially meaningful and measurable criteria addressing concepts such as the moral/ethical position of the enterprise, public image, the target market, products/services, the geographic domain and expectations of growth and profitability.
The intent of the Mission Statement should be the first consideration for any employee who is evaluating a strategic decision. The statement can range from a very simple to a very complex set of ideas.”
With that in mind, take a look at what we’ve come up with...
“To engage the ecologically-aware hearts, minds and stomachs of our area, no matter what their household incomes, by offering the most earth-friendly grocery products and services available. To consistently search for better offerings and to support suppliers that are working toward the same goals.
The Arroyo Food Cooperative will differentiate itself in the marketplace by empowering our members with practical product choices, thoughtful education/social opportunities and substantial entrepreneurship encouragement – all with an emphasis on supporting a sustainable local economy and strengthening our diverse community.”
How does this feel? What would you like to see added, what taken away?
Next up: our vision statement
The proposed mission is :“To engage the ecologically-aware hearts, minds and stomachs . . . earth-friendly grocery . . . search for better offerings. . .
. . . empowering our members with practical product choices, thoughtful education/social opportunities and substantial entrepreneurship encouragement – all with an emphasis on supporting a sustainable local economy and strengthening our diverse community.”
Ecologically aware is not enough. Lets engage the activists.
Earth Friendly is not enough, and it is vague. Lets nail it down to something like less packaging, non-GMO, NO Sugar.
If you want to do a co-op I believe the treand and lowest common denominator is a faliure from the start. We should get out there on the true agressive/progressive front, and then compromise if necessary. If you want to focus on food, there is too much emphasis on externlites, entrepreneuership, social engagement. If we do one thing right, the rest can follow. Now I don't say all this to create contention. THe statements seem watered down, especially as far as my Co-op experience is concerned. The market is agressive, even though Whole foods pretends to be a teddy bear. So any small adventure needs to define itself clearly and strongly, and be ready to defend itself. The neighbors will not be served by us promoting whatever is on TV (eco-friendly, green). They want to know about what is Sustainable, not just have that as a tag line on some products.
Some people try to support a diverse community with gentrification and corporitization of food policy. In order to educate and uplift the neighbors you need to take a stand on these issues, the main ones related to food. I here no mention of GMO's, pesticides, agribusiness, globalization, processed foods, etc. Climate change is a hot topic, and related to food production. Vandana Shiva has stated that something like 40% of greenhouse gasses are related to food production.
Personal choice and personal change is indeed one part of the puzzle, but social conciousness and activism related to other, global issues, is crucial to a sucessful venture of this kind.
Thanks for your work. J.