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Village Financial: Juneteenth Member Update
Village Financial Cooperative is an emerging Black-led credit union on the Northside of Minneapolis, with a mission to ignite a financial renaissance within the local Black community and beyond through cooperative economic practice. Our members believe in reversing the racial disparities of our state and come from all backgrounds and walks of life, including anyone who lives, works, worships or goes to school in Hennepin or Ramsey County.
Black folks who crossed the Middle Passage in America fought vigorously for their freedom and that fire to be liberated, both socially and economically, continues to burn. Join us for a kickback to commemorate Juneteenth on Thursday, June 13, 5:30-8 p.m., at 2515 Third St. N., Minneapolis.
In 2019 alone, Village Financial Cooperative has made headway in securing a physical location for the credit union, gained important partnerships, and held a number of important conversations on what building a Black cooperative economics system in the Twin Cities means. Now we’d like to celebrate these accomplishments and what’s to come with our members. So enjoy a good time with us, hear some exciting news about where we’re headed, and begin the festivities of Freedom Day with us.
•Family friendly
•DJ
•Activities
•Performances
•And more!
Register for free on eventbrite.com and learn more at villagefinancial.org.
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2016 in Review
In 2017, Seward Co-op looks forward to providing the community with healthy and sustainably produced food. Concern for community is one of the seven principles on which cooperatives are founded, and co-ops have a strong commitment to support their neighborhoods. This integrity of purpose underlines the vital role Seward and other co-ops play in the quality of our lives.
Building Commonwealth in 2016
This fall, the Friendship store celebrated its first anniversary and the Seward Co-op Creamery Café reopened after summer renovations and a menu relaunch. The Friendship store continues to perform beyond our expectations and the renovated café provides family-friendly dishes, and an upbeat and inviting atmosphere. Since opening the Friendship store and Creamery Café, thousands of new households have become owners of the co-op.
At Seward, we strive to build stronger relationships among employees, vendors, customers and our broader community by creating spaces in which people can come together over food. We are constantly asking ourselves how we can be more welcoming to all at the co-op. In 2016, this required that we acknowledge the larger historical context of racism and discrimination in our society and take proactive steps, as the board of directors did in September by publicly stating our co-op’s support for Black Lives Matter.
We take pride in the impact we make with our three distinct business units. We are able to offer more products and services from small-scale, local, and cooperative producers. And, each Seward Co-op location allows community members to gather over food, connecting with old friends and new acquaintances.
Community Giving
In early 2016, we reached $1 million in donations to local nonprofits via our SEED round-up program! Seward Co-op has made it a priority to give back to the community. In the spirit of the cooperative principles, the co-op launched SEED in 2011, a fundraising program that provides customers an opportunity to round-up their bill for organizations that share Seward’s commitment to a healthy community.
In the spring, Seward Co-op and many Twin Cities co-ops, teamed up to participate in the MN FoodShare March Campaign. Together, we raised a grand total of 109,371.37 dollars/pounds for the campaign! (This total is comprised of $97,211.67 and 12,159.7 lbs. of food.)
From Thursday, Nov. 17–Wednesday, Nov. 23 Seward Co-op donated 1 percent of all P6 sales, a total of $4,522, to the Cooperative Development Fund, a charitable family of funds that advances economic development through co-ops. These funds will be directed to area farms, many of which Seward has purchased from for years, that experienced damaging rains and consequential farm devastation in the 2016 growing season.
Recognition from Government Officials
In August, we received a visit from U.S. Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew. Lew and his staff visited the Friendship store because part of the financing for the building came in the form of a New Markets Tax Credit. Lew helped create this tax credit in the 1990s during the Clinton administration. The credit is aimed to create jobs and improve lives of people in low-income communities.
Representative Keith Ellison also paid a visit to the Friendship store in January. The congressperson toured the store, met with staff, and discussed the co-op’s recycling program and diversity hiring goals.
SunOpta Sunflower Seed Recall Expanded
On May 20, SunOpta expanded the May 3 voluntary recall of its roasted sunflower kernel products, because they may contain listeria. Between May 5, 2016 to May 19, 2016, Seward Co-op may have sold products affected by this recall at both the Franklin and Friendship stores.
Bird Bars – various sizes for $12.99/lb.
UPC code 0-0200619-XXXXX where the X’s are various numbers
Ginger Golden Beet Kale Salad-various sizes for $9.99/lb.
UPC code 0-0203336-XXXXX where the X’s are various numbers
If you purchased any of the above products at Seward Co-op between May 5, 2016 to May 19, 2016, recalled products will be fully refunded at either our Franklin or Friendship store Customer Service desk. Questions may be directed to Seward Co-op’s Franklin store at 612.338.2465 or Friendship store at 612.230.5595. Consumers can find more information at www.recallinfolink.com.
SunOpta Sunflower Seed Recall
On May 3, SunOpta issued a voluntary recall of its roasted sunflower kernel products, because they may contain listeria. Between Mar. 14, 2016 to May 3, 2016, Seward Co-op may have sold products affected by this recall at both the Franklin and Friendship stores.
Bird Bars – various sizes for $11.99/lb.
UPC code 0-0200619-XXXXX where the X’s are various numbers
Ginger Golden Beet Kale Salad-various sizes for $4.64/lb.
UPC code 0-0203336-XXXXX where the X’s are various numbers
If you purchased any of the above products at Seward Co-op between Mar. 14, 2016 to May 3, 2016, recalled products will be fully refunded at either our Franklin or Friendship store Customer Service desk. Questions may be directed to Seward Co-op’s Franklin store at 612.338.2465 or Friendship store at 612.230.5595. Consumers can find more information at www.recallinfolink.com.
The Legacy of African Americans in Co-ops
February is recognized as Black History Month in the United States. Traditionally, its focus has been to celebrate the contributions of African Americans in the U.S.
Carter G. Woodson pioneered the celebration that started as out as a week in February in 1926, to its current month-long celebration. As we approach the opening of the Friendship store in Bryant neighborhood, it is important that we honor the legacy of African Americans in the co-op community.
The book Collective Courage by Jessica Gordon Nembhard documents the importance of cooperative economics in the African American community. In that book, Dr. Nembhard covers decades of experiences that African Americans have had with cooperative economics.
Customers at Minnesota’s Credjafawn Co-op in the predominantly African-American Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, circa 1950.
Dr. Nembhard’s book is a continuation of the 1907 survey of African American cooperative efforts written by W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois discussed how African Americans used racial solidarity and economic cooperation in the face of discrimination and marginalization.
According to Dr. Nembhard, Du Bois differentiated cooperative economics from Black capitalism or buying Black. Du Bois focused on a “Black group economy” to insulate Blacks from continued segregation and marginalization.
To achieve that goal, Du Bois organized the Negro Cooperative Guild in 1918 with the idea of advancing cooperation among Black people. In attendance at the two-day conference were 12 men from seven states.
Du Bois is most widely known for his statement regarding race relations in the U.S. In his book, The Souls of Black Folk, he famously noted that “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.”
Du Bois is noted for accurately describing the problems of race in America. Yet, his work to solve the problem of the color line is often ignored. Du Bois promoted economic cooperation as the solution to the issues of the “color line.”
Du Bois said that “we unwittingly stand at the crossroads—should we go the way of capitalism and try to become individually rich as capitalists, or should we go the way of cooperatives and economic cooperation where we and our whole community could be rich together?”
In this instance, Du Bois believed that economic cooperation could provide more than providers of goods or services, but also a philosophy or blueprint by which communities could be built or rebuilt.
The guild’s mission was to encourage the study of consumer cooperatives and their methods, support the development of cooperative stores, and form a technical assistance committee.
As a result of the meeting of the guild, in 1919, the Memphis group incorporated as the Citizens’ Co-operative Stores to operate cooperative meat markets. The venture was very popular. The cooperative sold double the amount of the original shares they offered, and members could buy shares in installments.
Within a few months, five stores were in operation in Memphis, serving about 75,000 people. The members of the local guilds associated with each store met monthly to study cooperatives and discuss issues. The cooperative planned to own its own buildings and a cooperative warehouse.
The use of cooperative economics to address racial discrimination in the market place and provide a pathway to rebuild communities is an important lesson that has relevance today.
Since the 1800s, Minnesota food co-operatives have been at the center of issues that juxtapose the pursuit of justice issues against fair market opportunity. This started with the Finnish who arrived in Northern Minnesota, Scandinavian farmers who were taking bottom-barrel prices from railroad barons, extended into the 1950s when Black Minnesotans organized the Credjafawn Co-op to benefit their community in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. The co-ops were at the center of these issues in the 1970s, too, wherein the “Co-op Wars” erupted over social justice issues versus profitability.
We know that these are false dichotomies. A single choice among fairness, equity, or justice is not an option. Justice in the marketplace is not an option. Economic exploitation is not a part of the model of sustainability, and neither is economic isolation. The opportunity to share the co-operative model is at hand.
During the Co-op Wars of the ’70s, the clash between the Maoist “Co-op Organization” and the Bryant/Central Food Co-op was not just about food. The clash was about the false dichotomies: Serving poor people OR serving great food. Dismantling the notion that “cheap” food is sustainable is hard.
However, we now know that cheap food is built on cheap labor. When people are not paid fairly, we perpetuate the same system of inequality that we are trying to end. Today’s food co-ops must accomplish both: Make a commitment to end poverty by supporting economic models that are fair, just, and healthy and deliver healthful food to its owners.
The Seward Co-op’s Friendship store in a Bryant neighborhood will be an opportunity to become a part of the fabric of the community that honors this legacy by bridging the gap between the promise of cooperatives of the past and an economically just future.
Would you like to discuss these ideas further? Join LaDonna for the Seward Co-op Book Club this month —Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice