Message From The Board of Directors
Dear Food Co-op Members,
There have been many changes at the Sitka Food Co-op in 2016. We have grown to more than 200 members. Thank you all for your support! We hired a new assistant manager, Holly Marban. We also changed our delivery location to the Centennial Hall building, which is a much larger facility centrally located downtown.
The addition of more members has meant larger orders, which resulted in us outgrowing our previous space at First Presbyterian Church. We are very grateful to the Church for letting us use their facility at nominal rent for a long time. While we are happy to be serving more members of the community, our growth required use to rent more space at a much higher cost than our previous location, as well as additional off-site storage for our inventory and supplies. Staff time has also increased over the past year. We foresee additional expenses to keep up with a higher volume of business in the near future.
In order to cover the Co-op’s increased cost of doing business, the Sitka Food Co-op Board has decided to increase the membership fee from $25 to $50 per year. The Board chose to raise the membership fee rather than increasing food prices to keep overall food prices as low as possible. We hope that this increase in membership fees will cover the increased expenses budgeted for 2017 while allowing us to continue providing our members with access to high-quality and organic foods at affordable prices. The fee increase will be effective January 1, 2017, but will only be applied at the time of your renewal. The Sitka Food Co-op has a policy in place to help members pay their fees incrementally if necessary. Please email the Co-op Board or General Manager for more information.
With more members and larger orders, we depend on volunteers more than ever. On delivery days, we need volunteers from 11:30am until at least 8:00pm. Even if you can only volunteer for a few hours, we could really use your help.
We greatly appreciate your continued support and welcome your suggestions for strategies to help us manage our growth.
Jacquie, April, Annie, Robin, Robert, Mari, Kendra
Sitka Food Co-op Board