 My name is Eva Schechtman and I am the president of the Hunger Mountain Co-op Council. It is my pleasure to welcome you to our 2022 annual member meeting in which we are celebrating 50 years of cooperation in our central remind community. Recording in progress. I'm sorry that we cannot be in person for this year's annual meeting. We judge that this online format was our best option given ongoing safety concerns. Hopefully we will be able to gather in person next year. In the meantime, we have a lovely program planned and we are very happy that you can join us. Let's start by introducing the Co-op Council, Council, our governing body. Most of our... I'm Catherine Lother. I'm very grateful to be on the Co-op Council where I chair the Carbon Neutrality Committee and work to help the Co-op produce its carbon emissions. Hello, my name is Andrew Sullivan. I was elected to the Council in 2020 and my term ends this year. I would like to thank everyone for attending this meeting and for voting. Hi everyone, my name is Jeff Roberts. I've been a member of the Co-op since the mid 1990s when I first arrived in Vermont and an interim board member since earlier this year. I've been really thrilled with my experience so far and believe in the life of this organization and it's critical importance to Central Vermont. Thank you, bye-bye. Hi everyone and welcome. My name is Julia Shire. I've had the pleasure of being on the Council for the last year in an interim role and served as the Treasurer and on a few committees. I've just been so impressed with the dedication and commitment of this small group to the success of the Co-op in all of the different definitions of the way our Co-op serves our community and want to wish you a very warm welcome tonight. Hi, my name is RJ Adler. I've been on the Council since 2020 and I'm from Berlin, Vermont. Hi everyone, welcome to this year's annual meeting. My name is Jen Poirier. I've been on the Council since 2020 and I live right here in Montpelier. Hello, I'm Stephen Farnham. I've served on the Executive Committee as the Council Secretary for the past couple of years. In addition, I've also served on several other committees including bylaws, communications, ethics, recruitment and rules since first being elected to the Council in 2014. It is an honor to be able to serve the Co-op and the greater community in this capacity. I believe I speak for all of us on the Council when I say your continued support of Hunger Mountain Co-op and of the Council is greatly appreciated. I hope you find the offerings in this year's virtual annual meeting enjoyable and informative. Please don't hesitate to give us feedback after the meeting and thank you so much for joining us. Thanks everybody. We heard from everyone on the Council except for Council Member Lauren Antler and Staff Representative Nick Sebregg. Now it is my pleasure to introduce tonight's moderator, Bonnie Hudspeth. Bonnie lives in Putney and is in charge of cooperative development for the Neighboring Food Co-op Association. She also serves as President of the Board of Cooperative Fund of the Northeast. Welcome back Bonnie and thank you for returning to moderate our meeting again this year. Well, thank you Eva and welcome co-op friends. If it wasn't clear from Eva's introduction, I am a co-op lover and a co-op nerd. I'm really happy to be here with you all tonight and especially for this momentous occasion as we're celebrating half a century of profound community impact through the Hunger Mountain Co-op. So let's raise a glass to that. What a great time to gather in celebration of the Co-op and reflect on how our community has changed for the better, right? By having this community owned and controlled grocery store as a vibrant hub for Montpelier and surrounding communities. From last year's annual meeting, we heard your desire for more interaction. So we already switched to using the Zoom meeting platform for this year's meeting so we can see each other. And I encourage you if you're comfortable to turn on your video so we can wave to each other. And we want you to have the best experience. Yeah, give the thumbs up. We want you to have the best experience possible tonight. So I'm gonna go over a couple of features that will help you optimize your time. So first, you've got view options. You can see just the speaker or you can see the gallery and see all your friends and neighbors by going up to the top right corner of your screen. You'll see a little grid with view so you can select what you're seeing. You also can enable captions if you want by pressing the show captions button at the bottom of your screen. And tonight we will be using reactions button for voting. So let's try that now at the bottom of your screen you will, you can see a reactions button with a little smiley place and a plus. So if you could go down to reactions and press on a reaction either a celebration perhaps or a heart, thumbs up. Okay, I see a cup of coffee from Larry, thumbs up from Gail. Steven give a thumbs up, great. Check mark from Jess. Okay, we've got those reactions and you can practice, you can do that at any point before we vote. If the chat isn't visible for you you can just hover your mouse over the bottom of the screen and click on the chat button to open it. That way you can communicate. And if you want any tech support just send a message in the chat and one of the awesome staff will help you out. You can also chat to the whole group or chat to individuals if you wanna say hi to your co-op buddies and neighbors and send them a direct message. You should be able to do that. And if we run out of time tonight we don't get all of your questions. Rest assured, all of your questions are gonna be responded to, we're gonna collect them and we're going to post responses. So we'll get back to you. And finally, those of you thinking about what about the raffle? Any member who pre-registered for tonight's annual meeting is automatically enrolled in the raffle and will announce winners at the end. And we hope you'll be able to stick around but if not, don't worry about it we'll still post results online and you can still win. So tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Comcast channel 1075 or at orcamedia.net and a video recording by Orca will also be posted for later viewing. So thank you to the Orca team for making this happen. And let's dig into our plan for the evening together. So after our welcome we are going to establish quorum and approve minutes. We will then be celebrating co-op employees and hear about the cooperative, the community fund grants. Then we'll get a chance to review the impact reports and take your questions. We'll share information about council elections. We'll celebrate the community cooperative community award and we'll wrap up with closing and raffles of course. And while we're sharing this space together I wanted to share meeting some meeting ground rules that are created by and used by the co-ops council that really will help us clarify expectations of how we wanna be in this space together. So we encourage you to speak from your own perspective that all questions are good ones to communicate respectfully to have an awareness of how much you speak and to respect the viewpoints of others and listen attentively to bring your curiosity in an open mind to tonight's meeting and the bottom line be kind let's be kind to each other. And with that in mind let's get to some brief business approving the 2021 annual meeting minutes and the 2022 special meeting minutes both are posted on the co-ops website. And first we're going to establish quorum. So we've got community relations assistant manager Rowan Sherwood in the house to help us out. Yes, and we have met quorum. Our quorum is 100 and there are currently 147 of us here. So welcome everybody and thanks for being here. That is a robust quorum. So glad you all are here. Okay, now that we have quorum can we have a motion and a second to approve the 2021 annual meeting minutes and the way I want you to motion is to go to the reaction and raise your hand to make a motion. Oh, okay, great. I see a motion from Eva and I see a second from Jen Poyer. Great, thank you. Now, if you have any comments please type them in the chat now. So we can read them. Jess has posted the annual meeting minutes. Thank you, Jess. Not seeing any comments. So now it's time to vote. So now you can go down to the reactions and click on the green check mark to approve or the red X. The reactions is a little smiley face at the bottom of your computer. I see a number of green checks. Look at that. And as you're finding those reactions, I hope you all are drinking a good beverage, eating some good food, maybe even that you purchased at the co-op earlier today. Great. I'm seeing a lot of green check marks. Thank you all. Excellent. So I'm excited to announce the 2021 annual meeting minutes of Hunger Mountain Co-op are thus approved. Democracy in action. Okay, now it's time for our next vote. We'll be voting on the 2022 special meeting minutes. And first, I just wanna thank co-op member owner Elizabeth Jezdale. She reached out with an amendment to the minutes. She just wanted to note that she was not called on for motions during the course of the meeting and she could not speak to the motions, could not unmute herself to participate. One co-host of the meetings could unmute themselves to participate and went ahead to call to questions before she and others could participate in discussion. So we just wanted to make sure we noted this and added this amendment from Elizabeth to the minutes. With this noted, can we have a motion and a second to approve the 2022 special meeting minutes as amended? Great. I see Billy, motion from Billy and a second from Ed and Ginny. We'll have to choose one of you. Great. Now, it's time to vote again, right? So find that green check mark or the red X on your screen in the reactions. Great. I'm seeing lots of green checks. Thank you for participating and voting, everyone. I'll give you another minute here. I don't see anything in the comments. Just wanted to make sure that you have a chance to weigh in if you need to. Okay, lots of green check marks. Great. I'm excited to announce the 2022 special meeting minutes are thus approved. So congrats, everyone. Our first business, let's do a little celebration. I got to find my celebration reaction. Woo-hoo! Our business, our first item of business is officially done. And now let's celebrate by turning it back to Eva for the 50th anniversary celebration. Thank you, Bonnie. It is so exciting to be celebrating our 50th anniversary as a new co-op. It's incredible to think about all the changes that have occurred in the world and in our community in the East since 1972. I am so grateful for my parents' generation who had the vision and wherewithal to start buying clubs in Plainfield and Montpelier, which part of a nationwide movement turned into food co-op stores in just a few years, paving the way for supporting the growth of the organic and local foods movements that has had such a positive effect on our community. I joined the Hunger Mountain Co-op in 1988. My favorite snacks that year were Scotty Harrison's freshly made shrimp egg rolls, a baguette from Upland Bakers in Marshfield, the only freshly baked handmade French bread you could get in Vermont, and Butterworks Farm cream-top yogurt, possibly the only Vermont organic dairy cell yogurt to the co-op in 1988. Interest in organic and locally made products outgrew the Berry Street store. Co-op members decided to find a new larger location and moved to Stonecutters Way in 1997. Since then, small farms have started growing wheat again in Charlotte, Greensboro, and Les Sedges, Quebec, among many small farms in the region, contributing to local bread bakeries blossoming and maturing to the point where there are now several aisles dedicated to local bakeries at the store, including gluten-free bakeries for which I'm grateful. Hunger Mountain Co-op is at the center of the growth of the organic and local food movements in central Vermont, and has had an impact that is both large and varied on the community, making it possible for small farms like the Bik-Pak-owned Nama Farm in Cabot to have a place to sell their preserves locally, which in turn supports their efforts to build sustainable community through seed-sharing community canning parties and potlucks. The co-ops 387 vendors contribute enormously to the co-op's ability to provide high-quality, local, and organic foods to the community, and in turn, the co-op supports the local food system and continues to lead in maintaining a membership-led, democratic, and collaborative organization. The future continues to be cooperatives where the community and sustainability come before profits. What does the next 50 years of cooperation our community look like to you? Our friends at Orca Media created a wonderful 50th anniversary video. Let's watch now. The Co-op is where we do the bulk of our shopping. It's my first place to shop. I get whatever I can at the co-op. I'm really proud of the fact that the co-op is where people want to come to shop. Having a co-op, having a local natural food store, and a cooperative was a big part of moving here and choosing to live in Montpelier. It's as simple and foundational as walking in the door and knowing a lot of people. I was, like, coming in every day. The staff was, like, she's back, buying a lot of groceries. You get the personalized touch. You know the staff by name, and you see your friends all the time. I mean, that's a very different experience than walking into a big box store. My favorite part of the co-op is all the people working together on a common mission. Thousands of people between our members, our local vendors, our employees, the broader community. We are a phenomenon. It's just a really powerful thing. The co-op has changed a lot over 50 years, obviously. The germ of the idea came from rejection of the corporate food system. So right off the bat, they wanted to buy better foods as local as possible. The co-op is where we could get the kind of food you were looking for, which was kind of hard to find when it all began in the 70s. The first couple of years, we were experimenting on every level. When I first started working there, they had the produce displayed on these 2x4 racks, unrefrigerated, you know, just painted wood. You know, it went from wild west and funky to, within three years, a radical grocery store. We were all involved in this kind of new thing, which was the natural food. Organic is kind of a household word, but back then... It was just the beginning of people getting interested in natural food and in the environment. Now people are actually asking for organic. The co-op itself prides itself on having a very wide range of organic produce. It went from being a fringe operation to mainstream. Lots of great brands and organic food, which is how I eat and how I live my life. The co-op definitely has a commitment to whole foods, natural foods. It's a special dietary requirement. I have a restricted diet and it's really nice to be able to go in and find foods that I can eat. The co-op has a huge impact on local food sales and creating access for local farms and farm producers to help business growth and farm viability, which is so important for Vermont. As the co-op grew and the marketplace grew, we all grew along with it. The co-op is a huge part of this farm's success. The co-op's always been really great that pretty much anything we pitched them, they say, great, let's give it a try. And it helps a lot of people in the popular area really know us. So when they see more of our stuff on the shelves, they buy it and then it does really well. We've grown, the operations get more sophisticated, more people involved, more perspectives. I think the key is that we've changed as the community changes. We've designed the whole business so that our values of co-operation are baked into our processes. It's just a very powerful way to run a business. There's about 55,000 people that live in Washington County and our membership is 10,000 plus. It's not just a store. It's not just a food co-op. It's a community hub. The fact that we're owned by the community and are here to meet its needs and fulfill this mission is really the most inspiring part of the work. I love the co-op as a place of connection and exchange. It's almost impossible to do your grocery shopping without bumping into somebody that you know and love and getting to reconnect. I go through town and people say hello because they recognize me from the co-op. That happens still all the time. During the pandemic, we realized how dependent we were on the co-op staying open. It was a trying time, but they were, co-op is a leader in that sense, you know, really setting the standards for other businesses and how to do it right. I'm seeing the co-op do even more with the community. In terms of new programs to give back to the community, each year the community fund gets together and the grant recipients from this year's community fund are BIPOC-owned farms in the local community. Telcom Farm and the Flying Buffalo LLC will be getting money to help expand farm production. It's one of the many ways that the co-op works to kind of address gaps in the food system and then also, you know, lift up a really strong and healthy, vibrant local economy. I think this is a really good time at the age of 50 to be thinking about what's next. I think the co-op in the future will continue to serve niche markets and help people find the food that they want to eat that nourishes them. I would love it if the co-op in the future could just keep doing what it's doing and continue to grow and support even more of, you know, the local food economy. I sincerely hope that the co-op is around for at least another 50 years and that it continues to grow in its capacity to serve the community. It's mostly important that we listen and we hear. We understand what are the unmet needs in our community so that we can continue to be true to our core value that we're here to serve members and meet the needs of the broader community. Happy birthday to the Hunger Mountain Co-op. 50 years is a huge accomplishment and I can't wait for the next 50. We've got this much money, this much muscle. We've got 10,000 members. Let's brainstorm something radical. I'm seeing a lot of love in the comments here from appreciation of memories of cheese cutting to first CSAs to the music and just wanted to give a shout out to 25 Strings for providing the music in this video and also the intro and exit music as well. So what a beautiful compilation of co-op community faces and stories from the last 50 years. Happy 50th to Hunger Mountain Co-op and everyone who made it happen, right? And I'm reminded as watching that video is sometimes we serve the whole community by a person-by-person basis and so being able to seek limpses of some of the people who have participated in the co-op and work to build it into what it is today is very moving. And now we're going to hear from Storekeeping Manager Mary Malale who will share the vital statistics of the co-op at 50. Hi everyone. Hunger Mountain has a lot to celebrate for our 50th. We have 10,655 members, 187 employees and 387 Vermont vendors. Our current sales are 27.3 million. 38% of that is local. 35% is organic. 46% from fresh and 5% from other co-ops. Our total equity, which is the wealth that we have amassed is currently 7.6 million. We've also given away over $80,000 in donations and sponsorships and over $14,000 in grants. And shortly you'll be hearing about our newest environmental initiative. Thank you so much for all of your support. I will see you at the co-op. Thank you, Mary. And it is amazing to think that now there are nearly 11,000 member-owners who collectively own the co-op together. Including you all, right? So now that we've gotten into some celebration, let's do some interaction. We're going to break into small groups right now for 10 minutes. And in addition to saying hello to your co-op neighbors, we're offering some questions we'd love to hear from you. So we'd love you to consider what is one favorite memory you have of the co-op and what does one hope you have for the next 50 years of co-operation. So we also want to hear what you have to share. So if you could document in the chat once you're in your small group, find a scribe from your group to take notes under your group numbers section, which you'll be able to see at the top of the screen once you're broken into your small group. And then you'll be invited to go into a small room with a bunch of other people. Virtually, of course. And we'll send out a five-minute check-in. And then you'll also get a one-minute countdown before you come back into the room. So before hopping into your breakout group, you'll notice in the chat here that Rowan has posted a link to the co-op group. And you'll see an invitation pop up in your screen in a minute here. Rowan has posted a link where you can take notes. So if everyone wants to click on that link, you'll see a shared Word document with group numbers. And Kari's going to invite you to go in your groups, look at your group number, and take a couple notes so we can collect information from you all. See you in 10, everyone. Does anyone need help getting into the breakout room? Hi, Sandra. Do you need help getting into your breakout room? Oh, I think you're muted. Hey, Steven, how are you? Good to see you. I see a message from Betsy, a direct message to me saying, for some reason I was the only person in my room, and I had a big telephone symbol, so I left the breakout room. It seems like a lot of people have not joined their rooms. Okay. Maybe they're eating dinner. Could be. Yep. Oh, that's your experience. Can we join a different room? Good question. I can assign you. I'm seeing the rooms, and it says, there's an option for move to. Oh, yeah. So I think that means you can move them to a different room. Steven, I wish I could move you. Who just moved him? Rowan, was that you? No, I don't think so. Oh, maybe he could. Maybe he joined something. Yeah. He wasn't joined before. Yeah, I couldn't find his name. I was trying to move him. Oh, no, he's back. Let me see. Oh, good idea. They're sharing in the chat what they like. What do you think, Bonnie? Should I give like a four-minute warning? Something like that? That sounds good. I'm checking in here at the memories. I keep seeing Elizabeth Jezdale entering the waiting room, and I've admitted her like three times. I have two. Okay, maybe it's a connectivity thing. I never knew there was a kids play corner in the old co-op. I've seen that in notes. It's true. That's where the parents used to stash us. You were one of those kids. I think Plainfield co-op still has one, if I remember correctly. They do, which is amazing because they have such a small space. And they've got a nice little, it looks like a tree fort wedged into their co-op. Betsy Allen said, just leave for another meeting. Love the video and seeing so many folks. And a warm thank you. A number of people are direct messaging me. Elizabeth said she keeps getting bumped, and that's why she keeps winding up in the waiting room. Gotcha. We've admitted her several times, so I don't get it. Yeah. Look, there's a live live from Fox Market. Yay. Oh, that's awesome. Jenny is sharing about working with the crew who did the earth work for the foundations and parking lot of the co-op. Wow. Should I give them the 60 seconds? Sounds great. Welcome back. For those of you coming back into the main room, it was really fun to hear your comments and vision in the shared document. From neighborhood buying groups, that must have been really early on. A story about after breaking one of the members broke their ankle, how helpful everyone at the co-op was getting groceries out to the car, lending an extra hand, and the co-op being the first place people came to in the community when they moved. Feel free to continue the document throughout the meeting. Just because we're coming out of breakout rooms doesn't mean you can't stop sharing. Yeah. That would be great. Thank you so much, everyone. Hopefully you had time to connect and had some meaningful conversations and memories about your interaction with the co-op in the past and thinking about where will this co-op be? What can we do together over the next 50 years? So we heard from you and we hope you'll continue adding to that shared document, your favorite memories and your hopes and dreams for the co-op in the next 50 years. We're going to hear from Senator Lehi what he has to say about Hunger Mountain Co-op and Rowan is going to read a letter from the senator. Yes. Here it is. We are really lucky that Senator Lehi knows something about longevity retiring after almost 50 years in his job wrote this lovely letter to recognize the co-op. He says, Dear staff, this year on their 50th anniversary I offer my warmest congratulations to Hunger Mountain Co-op. For five decades, Hunger Mountain Co-op has brought nutritious food to kitchen tables across my hometown of Montpelier and our entire state of Vermont. With its dedication to the health of our local communities, Hunger Mountain Co-op has supported and strengthened Vermont's sustainable and local food systems. Today, in an age of growing corporate consolidation Hunger Mountain Co-op's accomplishments are especially remarkable. Across the country big food retail and agriculture businesses increasingly threatened the welfare of workers, consumers, farmers, animals and the environment alike. Hunger Mountain Co-op shows an alternative path forward. This member owned business relies on and supports nearly 400 local vendors. It supplies quality food which ensures the vibrancy and health of our local communities. The importance of these relationships was proven during the first months of COVID. As regional and national food supply chains became frayed the local food system exemplified by Hunger Mountain was both flexible and resilient. Importantly, Hunger Mountain Co-op provides a platform for its 185 employees and thousands of members to actively weigh in on the policies and decisions which direct the organization. It allows members to come together on collective issues and to find common sense solutions to better serve our local communities. In our current political climate this kind of democratic discourse is more important than ever. Throughout our nation's history Vermont has often led the way. It is no different in the food retail industry. Organizations like Hunger Mountain Co-op show the country there is a better way to put food on the table. As a member of all Vermonters I extend my gratitude to Hunger Mountain Co-op and wish its members a happy 50th anniversary. Thank you Ron for reading that. And thanks to Senator Leahy it is always cool that when our elected officials understand what is going on at the Co-op how he was mentioning coming together to meet to create solutions for the community and I saw a lot of that in the vision for the next 50 years. What is the Co-op's role as a central community hub in solving the problems that we share. So thank you for that. And now it is time to celebrate the people who make the magic happen at the Co-op. So Human Resources Manager Jay Wisner will be recognizing the Co-op's employees. Hi I am Jay Wisner and I am the manager at the Co-op. I am pleased to have this opportunity to share my appreciation for the folks who deliver the essential services the Co-op provides to our members and the wider community. I want to identify some of these people specifically. First I have the privilege of sharing the results of our annual employee award for excellent customer service. Each year an employee is chosen for this award after nominations by all employees. This year we chose Jan Tobias who works as a cashier. Jan is consistently friendly and engaging. She is a role model for us all in the positive attitude that she brings to work and to life. Thank you Jan. I also want to recognize several groups of employees for reaching milestones of service at the Co-op this year. At 20 years of service we have Tom Gillette in Prepared Foods Beth Johns in Finance Robin Joy Pierce in Community Relations Yuri Prince in Prepared Foods Gerard Renfrow in Produce and Diane Stark in the front end. At 15 years of service we have Terry Barber in Bulk Foods Annie Coughlin in Produce Kelly Sewell in Wellness Juliana Wescott in the front end. And we have a larger group of 10 years. Sonia Carrasco in Bulk Justin Cody in Produce Alex Fontaine in Prepared Foods Laura Fervor in Wellness Tucker Hayward in Meat and Fish Kurt Jensen in the front end Kevin O'Donnell in Operations Dan Pia Needleman in Prepared Foods Teddy Petersack in the front end James Sharp in Bulk Foods Connor Spear in Receiving Jamie Young in Prepared Foods and Kate Zerielo in Prepared Foods My thanks to all these individuals and to everyone who helps make the co-op such a special place to work and to shop. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. And now let's give a cheer and appreciation to the amazing co-op employees. I saw a lot of appreciation and love in the comments here and congratulations to the milestone and thanking staff and employees so much. Great. Thank you all. And now we're going to hear from Claire Wheeler who serves as the chair of the Hunger Mountain Cooperative Community Fund. She's going to share about this year's Cooperative Community Fund grant recipients. I'm Claire Wheeler and I currently serve as the chair of the Hunger Mountain Co-op Community Fund. I'm here today to tell you about the grants that we're giving out through the 2022 round of grant making. First I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to all the groups who took the time and energy to apply to the fund and also to thank the committee members of the community fund which include Jake Clairo, Scott Hess, Julia Shire, Matt Levin, Richard Wiswall and Stephanie Cakonen. Together we get together as a group throughout the year to refine our process, conduct outreach, and then review and make decisions on funding recommendations which we then send to the Co-op Council for final approval. Our outreach effort this year was hugely successful. We have the most number of applications than we've ever had in our 10 or 11 year history with 27 grant applications coming in and we're also making the highest number of grants that we have ever in our history before with 14 grants which I'm excited to tell you about. Our decision making process is based on a set of criteria that really look at project viability as well as project value how well the project is connected to the co-ops mission to support local food system, health nutritious, and healthy community members and also to address equity and advance equity in our community. I'm really psyched to say that we have funding for a couple of BIPOC owned farms in the local central community area as well as a lot of projects supporting and addressing food access and food insecurity within our communities. Without further ado, let me tell you about our grantees. This year we're really happy to be supporting the Milk with Dignity Standards Council that's a group that looks to make sure that dairy farm workers and farmers have knowledge, access, and support and are protected. The Greater Northfield Seniors we're supporting them to help with some kitchen upgrades for the kitchen that they use to prepare meals on wheels, which is home cooked food that gets to folks in need in the community. The Macquam Bay of Mrs. Coy Incorporated to support the Abenaki Food Bank. The Barrie Senior Center to help them host a health cooking and eating class. The Flying Buffalo LLC to help them expand farm production with a caterpillar tunnel. We're also supporting the Good Samaritan Haven to install a vegetable garden and some fruit producing shrubs and trees at their new emergency shelter campus, so that'll be for staff and residents to work with. The Good Food, Good Medicine program to help run a winter wellness and food justice program for residents of affordable housing in Barrie. Under River Food Shelf we're supporting them to increase their cold storage space. They're going to install some new technology to help with that. And we're also supporting the Twin Valley Senior Center to support their meals on wheels and in-house meals programming. Given some money to enough ministries to help them create a walk-in food pantry and clothing closet that's going to be accessible 24 hours a day. And a few more grants as well. Supporting the Bethany Church to add in some fruit and veggies smoothies into their regular free community meals. Schoolhouse Farm to help them purchase a manure spreader to build healthy soils. Kelcomb Farm to purchase some manure to help them do the same thing on their new farm startup in Central Vermont. As well as the Ishtar Collective which runs a free community farm in Barrie and they grow food and deliver it for free to over 20 local families. So those are the 14 grants that we're really excited and feel honored to be able to make to strengthen the local food system here in Central Vermont. Thanks so much for your support of our work and see you around the co-op. Wow. That's amazing to hear about the record number of applications and grants and I was really inspired to hear the breadth and the depth of these awesome projects supporting our local food system and community. And we've got even more good news which is that this week's community fund grant of $1,000 to the Montpelier Senior Activity Center for the purchase of a new dishwasher to allow the feast meals on wheels kitchen to be more efficient. So just icing to the cake on top of all those other incredible projects that were mentioned. And I'm seeing a lot of love in the comments here, fantastic work and terrific choices for the grants, a nice diversity of locations and programs. An impressive list indeed. So now I'm going to turn it over to Eva and Kari for our annual report. Thanks Bonnie. I have a lot to share here starting with highlights from this past year in the context of our mission statement in terms of employees, how the co-op has been giving back to the community and the work of the council and the work that the council has been focused on this year. This first slide focuses on the part of our mission that calls for a vibrant community. Our membership has grown steadily reaching 10,655 at the end of this June. Each year the co-op conducts a shopper survey and this year you express an especially high level of satisfaction with our co-op. For example, when asked how likely you were to recommend the co-op to friends and colleagues, the average of the co-op is 4.5 with a rating of 4.7 out of 5. We are proud to report that more people are taking advantage of our co-op cares discounts, which provides 10% off for our members with limited income. In terms of employees, we are happy to report that the co-op and our employees union reached tentative agreement on a new three-year labor contract that manages while maintaining our excellent benefit package. We hope the agreement will be ratified in the coming days and we want to thank the members of the local 255 of the United Electrical Workers for being our partners in operating our co-op. As of June 30th, 2022 the co-op had 187 employees. About three-quarters are members of the co-op and 83% participate in our retirement plan which we strongly encourage. One of the things that is notable about our co-op is the long tenure of our employees. Even with an increased rate of turnover this past year, 57 of our employees have been with us for at least 10 years and 14 employees more than 20 years. And the co-op currently does business with 387 local vendors and made $8.5 million purchases last year in support of that portion of our community. Another way to think about vibrant community is how the co-op gives back. We have really stepped up the amount that we gave in the form of donations and sponsorships just over $80,000 last year. These funds came both from co-op operations and donations from members made through the co-op members rounding up at the cash registers and other means. About half of these funds went to food pantries and the Vermont food bank. So thank you for helping to adjust food insecurity in central Vermont. We have also grown our co-operative community fund both in terms of assets in the fund and the amount of grants we distribute. And we just heard from Claire about all the amazing efforts we are supporting with this year's grants. I also want to highlight some of the work that the council has been focused on this year. The council has devoted up to 20% of our meeting time this year to furthering justice, equity, diversity and inclusion also known as Jedi education. So as to engage in the local systems that prevent fair access to food and farmland. We look forward to putting what we've learned together to work and to considering ways to update our policies using an equity and inclusion lens. A big thank you to our bylaws committee who spent nearly four years developing and following through on proposals to update the co-ops bylaws. In May we held a special meeting of the members and thanks to everyone who participated we have a much improved set of bylaws which are available on the co-ops new website. The council has put a lot of effort into recruiting members to run for council or serve on committees. If you are interested in either and keep in mind council committees accept new members throughout the year please let us know such participation helps keep our co-op strong. Finally our co-op excuse me our carbon neutrality committee has been looking at possible solutions to reduce our carbon emissions as a co-op. In February the council was pleased to approve the purchase of two offsite solar arrays which will offset most of the electricity with a renewable source and save us money over the long term. Here's a photo of one of the sites which are located in Addison County. With that I would like to introduce general manager Cari Bradley who will continue this year and report. Thanks Eva and thank you all for being here. It's been quite a year and it's really great to be together with you tonight. I'm going to pick up where Eva left off and talk about the part of our mission that calls for us to help create a sustainable local food system. One way we measure sustainability relates to the environment environmental impact of our own operations and as a result of the purchase of solar arrays which came online in the fourth quarter we decreased our net carbon emissions last year and this continues a trend from the past few years and it's something that we plan to continue as we electrify more of our heating and cooking equipment. Additionally in this realm we saw an increase in local food sold both in terms of the dollars sold and in the share of all sales coming from this from local this past year. Our mission also speaks to thriving cooperative commerce and one way we measure that is in terms of our own business. Last year we realized gross sales of $27.3 million and this was growth of 4.4% and that was a bit higher than the rate of price inflation over that period. Of course thriving cooperative commerce needs to include other co-ops and to that end we invest in other cooperatives and associated loan funds that support cooperative development. That amount has grown in recent years to over $674,000 and we support other co-ops by selling their products. Last year it was about $1.4 million or close to 5% of our total sales came from products made by our sister co-ops. And now I'm going to shift to a very brief financial report for fiscal year 2022 which ended July 3rd. We're pleased to share that our financial statements were audited by Wagner and Associates who once again provided an unqualified opinion meaning they observed no significant issues with our accounting. Net sales last year were $26.9 million after accounting for the cost of goods sold operating expenses and all other adjustments had net income before taxes of just over $163,000 and after taxes we ended up with excuse me we ended up with a loss for the year of $49,752 and because of that there will not be a patronage refund for the year. A key reason for this loss was our decision to retire the renewable energy credits associated with our new solar arrays. We purchased those arrays, we had the option to sell those credits on the open market and if we had done so another company would have bought them and put them into use meaning that the overall amount of carbon pollution would not have changed. We decided to retire those credits for the environmental benefits and so that value had to be deducted from our income. Finishing up I'm pleased to report that Balance Sheet indicates solid overall financial health. We have total assets of $10.9 million and that's made up of liabilities of $3.3 million and total equity of $7.5 million and this equity is the wealth that we have accumulated as a cooperative community over our 50 years. I like to point out that without the co-op much of this wealth would have left our community. So this is a good moment I think to pause and say thank you to all of our members, our shoppers employees, local vendors and many others who supported us up to this point. Thank you very much. I also want to recognize our longtime produce manager Robert Kurigan who retired this month after nearly 38 years working at the co-op. Robert worked with many farmers over the years and played an important role in the development of our Vermont food system. Congratulations to Robert and thank you. I also need to thank Robert's co-manager and Spencer who is also leaving the co-op later this month. Muffin did an amazing job these past two years helping to lead our produce team through the pandemic and related challenges. Thank you Muffin and best wishes. And lastly I want to highlight our neighbors helping neighbors food and fund drive. This is year three for this program. This month and next we will be collecting food and cash donations with everything going to the Vermont food bank who will then distribute everything to our local food pantries here in Central Vermont. You can help by donating any amount at the cash register. We have secured matching donations from our community partners Northfield Savings Bank and Farrell Distributing. Food donations are being collected at the co-op every day. And I want to let you know that in the second half of December we will be running a special buy one give one promotion that will include dozens of staple items. This year we aimed to raise $15,000 and £2,000 of food. It's an ambitious and important goal. So with that Bonnie I'm going to turn it back over to you to moderate questions and comments. Great, thank you Kari and thank you to Eva as well. So it's time for your questions now and we'll have about 10 minutes. I invite you to either post your questions in the comments in the chat and I already see some we got queued up and you also could ask them out loud if you would like to do that do the raised hand reaction that will put you to the top of our screen and Giles will prompt you to unmute yourself so you can click to unmute once that you are prompted. And first though to kick things off we received an emailed comment that I'll pitch over to Kari that shares with you I'm grateful for the curbside program but please address the choice the co-op has made to repeatedly refuse the raising the level of the curbside program so there is equity in access for all to what the co-op provides. For nearly three years the co-op for the willing able-bodied and those assumed to be otherwise healthy hasn't been the same co-op as it has been for those whom whether because of disability mobility impairment or health related issues or risk assessment and respect for the virus COVID remains a true danger and the inside of the store is a serious threat so thanks appreciate that comment and Kari what would you share? Yep thanks so we developed the curbside pickup program back in the spring of 2020 that was right after the pandemic started it is a very labor intensive program for us but given the safety benefits we felt it was important to offer and continue offer at no additional charge at one point at the peak curbside sales were somewhere around 6% of total sales but since the spring of last year things have really changed the sales have dropped off quite a bit and they're generally less than 1% we've talked about ending the program potentially or adding a service fee but our plan right now is to get through this winter before we make any changes I think that the primary concerns underlying the question have to do with the products that we're offering it's true we don't offer everything on the curbside website that we do in store we do our best offer a similar experience to the in store one but given the labor demands it's really not feasible one of the key differences is the bulk department admittedly we do not scoop products in custom amounts just because of the time the amount of time it takes and I know it's challenging for some customers but we're really trying to balance a lot of factors and it was never designed to be a personal shopping program but just a way to serve the customers who need it most of what they need safely and efficiently and I also know that the members submitted this question has been critical of the hours that we operate the program it's not the same hours that we operate the store and also the fact that the employees are not currently required to wear a mask when delivering groceries to the car I understand these concerns again we're doing our best to balance the needs of all our shoppers and the operational realities thank you Kari next we have a question from Elizabeth what was the value of the solar credits about $75,000 something like that that was an estimate it's interesting there is still a market for these renewable energy credits but the projections was that they would dwindle down over time and last for somewhere in the area but the total value that we made a good faith estimate was about $75,000 great and Jen asks another clarifying question about that was the retirement of the solar credits a one-time expense or will it re-occur yearly? great Jeremy has a question about when is the cafe and seating area going to open back up if not why we made the decision not to reopen for this winter I think I want to get through this COVID cold flu season and we hope to open it sometime in the spring something to look forward to when the snow melts that's great I see a lot of appreciation here just reading some of the comments especially to Robert congratulating Robert and to Muffin thanking them and there's also a suggestion here from Carolyn how can we get more shoppers to use reusable such as reusable cups how about having a contest for some ideas like that play a game we recently played an operational game with customer service that could be fun to do with members we did a slasher trash game last April and it was fairly successful so let's try that I'm seeing does anyone and reminder to if anyone wants to ask a question out loud you can raise your hand I'm noticing a lot of gratitude for curbside can you make it possible for more for members to have access to all the products I spoke to that it's really not feasible at this time to offer everything we offer the mass majority Ron has a question did you ever mention a mask makes me wonder what the current regulation about that is I remember that a week or so goes required what's the latest we haven't required it since the spring late spring early summer maybe we've generally followed or we have followed state or federal guidelines currently the CDC is the only providing the only guidance asking is recommended for when the community level goes to high when it went to medium a couple weeks ago we posted encourage we encourage masking we're currently just to be totally transparent we're having a sort of an internal dialogue right now about what do we do if the community level goes to high will we require masking at the co-op again the reality is that the climate has really changed and while some people are masking is sort of the farthest thing from a lot of other people's minds and the whole prospect of having to require masks is really daunting so it's something we've been having a conversation about Lauren and Ann are asking about grab and go plastics more earth friendly options yeah that's a tough one admittedly is interesting prior to the pandemic I would say that plastic especially single use plastic was probably the most voiced concern that I heard a staff heard from members then the pandemic hit and that concern went away for obvious reasons now we're starting to hear it come back and with prepared foods really the best option is to eat from the food bar and our reusable eco-container but of course that's at odds with not having the cafe open which would be sort of the friendliest version of using that department would be to eat off a plate but we're just not offering that so it's a challenging thing our green team will continue to look at what are the opportunities there but that is a tough one we'll continue to work on Meredith asks any chance members could put compost in the co-op bins serve as a drop-off point for compost I cannot promise that tonight at different times we have been in conversation with the solid waste district about being a drop-off point but we would need a well-defined program before we invite people to start bringing their food scraps here great Steven was just clarifying can these questions be saved and answer ones you don't get to directly after the meeting and a reminder that yes that is the plan if we don't get to address anything right now you can also just posted in the chat you can also email annualmeeting at hungermountain.coop we'll compile all of them and post responses at some point great Steven says thanks I'm not seeing any more immediate questions and we're about at that time so thank you everyone for your awesome questions and participation and always pushing the co-op to be better right that's it's clear that there has been that continued presence and participation over the 50 years to make the co-op into what it is today so now we've got some questions rolling in right while it's time so I see the staff is answering questions I guess one last from Ken did the co-op lose money during the pandemic months did it receive PPP yes well first question did we lose money no we were profitable the first two years of the pandemic actually the pandemic was good for a lot of grocery stores because demand was up people weren't eating prepared foods they're eating food at home we did receive a PPP loan and we did receive an employee retention credit both of those were federal programs designed to encourage businesses to retain their employees which we did great thank you Kar alright well let's wrap up for now any questions that are unanswered we'll make sure you get answers to following the annual meeting and also a reminder someone had asked me is this being recorded so if you have spotty internet right now yes this is being recorded you'll have access to it you can watch it relive your favorite moments watch the videos again so you'll get an email afterwards and you'll have it on the co-ops website so if you have any additional questions please email them to info rohan.com or you can also pop post that into the chat right now you can send a message right while it's on your mind so now we're going to be learning about the upcoming council election and the candidates running and I'm going to be turning it over to Rowan Sherwood again to share candidates and voting instructions okay yeah so each year we as members select our council representatives the council is our governing body and council members are our voice at the co-op they oversee the general manager and set policies that guide how the co-op operates they each bring their own expertise and areas of interest to the table and they are here to listen to your ideas and concerns this year we have four candidates for three seats here are some short videos from each of the four candidates in addition to this you can learn more about each candidate on our voting website hungermountaincoopvotes.com or in print in the exit way of the store so let's see the videos and then I'll have a little more information about voting hi my name is Ashley Muscarella I'm running for the hunger mountain co-op council I believe that our co-op is the sustainable grocery option for our local community I believe that hunger mountain co-op has the opportunity to promote local agriculture reduced waste shopping for our bulk food section and to support and ensure that low and moderate income families can shop sustainably at the co-op I believe my drive and passion as a teacher and working for non-profits I work and I hope to represent you on the council hi everyone my name is Jeff Roberts I've been a member of the co-op since the mid 1990s when I first arrived in Vermont and an interim board member since earlier this year I've been really thrilled with my experience so far and believe in the life of this organization and it's critical importance to central Vermont thank you bye bye my name is Julia Shire I've been in Vermont for about eight years and I work at the agency of agriculture here in Montpelier I've greatly enjoyed being the treasurer while serving on the co-op council for the last year in an interim role I believe that a thriving resilient food system is vital to our region and I love the role that our co-op plays in our small community I would greatly appreciate your vote to continue serving on the council hi co-op members my name is Amanda Serdonis and I'm running for council I currently serve on the co-ops carbon neutrality committee where I'm working on our climate action plan to measure and reduce our carbon emissions I hope to bring my experience with sustainability practices and partnerships into the co-op strategic planning process so the co-op can continue to serve the community for another 50 years great so there's a an intro to the four candidates this past today co-op members approved a bylaw revision that changes the timeline for voting to elect our council members starting this year voting will begin rather than end with our annual member meeting so voting is now open and will be for approximately two weeks as I mentioned earlier we have three open seats and four candidates you've now heard from them directly please feel free to visit our voting website again it's hunger mountain co-op votes.com to read their full bios and cast your vote you may also find all the information you need and ballots for voting on the wooden structure in the exit way of the store the voting period will close at 8pm on Sunday November 27th so thank you for participating thank you Rowan and wow that is a very impressive slate of candidates it's going to be a hard choice but you got a lot of contested election that's great that you have that candidate pool it's now time to share the hunger mountain cooperative community award so each year an annual award is given to a hunger mountain co-op member owner customer, vendor, employee council member or community member for special contributions to our cooperative community and the advancement of our mission and ends we'll now hear about the hunger mountain cooperative community award recipients who are in the house you can see them live and Donnie and it will be hearing about them from human resources assistant Ellie Wood we recognize the sound is a bit tough to hear we encourage you to soak in the visuals great giving some accolades to the winner of this year's hunger mountain co-op community award I nominated Donnie and live at the box market but great job walking into the market here walking up onto this porch and celebrating the entry here this market they just get to really see all of the things that these to bring to this small little corner of the Vermont world and really provide such a cool little spot for people around here coming together thank you it's really cute but it is large I'll tell you in a minute now here they're hosting a pumping carving scenario back all sorts of cool things so so I came upstairs like a just quick show this lovely space that Fox Market has created upstairs for folks to be able to dine and hang out and spend some time in a cozy space here overlooking pastures in the small pylir really cozy space here and it's just a great example of this community little market doing amazing things in our space and so a huge congratulations to Fox Market for doing what they're doing yay go Donnie and live congratulations Donnie and live and I see you there that was really fun to be walked through I've never been to Fox Market clearly I have to come to Montpelier and go there big congratulations and shout out looks like another community hub so congrats once again love in the comments here and some other curiosity from folks who have never been to Fox Market so hopefully you'll get some new community members walking in the door big congratulations I see there was a couple comments oh best pot pies ever it's that time of the year isn't it for pot pies and the wine club oh my gosh okay you've got some good hype people here for Fox Market congratulations once again on this well-deserved award and for your contributions to the community I do see a note here from a couple folks that went to try to vote and there's an error that superstars staff are fixing it will be fixed soon have no fear so I'm going to turn it back over to Kari one last time to bring us to wrap up and close out our evening together thank you so much everyone thanks Bonnie congratulations to live in Donnie and thank you for your service to the community I know what they do is very hard work but clearly there's a lot of joy involved too so a reminder that we have one more member round table discussion this Monday at 6pm this will be an opportunity to further discuss the topics that we covered tonight or any others that you'd like and you can join us via zoom and you can find that login link on our website and you can also email us at annualmeetingathungermountain.co we will respond to all questions and comments and we'll compile them and share them out and we really appreciate your input and one more reminder that our neighbors helping neighbors with food and fund drive is running now through the end of December we're collecting cash donations at the register and food donations in our collection bins with all proceeds going to our central Vermont food bank food pantries with help from our friends at the Vermont food bank and please consider a gift to our cooperative community fund so far this year in conjunction with our 50th we've raised a bit more than $61,000 so we could use help in reaching our goal of $75,000 the fund is designed to operate in perpetuity and it would be generating grants for many important projects for many years to come and I like to think of the cooperative community fund as our gift to our future community so thank you very much and back to you Eva thank you Cory I want to acknowledge our council member Andrew Sullivan who will be stepping down after this meeting his council term ends tonight and he is not running for re-election Andrew has served since 2020 and we have benefited from his perspectives as a co-op employee and a member also let's thank Nick Sivrett who has served as staff representative to the council for the past year the council deeply appreciates the employees who serve in this role to make sure a staff voice is included in our deliberations and Nick has done that well I also want to give some thank yous to Matt Cichols who provided the Glass Apple awarded to Fox Market and Pizazz Pottery who's inscribed ceramic plates are given to outgoing council members the live broadcasting and our 5th anniversary video by Orchid Media and music in that video is by 25 Strings I would also like to thank community partners donated to our cooperative community fund this year United Natural Foods Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation and the Hickok and Boardman Insurance Group and let's please thank our community partners who are supporting this year's Food and Fund Drive Northfield Savings Bank and Farrell Distributing many many thanks to Bonnie for moderating our meeting tonight we also need to thank the employees who put in many hours planning and preparing for this event Stephanie Canonen Rowan Sherwood Jess Knapp Robin Pierce and Giles Brule thank you all for your support we would love your feedback on how this meeting went a survey will pop up in all participants browsers shortly after the meeting is adjourned on to our raffles raffle winners Megafood Gummy Pack Carol Van Thunen Megafood Variety Pack Harriet Buciccio Pranam Yam Essential Oils there are two winners Kendra Mills and John Lewis and please forgive me in advance for mispronouncing any of the names that I am that I happen to do tonight so Sunsoil there are also two winners Pam Finnegan and Becky Herman Nordic Naturals Maribeth Damanski Big Gear Coffee there were four winners Mary Dolan Meyer Stephanie Lahar Stephanie Kaplan and Sherry White Red Door Bakery there are two winners Jed Davis and Helen Helen Nienel Towsky Puka Bundle Paul Kate one Whizzo Bagels Robert Walker one Co-op Merch Dana Woodruff one Co-op Merch and local products Ed Packlin one those and excuse me I'm just having a little trouble reading this last one Fun Yum's Tart Fred Pond One Fun Yum's Tart Okay and our grand prize goes to a $100 Hunger Mountain Co-op gift card to Nora LeCroy and $130 Integrative Acupuncture gift card for a new patient visit there are two winners Robert Kerrigan and Jim Passberg congratulations everybody so I just want to say thank you all for joining us tonight I wish you a happy and healthy and a safe holiday season and let us adjourn by consensus at 7 26 p.m. .