When Jen Strommen (she/her) first started shopping at Seward Co-op, she was burnt out from college, missed friends who had moved away, and felt disconnected from her field of study. But something about the co-op felt like a refuge from it all. “Staff made me feel seen, welcome, and like I was part of something positive just by being there—which was all missing in my academic-focused life at the time,” she says. That same year, 2015, Jen started working at Seward Co-op part-time, bagging groceries for customers. The next year, she became a cashier, clerked for different departments, and eventually became a full-time scanning specialist, working on everything to do with barcodes, UPCs, and pricing. Now, Jen works as an IT System Support Specialist.

Between troubleshooting individual computer issues and building and maintaining many parts of the internal technical systems, Jen works across the co-op, from behind the scenes in server rooms to on the floor at the registers. Much of what is done internally by the IT team is often outsourced at other businesses. “The IT team often finds creative solutions, writes automation scripts, and fixes bugs ourselves, rather than pay steep fees and wait for other parties to fix or develop what our staff and customers need. This work can be the most exciting to me yet often is the most invisible to others,” says Jen. “I feel that we can all be proud that Seward Co-op prioritizes in-house resourcefulness and labor by our staff for our staff and for a community-based technology experience.”

Solving problems for the community is rewarding for Jen, and working in IT gives her the chance to do this daily. “I enjoy discovering how things work, empowering others with tech knowledge and skills, and seeing how my efforts have the power to improve how people do good work and how our company runs.” Of course, being at Seward Co-op, enjoyment also comes from the abundant food options. “Every fall, I get pumped up about our Indigenous Peoples’ Day chicken bowl. Each dish packed in there is so tasty, hearty, and well-made!”

Ultimately, being a staff member at Seward Co-op connects Jen to community and to the way she first connected with the co-op as a shopper. “I witness how our collective resourcefulness with tech and each other continues to make us responsive to the social and economic challenges around us while staying true to our cooperative principles and Ends statement. All of it reconnects me to my very first feelings of being at Seward Co-op and feeling part of a positive force in our community.”