 Greetings. My name is Kari Bradley, and I'm the General Manager of Hunger Mountain Cooperative. It is my pleasure to welcome you to our co-op's annual member meeting for 2021. It's a shame that we can't be together again in person this year, but thank you very much for being here for this combination business meeting and community celebration. We're looking forward to sharing this time with you. There we go. We would like to begin this meeting by acknowledging the holiday of Diwali. Diwali is a festival of light celebrated by Hindus, Jain Sikhs, and some Buddhists. Diwali is occurring at this time of the year, and we want to express our best wishes to every, to our community members who celebrate Diwali. Thank you to Sarita and Dinesh Mamoriya who helped with this acknowledgement. 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 the Cooperative Fund of New England. Welcome Bonnie and thank you for returning to moderate our meeting again this year. Thank you so much Kari and hello co-op friends. I'm glad to be back here with you all. I love Hunger Mountain Co-op and I regularly stop at the co-op en route to where my sister and my parents live in Burlington. So our family loves your cookie section, your local produce, and of course getting to visit with your rock star staff. So we always love stopping by. And I've also had the pleasure of getting to work with and know the staff at Hunger Mountain Co-op through our neighboring food co-op association that your co-op is a part of. And so we're a network of over 40 food co-ops around the whole Northeast working together towards this shared vision of a thriving cooperative regional economy and a healthy just sustainable food system. So I really enjoyed getting to know the staff at your co-op better through this process. I'm really glad to be here with you all and we want to make this virtual meeting as engaging as possible starting with that awesome music I don't know if you are all rocking out like I was in the intro. And we'd love to hear from you so please type your comments and questions and cheers in the chat at any point. If that's not currently visible, you can hover your mouse at the bottom of your screen, and just click on the chat button, and that will open it. So if you need any tech support, send us a message in the chat. If you want to say hi to your neighbor, send them a direct message in the chat. At any time throughout this meeting you can share a message to everyone. You can share a message just to us, the panelists, or you can send a message to individuals so there's lots of options for you to engage and communicate with everyone. And throughout the meeting we're going to be sharing questions that as time allows, and we will also be, you know, if we run out of time we're going to be compiling all of your remaining questions and posting responses. So rest assured, all of your questions will be responded to at some point eventually. And just a reminder and thanks that tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Comcast 1075 or at orca media.net and a video recording by Orca is going to be posted for later viewing so if you miss this or want to share it with a family member a friend or a neighbor, you'll be able to do that after the meeting is done. And also another just one more reminder that members who pre-registered for tonight's meeting are automatically enrolled in a raffle. Lucky you, right? So we're going to be announcing winners at the end and we hope you'll stick around with us, but if you have to scoot out early for some reason you can still win. We're going to be posting the results online and we're going to be contacting winners. Okay, so let's dig into the plan for our evening together. We're going to be opening with a little bit more of a welcome from your co-ops leadership. And then we're going to get to vote on approval of the 2020 annual meeting minutes. We're going to have some time celebrating co-op employees. And then we get to hear from the keynote speaker for this evening, Nicole Daney from NOFA Vermont. And then after Nicole shares, we're going to get, you know, you'll have time to ask questions for her and have a little interaction there. And then we're going to dive into impact reports and take your questions after that section of the reporting as well. And we'll the sort of the concluding part of the evening is really going to be hearing some highlights from the community fund grants and the big drum roll and mystery is who won the cooperative community award this year. We're going to find out and get to hear from that person. And then we'll wrap up with some final logistics and closing and we're going to be doing the raffles of course the highlight at the end right. So now without further ado, I'd like to introduce your council president, Dr. Eric Jacobson to further welcome you. Hey Eric, you're muted. Hi, Bonnie. Thanks. Thanks very much. That was wonderful. So on behalf of the hunger mountain co-op and the council, I would like to welcome all of our members and friends to the annual meeting. Normally at this time of year, we gather together and raise a toast as members for the year that has passed to celebrate the year and to acknowledge the contributions of so many individuals that have made this a and make this a rather unique member owned cooperative, one of the most valuable and productive community assets in central Vermont. But what I'd really like to do with this opening greeting and welcome this year is to take a moment to recognize and to acknowledge in particular the rather remarkable commitment and courage of staff who have worked through a worldwide health crisis to provide food and service to our community. I know I speak on behalf of the members when I express my gratitude to all of the people who contributed to the hunger mountain cooperative with their labor for their fortitude and perseverance this year. For people who served us in times of fear and shortage, for those who got vaccinated with the intention of supporting public health, for those with kids who have had to endure this year without it, for those who are struggling, who have lost loved ones and for those who are recovering. This has been a year to remember. And I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to all our staff for their extraordinary service to the community this year. So with these words of gratitude, let us now hear from you, our members. We're going to run a couple of quick polls to get a better sense of who is with us tonight. And you should see the first poll on your screen shortly. And when you see it when it pops up, please respond by clicking. There it is. So please respond by clicking on your selection. And we'll wait a few minutes, seconds, minutes, while the answers come in. So there you see the first poll. How many co-ops and credit unions are you a member of? Kari, are you there? How many co-ops and cooperatives are you and credit unions are you a member of? So I'm counting four currently. I of course use Hunger Mountain for almost all of my groceries. I do my banking with Vermont State Employees Credit Union. We are members of Washington Electric Co-op for our electricity. And then we recently joined REI for all their gear. So that's great. But I also enjoy going into food co-ops around the country and locally. I shop somewhat often at Adamant, sometimes Plainfield, Buffalo Mountain, and Morseville. So lots to choose from. How about you, Eric? I think that's eight plus. I was counting. We're a member of many of those cooperatives you mentioned and the credit union we bank with Vermont State Employee Credit Union. But I was thinking actually of the cooperative that I've been part of maybe that influenced me the most, which was a cooperative of instructors, language instructors in Berlin, Germany. So it was a cooperative organized by the teachers themselves. Yeah. Well, let's take a look at the results. Looks like the leading response is two. And that was 45%. And then one and three were next about 2021. Okay, great. That's terrific. Let's try another question now. This one's a little bit more substantive. When you see it. There it is. So here's the question. What do you think should be the co-ops highest priority goal in the coming years. When I read it out, reduce copper footprint through efficiency measures renewable energy and buying local and organic improve affordability and increase community access. Three, ensure health and safety included in COVID-19 mitigation and improve working conditions. Four, enhance diversity, equity and inclusion or something else. So you do have the chat to put another item of importance in the chat. And there you go, Kari, what would you think out of this? I'd like to hear from you. Why don't you go first this time? Well, you know, we didn't include all of the above. Really, all of these issues are core issues to our mission and what we do. But if I really had to choose one for next year, what I think we could maybe make a breakthrough or implement some activity on would be the first to reduce our carbon footprint through efficiency member measures and maybe trying to get our energy to be more renewable. Okay, Kari, what do you say? Yeah, I tried, but I can't pick one they're all extremely important and they're, and they're all part of our current business plan and I think they're going to be part of next year's in the year after that business plan as well. There's a lot of work to do and it just strikes me as, you know, what a privilege it is to work on these really important issues that matter to our co-op community. Maybe what members said number one response is improve affordability and increase community access. And right behind that is reduce our carbon footprint. So, there you go. Thanks everybody. Really great. Okay, now we're going to hear from our council members. Each has prepared a brief recorded statements. Maybe there's a slide that we can see of the council. There we are. 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. Hello, my name is Andrew Sullivan, and this is my second year serving on the co-op council. I am thrilled to be able to represent both my fellow employees as well as my fellow members of the co-op. Thank you very much. Hello, Hunger Mountain co-op members. My name is Eva Schechtman, and I'm a member of the co-op council. And my honor this year to serve as the chair of the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Communications Committee. Thank you so much for this honor. Hi, I'm RJ Adler, and this is my first year on the council. Hi, I'm Jen Courier. I've been on your council now for about a year. I've been serving on the Carbon Neutrality Committee and we're working on some really exciting projects for you. I live locally in Montpelier, so I hope I get to see some of you around the co-op. Hi, my name is Liv Dundon, and I am entering my third year on the Hunger Mountain co-op council. I've so loved my time on the council. It has been so meaningful and so educational, both in the nature of boards and how to better serve our central Vermont community and our co-op. Great. So we've heard from some of the council members. Also serving this year were Deb Robinson, Catherine Lothar, not featured here, and our staff rep, Rachel Andrea. So the annual meeting marks the end of the council year, and we are in the process of electing new members. We have four candidates this year. You've heard from RJ, Jen, and Eva currently serving on the council. Let's hear from Lauren Antler, the only non-incumbent candidate. I'm Lauren Antler. I live in Montpelier with my daughter, my husband, our two dogs, and our cat, who lives on top of the fridge, and I'm really looking forward to serving the co-op membership on the co-op council. Terrific. I just want to say a quick message about running for council. Like school boards and city councils, member participation and public participation is important. For a member cooperative in which the governance and monitoring system is structured to work with a meaningful board of directors at the center of its activities, the council is really an essential feature of a cooperative. Without a strong and supportive council, a co-op is not really a cooperative. It needs your support. So please consider running for a council seat. I've served for four years, and this is my final year, and it's been a very stimulating experience. Let me give you a brief reminder that our electronic voting polls will close at the end of this meeting at 7.30 tonight. We have an uncontested election this year, but voting is important for determining the final seating arrangements, so please cast your vote. We will end up with one open seat, so the council will appoint a member to fill the vacancy until next year's election. Often members are interested in these opportunities because it's less of a time commitment and still a chance to serve the community. You can learn more about this and view the application at the co-op's website. Feel free to reach out to any of us on the council if you have any questions. Applications are due on the 18th of November, so you still have a little bit of time. Now I'm going to turn it over to Bonnie. Thank you so much, Eric. And now it is our time for some brief business, which is approval of the 2020 minutes. So these meeting minutes are posted on the co-op's website. And hopefully you've gotten a chance to look at them, at least some of you. So I'm going to ask now, can we have a motion and a second to approve the minutes? Please type in the chat so we can see you. Thank you for making the motion, RJ. How about a second? Jen, Poirier, thank you so much. Oh, we got a couple seconds. It looks like Jen hopped in first. Thank you, Jen and RJ. So now you'll see a poll where you can vote yes, no or abstain. And if you have any comments on the minutes, you can also type them in the chat right now. So in a minute here, you're going to see a poll pop up so that you can vote. And I see some questions about seating arrangements. There you go. So you can now vote yes, no or abstain for around approving the Hunger Mountain co-ops 2020 annual meeting minutes. I see some great questions and dialogue around seating arrangements and candidates and service, amount of service time on the board. Great questions. Right, we'll give you another minute here. And, and just a reminder, you know, as we're voting, let's imagine ourselves that we're sitting together, getting a smile and wave at each other or maybe even eating tasty food from the co-op. That would be nice. Hopefully that will be the case next year. And, and also just thank you, right, the co-op would not exist without you, the members. So thank you for participating in voting. All right, let's see how you all voted 80% voted yes to approve the minutes and 20% of you all have stained so thank you all for participating. And I'm excited to announce the 2020 annual meeting minutes of hunger mountain co-op are thus approved. So thanks everyone. Now we're warmed up and we're feeling good, right? We've gotten we've practiced our co-op democracy in action. And I'm now going to turn it over to Olivia Dunton, who we heard briefly from before council member and former lead grocery buyer to celebrate the amazing co-op staff. On behalf of hunger mountain co-op and the co-op council, we wanted to take a moment to recognize our incredible team of employees and the remarkable work they've done over the last year during these challenging times. Thank you for your dedication to your community and your co-op. The 2021 award for excellence in customer service is being given to all co-op employees. Thank you for everything you do for your co-op. We are so lucky to have such an incredible team. The council and co-op would like to give special recognition to those employees who have reached milestone anniversaries with the co-op. This includes Mary Wells, who has been with us for 30 years, Mary Traffton for 25 years, Elizabeth Jezdale for 20 years, Lana Casey for 20 years, Ellie Wood 20 years, Michael White 20 years, Rose Pearson 20 years, Annika Edson 20 years, Andrea Mills 15 years, Jessica Roseland 15 years, Dana Woodruff 15 years, Micah McIntyre 15 years, Nessa Rabin 10 years, Alex Dispel 10 years, Grace Gilbert 10 years, Taylor Dorsey 10 years, and Kendra Mills 10 years. Thank you so much for your service to the co-op. Wow. Thank you, Olivia, and I'm struck by the amount of employees at Hunger Mountain co-op who are celebrating a decade, 20 or even 30 years. That is some really strong commitment to the co-op and the larger community. Woo! I see appreciation for staff in the chat here. And someone, Mary Beth says, that's why I love shopping at the co-op, great staff. And Judy is clapping. Thank you. Now, I'd like to introduce our keynote speaker for the evening, Nicole Dany, the certification director for Vermont's organic farmers. And as a reminder, if you have questions for Nicole, please take them in the chat because we'll have time, some time for her at the end to respond to your questions. So, Nicole, take it away. Thank you, Bonnie. My name is Nicole Dany, as Bonnie said, I'm a certification director for Vermont organic farmers. I am really thrilled to be here tonight. I'm excited to talk about the, about agriculture and climate change and specifically the role that organic farmers can play in being a potential solution to our climate crisis. And of course, I'd also like to give a shout out to Hunger Mountain. When I first moved to Vermont in 1999, Hunger Mountain was by far my favorite co-op. I don't have any reasons for this, but a big one was that Hunger Mountain was one of the co-ops that sold locally raised meat. And of course, there was also a killer hot bar so just thank you, Hunger Mountain. I'd like to start by telling you a little bit about our organizations. Vermont Organic Farmers or VOF is a USDA accredited certification body and we are actually owned by NOFA Vermont. What that means is VOF we certify farms and facilities in the state to the USDA's organic regulations, and we currently certify over 800 organic farms and food producers in the state. Now NOFA is a nonprofit organization whose mission is promoting organic practices to build a food system in Vermont that is economically viable, ecologically sound and socially just. Our organization, when we think about the future and what will be impacting our farmers, what will be impacting our food system, it has become abundantly clear to our board and to our staff that we can't do this food system work without addressing our current climate crisis. So I think it's important to start at looking at the contribution that agriculture as an industry has on climate change. How do we measure this right well, the EPA should be a reliable tool, and the EPA quantifies greenhouse gas emission by industry contribution. So if you look at agriculture in this light, we account for 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The estimate does not include the carbon dioxide that ecosystems actually removed from the atmosphere by sequestering carbon in biomass in dead organic matter and in the soils right. So this offsets 20% of emissions from this sector. So I share that to offer hope right agriculture has the potential, not just to net zero on our greenhouse gas emissions but also to potentially contribute in a positive way to addressing our climate emergency. So we have a choice how we produce our food impacts the climate. And really the next step is to look at the practices that we want to avoid one those practices. And those practices are ones that rely on fossil fuel intensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides practices that encourage heavy mechanization and fuel burning equipment, monocropping and reliance on chemical inputs practices that reduce biodiversity and pollute waterways and practices that encourage intensive tillage right or the alternative to intensive tillage which is conventional no till, which replaces tillage with more toxic herbicides. So it's important to know, you know what practices are causing issues in order for us to be able to look for solutions. And there is a solution. And that's solution is organic farming practices. Using organic farming practices, we can choose to actually have a positive impact on the climate. But in order to do this, we need to educate people about what I like to call the positive definition of organic farming. So I think most people think about organic farming with, you know, then a negative definition, or in other words, like the absence of toxic chemicals and genetically modified organisms. And this is of course, very crucial and important to what organic farming is all about, but it is incomplete. And if that is how most people are thinking about organic farming and defining organic farming, then we really have a failure in our messaging. What we need to do is teach people about this positive definition of what organic farmers are trying to achieve. And what are they trying to achieve. That is improving soil health, protecting natural resources, promoting biodiversity on their farms, working with natural systems instead of against natural systems. And then of course working to mitigate climate change, but also working to be resilient in the face of extreme weather events that are caused by climate change. And this isn't new. We didn't just come up with this recently to kind of join the popular club right. This has always been what the organic movement is about. This has always been about regenerative and sustainable. It has always been about the opposite of extractive and industrial. And so this is really the message that we need to convey. In 2020, VOF set out to do this. And in partnership with vital communities, and with help from the Vermont Agency of Ag's special specialty crop block grant program. We embarked on a campaign where the goal was to promote organic farmers with this positive definition in mind right as a solution to climate change. In the beginning we really understood that messaging was going to be really important to help people understand that they can actually have a positive impact on climate change with their food purchases. And the reason that messaging matters is because climate anxiety is real. I mean, including myself right people are overwhelmed by the scientific reality of climate change, the extreme heat, the forest fires that drought and flooding I'm sorry if I'm sounding depressing here, the loss of biodiversity, this continuous narrative of you know impending doom. And when people feel overwhelmed in this way, you know they don't feel inspired to take action. Instead they feel stuck. They feel like there's no way that they can have an impact on this monumental problem. And like I said earlier I'm sure we've all felt this way. But the way to counter that fear is to take action. So we need to help people understand that their choices matter, and that action matters and that they can make a difference. And in this case in this campaign and the food system world, you know food choice matters. So the message of our campaign, what we were calling our client heroes campaign is that supporting from organic farmers can basically equate to kind of action, and that in essence we are all heroes by taking this action. So I wanted to give credit to some of the folks that really helped us create, you know, beautiful images for this campaign. We worked with a bunch of talented artists we worked with Cecily Anderson, a talented artists we also worked with local photographer Andy do back, and they helped us capture images that really helped us capture this messaging of heroism. We started kind of by identifying what we wanted everyone who interacted with our advertisements and everyone who interacted with our educational campaign, what we wanted them to understand. And this was what we eat, and how we produce our food are inseparable right there inseparably linked to climate change that supporting organic farms and organic farming practices can help to mitigate climate change. So that food and farms are vulnerable to climate change right and that organically farm soils can actually help farmers be resilient in extreme weather events like flooding and drought. So we heard from our producers that we that what they needed was clear and concise talking points to address how organic practices can impact climate change. And so this is what we set out to do. We set out developing five major talking points for farmers to use to kind of be able to discuss this issue with their customers. And of course the first three talking points are all about the soil, right, and it's about how healthy soil is key to fighting climate change. So you can see these here on the screen. And we describe how soils that are managed organically release fewer greenhouse gases. And the reason that this is is because organic farmers don't use synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, and the manufacturing and the use of those fertilizers are known to create emissions of nitrous oxide, which is 300 times carbon dioxide so as farms become certified organic we see a reduction in those dangerous emissions. The other piece is that organic soils are more resilient to extreme weather. And this is because organic farmers are required to use practices that increase what's called organic matter in their soil. And this really improves the soil's ability to hold water, which in turn improves the land's resilience to again flooding and drought. And of course that organic soils store carbon. So because organic farmers are practicing their practices are building healthy soils, healthy soils are key at keeping carbon out of the atmosphere right so they're acting like a sponge, and they're helping to reduce the impacts of climate change. And I want to share that this picture is one of our certified organic farmers located in the intervail along go dev. He's one of the members of the cooperatively owned farm diggers mirth. I suspect that some of you might know diggers mirth for their amazing carrots and greens which I believe that hunger mountain is often caring in their produce department so just wanted to introduce you to one of our farmers there. One of the talking points that was really important is about how organic farmers protect natural resources. So one way that organic farmers do this is by not using dangerous herbicides or toxic pesticides right and this helps preserve waterways helps preserve the environment and of course it helps preserve our health. Another way that they protect natural resources is by actively supporting biodiversity and protecting wildlife and pollinators on their farm. So this is a picture of Dave Marchant. Some of you might know him he's co owner of riverberry farm. He's a certified organic farm in Fairfax, and Dave and his wife Jane have been farming organically for over 30 years. And they're along the limo river and I'll show some pictures later on in this presentation of some of the overhead shots of their farm next to the river, but they have a great farm stand. You'll also know them from their wonderful firm stand and also their pick your own strawberries. So our last talking point is about food security, and I think all of us felt the importance of our local farms during the onset of the pandemic right when food supplies from outside the state were slow to arrive. We're comforting, I think to all of us to have our CSA memberships right and to be able to find our local and organic produce at places like hunger mountain it was critical. And of course this the food supply issue is not over, you know we're still seeing issues in the supply chain. And frankly we've been less affected by this issue or we are less affected by this issue when we have product local product available from producers. And the fact that farms are often places for community gathering right so whether it's you're going to pick up your CSA share, or going to pick your own blueberries, or even those farms that open up their land for festivals or family walks right. I think the take home message here in this talking point is when you buy your food from a Vermont organic farm you're investing in local food security. And investing in the success of organic farms is also important, because organic farms can contribute to vibrant and strong communities. And this picture is of Hillary Martin who's another co owner of the cooperative farm fingers mirth done in the interval. So when we started this campaign, we had originally thought about messaging our farmers as the heroes right but our farmers, they weren't interested in that. So they didn't really feel comfortable with us casting them as climate heroes right which is totally understandable. But I would say in actuality, you know they are implementing practices on their farms that are innovative and some people would could even say heroic so I thought I would share you know some of those practices and just give you kind of a small sampling of some of the work that our farms are doing. So this picture is a riverberry farm again. And as you can see, see here we took this picture in early June, but he has got a beautiful swath of cover crops and Dave and Jane grow cover crops in order to protect their soil from erosion, and also to build organic matter. So this picture is of Eliza and Shane stephens of knee deep farm which is located in Jeffersonville. And you can see here you can see them here in their greenhouse, you know they're growing mainly tomatoes but if you look closer you can also see that they're intercropping with lettuces herbs and other greens right. And this intercropping practice, it helps with soil erosion again. It also helps with weed management. They also get better utilization of nutrients so when they're applying fertilizer they're not going to waste any fertilizer it's going to get used up by the plants underneath. And sometimes it can even help with pest and disease management. I was promising you a riverberry farm in the spring, the aerial shot, you'll notice here how they make sure they have a large buffer from the river that they don't till right so that you can see the area clearly that's till then you can see the part that's being preserved. And what this does is it promotes habitat for wildlife. And of course it also protects the riverbank from being eroded. And this photo is a great aerial shot of Diggers Merth farm. And this really allows you on the right here to see their cover crop and also just like the diversity of crops that they're growing on their farm. This is another photo of riverberry. And here Dave is showing how he's intercropping with his kale under the row covers with a cover crop right. And again the cover crops are going to help Dave, they're going to help them protect the soil surface from erosion. They're going to add biomass to the soil, especially below the soil surface with the roots of the plants. And they're going to help create a habitat for microorganisms like fungi that contribute to you know soil biology and soil health. And my last photo here is again of Diggers Merth. And this shot really features how the farm is growing plants that support pollinators like bees. And of course, you know, the pollinators and the abundance of pollinators helps farmers to because the more pollinators they have on their farm, the better yields they're going to get from their crops. So what can we as a cooperative community do right, we're all looking for solutions to mitigate against climate change right, and I really believe organic farmers have an important opportunity to position themselves as a key solution to the problem. And we hear from our farmers that we certify that they really need help in getting out this message right that farmers want to help people understand about, you know, the greater benefits that organic agriculture can provide right so that it's not just about the negative definition about the absence of harmful chemicals, but it's about all the positive things that farmers are trying to do and trying to achieve right. So we need to support farmers in implementing practices that help improve soil health and protect natural resources. So what might this look like right. That might mean, you know, financial support for farms that are implementing these practices and that could also be, you know, farms that aren't organic but that are using organic practices. And this could look like workshops and educational opportunities for farmers to learn how to implement these these types of practices or how to better implement these types of practices on their farms. And finally, we need to invest in our Vermont organic farmers as a solution to climate change. I really believe that organic farming practices have the power to address climate change that we need to invest in our organic farmers so that they can do this work right, and what might that look like. That might look like an out of the box kind of creative solution right to make sure our farms can be successful as businesses so making sure that they have access to business development and planning. So we're moving into ways to support them, you know, through health care or childcare, or coming up with ways to make sure Vermont as a state, and as a community is nurturing our local and organic farms. And my last slide is really to just say thank you. Thanks for having me and thanks for engaging in this important conversation. Thank you so much Nicole and what beautiful farmers photos you were able to share with us. Really appreciated how you brought the important role of our local farmers in feeding our communities and that's been particularly noticeable filling in supply chain shortages during the pandemic right it's extra appreciation. So we've got a question from Eric, who starts out by saying this question could be difficult to answer but he's just looking for an estimate if one person eats mostly organic food. Instead of food that is not organic how much will that affect the carbon footprint. What is the practical impact for our world moving to only organic food are there. Are there any numbers or any way to trace this. I wish there was a number to trace that because that would really help with kind of quantifying our action piece right. So I don't have, you know, a great I don't have that number for you but let's talk about like how realistic it is for, you know, everyone to go organic. I think when I think when I think of the state of Vermont, you know, at the very least I tried to show that in my presentation that yes I'm here talking about and promoting organic farmers, but any farmer any local farmer could you know make improvements and implement some of these organic farming practices that will help with soil health. And honestly, we are seeing that more in the conventional community as well so I think most of you probably if you've been driving around Vermont have seen cornfields that often now are dropped with cover crops so that they don't have bare soil in the winter. Like you're starting to see more of these practices that were always thought of as just organic practices that are becoming more mainstream and in my opinion, that is a win. Great, Nicole, thank you. And thank you. There was a number of other great comments and questions cooperators were running a little bit short on time. I noticed Nicole there was a desire to be like hey we want to go to the website and see where the climate heroes are like right off the bat so staff was able to find a link but just like could that be front and center so it's easier for us to find as consumers that was a great comment. And also a shout out to migrant justice milk with dignity program, and also just a reminder to folks that if you are interested in a question instead of raising your hands just put it in the chat. A number of other good questions. Maybe we'll circulate them to Nicole because we're, we're needing to transition now and I just want to thank you so much for sharing and it's really inspiring to hear the work that you and November month are doing in partnership with local farmers to make our food system more resilient. So thank you so much. Thanks finally thank you. Thank you hunger mountain for having me, and my email is on the website so people can feel free to email me as well. Yeah, we'll make sure to post it in the chat. Thanks everyone. And thank you for sharing Nicole, and I will now turn it back over to Eric and Kari for this year's impact reports. Thanks very much Bonnie and thanks Nicole for your inspiring presentation. This is what I'm going to discuss now. Council likes to think in terms of impact, the positive impacts that we can have in the community as the result of the work that we do supporting our organic and local food system is a key piece of that impact. In fiscal year 2021 the co-op sold $12.9 million in organic products and 9.4 million in local products. There is no question that we play an important role in the system that provides high quality and environmentally sustainable food in central Vermont. In the meantime we purchased last year $8 million in goods and services from 390 Vermont vendors. This speaks to the strength of the local food system that we have helped to create here in Vermont. But there are certainly challenges. We all know the importance of shopping locally and we all saw how those little arrowed cardboard boxes that appeared in our mailbox made one person in particular the richest man in the United States. We know that the large commercial supermarkets in Vermont are owned by multi billion dollar international corporations with annual revenues and the billions. It's a difficult time for all small businesses. The co-op for example has lost four bakery vendors in the last year. We have rising expenses, labor shortages and supply disruptions disruptions, which is increasingly difficult for our local producers. As inflation is set to continue to rise over 5%, our co-op community needs to do more to support them. We have a slide about our member owners. We have a strong standing in central Vermont as one of the largest membership-based organizations. The following slide shows how our membership has grown over the past five years, reaching 10,464 at the end of June. Which is really a remarkable number when you think about the fact that there are 58,000 people in Washington County and maximum 8,000 in the city of Montpelier. We could probably do a lot more as a member buying organization. What other necessary goods and services could we provide and own collectively? Each year the co-op conducts a member shopper survey and this year you express an especially high level of satisfaction with the co-op. When asked how likely you were to recommend the co-op to friends and colleagues, the average rating was 4.7 out of 5. Next, I want to highlight some of the ways the co-op is working to support the broader community. Next slide please. In 2020 we had given out just under $40,000. This year in 2021 our total donations and sponsorships came to just over $77,000. We can be proud of the fact that the co-op doubled the amount that was given back. These funds came both from co-op operations and donations from you. Donations from the members that were made through rounding up at the cash registers. About half of these funds went to food pantries in the Vermont food bank. So thank you to 10,000 strong co-op members for helping to address food insecurity in central Vermont. I also want to tell you about the 10% discount that the co-op provides members with limited income. The program is called co-op cares and over the course of the year we extended it to nearly $50,000 in co-op care discounts, which is a 27% increase over the prior year. This reflects a growing need in the community and our efforts to promote the program and make the co-op more accessible to more people. Before I just want to mention some of the work that the council has been focused on this year. The communications committee has been working on a cooperative community conversations proposal. Staff are working towards reestablishing a paper and online comments and questions section and getting a letters to the editor function up and running and creating an online message board in 2022. The justice equity diversity and inclusion committee has been working to establish language and ends policies and setting up a framework for ongoing diversity equity and inclusion education for council members in the coming year. The council has been helping staff with solutions to reduce our carbon emission as a co-op. We have a goal to eventually become carbon neutral in our operations by reducing our energy consumption and utilizing more renewable energy. The committee is also looking at ways we can all play a role in reducing the environmental impacts in our food system. And our bylaw committee has been developing proposed revisions to the bylaws. A special meeting of the members to consider the proposal had to be postponed for health and safety reasons. But the committee hopes to bring forward the proposal and a special meeting in 2022. And now back to Kari for a financial report. Thanks Eric. I'm going to discuss how our co-op performed in fiscal year 2021 which ended June 27. If you'd like more information about any of tonight's presentation, these slides are now posted on the co-op's website. Our annual impact report will be available shortly. And you can reach out to any of us on staff or council with any questions or try emailing annual meeting at hunger mountain dot co-op. So when we began the year last July, we were not at all sure how the pandemic would affect our community or our business. Sales for the year were essentially equal to the year prior with net sales coming in at just under $25.4 million. For most of the year we saw significant decreases in the sales of prepared foods and to some extent our wellness products. But these were offset by the increases in grocery and produce sales as more customers were eating at home more often. This is very similar to what was seen at other co-ops and grocery stores around the country. The pie chart here shows where the money goes. So the majority of our revenue goes to paying for the cost of goods, the products that we sell. And to that employee compensation is most significant wages benefits and associated expenses accounted for about 29% of sales last year. Our compensation was up somewhat from the year prior. Although we saw reduced staffing levels we did increase hourly pay paid time off employee discounts and more in recognition of the challenges of working through the pandemic. All the other expense categories totaled about 5% of sales and were below budget. So I'm pleased to report that net operating income came to $341,211 just about 1.3% of sales. It was a solid year under normal circumstances and very good under the actual circumstances. But what made it truly unique financially was the federal COVID relief funding. First, we had a paycheck protection act loan that we received last summer and that was forgiven. Then we learned that we qualified for the employee retention credit, which is being provided to businesses that kept their people employed despite significant operating restrictions imposed by the government, such as the closing of our food bar and cafe. Between these two sources, we recognized over $3.3 million in additional income. On Monday this week, the council voted to declare a patronage refund of $1.9 million and $384,700 of that is going to be distributed back to members with the balance staying with the co-op. This will be the largest amount that we have ever returned to members and your portion will be equal to approximately 1.9% of your purchases last year. And again, this year, you will receive the refund in the form of a credit at the registers. We factor all this in the co-op find itself in a relatively strong financial position. Our liquidity is measured by our current ratio and our solvency shown here as the ratio of liabilities to equity were both very favorable at the year end. And this means that we are well positioned to meet both our short term and our long term financial obligations. I would like to note that the federal funds that I mentioned were one time sources so really they should be matched with one time uses. And in that spirit, we recently elected to repay early our bank loan from our 2008 expansion. And now we can consider some other investments to further our mission. This is all very good news, but I do want to highlight that the co-op is facing a variety of significant challenges Eric mentioned a few of those. Like other businesses, we've experienced a shortage of employees for much of the past year fairly severe at times with some departments impacted more than others. And at the same time, many of our employees are tired. They're worn out from the long and stressful experience of this past year. Last year and a half. Currently, we're facing shortages and supply both from national and local suppliers. These are related to labor market to the labor market and disruptions at almost every link in the supply chain. It's not clear how long these will take to resolve and we should expect some price inflation over the coming months as a result. But given our resilience over the past 18 months, I'm confident that we can respond to these challenges and the next ones that come along. And of course, we do have to keep in mind that we are still operating during a pandemic health and safety event, our top priority throughout and that will continue. So on that note, let me say a few words about shopping during our upcoming holidays, which is always the busiest time of the year. We will continue to require masking inside the co-op, while local cases are numbers are high. We encourage distancing but do not plan to return to metering of customers in order to limit the numbers in the store at any one time. We will continue to offer curbside pickup seven days a week and I encourage you to go to our website and give it a try if you haven't yet. Anyone who's looking to avoid the busiest shopping at times, generally speaking early before 11am and late after 6pm are slower, along with Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, and I say that in general. We've adjusted our hours of operation to 9am to 8pm, and this will last through the end of January. This gives us a chance to stock up, clean up and get out of your way each morning. Also during November and December, we are only offering special orders on beer, wine and meat, and this is in response to the supply shortages and free up some of our staff time. And the deadline for ordering Thanksgiving turkey is coming up quickly on November 15th. And a heads up that we will be closed on Thanksgiving and the day following the 25th and 26th. And that's in order to give our staff a well deserved break. I want to take a moment to thank everyone, our customers, our members, our local vendors, council members, and especially our employees for your dedication and support over the past year. And finally, I want to highlight that from now through the end of December, the co-op is organizing our neighbors helping neighbors food and fund drive. With all donations going to the Vermont food bank and our local food pantries. We launched this drive for the first time last year and we had a lot of success. Now we want to do even more. More to address the food insecurity and 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, Cadet Creamery and Feral Distributing. Food donations are also being collected at the co-op every day. Our goals are $20,000 and 500 pounds of food. It's ambitious and I urge everyone to participate in this important community event. So with that Bonnie, I'm going to turn it back to you to moderate our questions and comments. Sure, Kari. Thank you. I love that ambitious goal and I totally believe in the co-op community and being able to pull together based on everything I've seen so far so great. So there were some great comments and in and I saw a number of comments and we also have some previously submitted questions. And the co-op staff have been doing a great job recording the questions and making sure they're going to be directed to the appropriate either staff or board. And a number of them are suggestions about packaging, etc. So that will be fall will fall and make sure to follow up with that. A question that was submitted for you, Kari, before was how how what else can we do to support co-op staff during this difficult time? Yep, good question. As I mentioned, stress levels are fairly high. It's difficult time to operate a grocery store and it has been that way for quite a while. I think the main thing that I would say is to just please be patient. Please be kind. It's really important that we all just treat each other really well at this time. And if it takes a little longer, if you're missing your favorite product in a certain moment, just know that we really want to help. And sometimes it's hard to hear with the masks and sometimes there's tension and frustration is running high, but I really just encourage people to be patient and be kind, try to be empathetic. And I think that's the main thing. Thanks, Kari. And I saw Stephen weighed in and said, wear your mask. Which is helpful. And then there was another question. And I'll point this one to you, Eric, from about how can members get informed about the council's work, or if they're interested, how do they help? You can contact any member of the council to find out more about how the council runs. I mean, I really encourage members to consider running for council, getting a more dynamic election process going. If you want to contact, if you want to find out more about the council process, you can also contact info. And it will be directed to either council member or to staff to answer your question. So the other thing, Eric, I'd mention is that council meets generally the first Monday of each month at 530, and members are, are invited to join us and we have open comment session sections at the beginning and the end of the Correct. So members really can participate in both in the beginning and the end of the meeting and get their have their voices heard. And I'm seeing some great chat, and I love to see members co creating value thinking about how they can use their cooperative to, to meet unmet needs in the community, including kind of getting at the root of food insecurity, right. That co op cares is the co op is stepping up and allocating resources to making sure more of our community can be fed. And also what can the co op do to address the root of the problem. Right. That's a really valuable comment on how you know what as co op board staff and members can we do to address food insecurity and hunger in our community is really great point. And also some good questions about and some comments about what can we do to reduce waste, or can we encourage refillable mugs discount for refillable mugs. Anyone want to weigh in on that around sustainability efforts current reusables. Yeah, we do encourage the reuse of mugs and we do have a discount. I have to make sure it's activated we we stopped encouraging reusable mugs early on in the pandemic. But now that we have our food bar open and and really the concern is around airborne transmission. There's no problem with reusable mugs and and yeah look for more information on us encouraging reuse because I think that's an important way to reduce waste. Great. Thank you so much. And I'm seeing a couple comments here around from Judy every just around concern and keeping each other safe so appreciate that reminder and I can see the care that y'all I wish we could see your faces that you're you're contributing to this and thinking about how the co op can play a role in keeping our community safe, and being cutting edge with our sustainability supporting farmers reducing waste so it's really really apparent the concern and care that you all are sharing and really appreciate that. I think we're going to wrap up for now if you have more questions, please do submit them in the chat and we're going to make sure to to follow up so that we can address the your questions. So, we also want to remember to invite you to join us for the Monday, November 8 at 530 for further discussion. We also want to get Kari will share info at the end of the meeting so you can put it on your calendar if you're interested. And then also a reminder, submit additional questions if you think of it tomorrow or in the middle of the night. Annual meeting at hunger mountain co op will post that in the chat as well. And, and as we've said before, the staff is going to be compiling all your questions and responses and upcoming newsletter so we'll get to see comprehensive responses to that. Thank you for the impact reports and for your awesome questions and comments members. And now I'd like to introduce Claire Wheeler who is the chair of the hunger mountain cooperative community fund committee to announce this year's grant recipients. Hey everybody, my name is Claire Wheeler and I'm currently the chair of the hunger mountain co op community fund. I'm really pleased to be here to share with you an update on the work we did this year. The hunger mountain co op community fund was founded in 2005 to offer financial support to organizations, businesses and initiatives that are aligned with our co ops mission. So over the past 15 years I'm proud to say that we've given out nearly $60,000 in grants to over 50 participants. Community fund advisory committee is made up of member owners like me, council members, as well as co op staff. Our committee makes grant recommendations to the council who has final approval and our criteria include alignment with the hunger mountain co op mission anticipated project impact. And the applicants access to other resources. We gave particular attention this year to groups disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. We also gave special consideration to currently and historically marginalized groups. The fund is supported by donations from members and the co ops operation. So thank you to those of you who made a donation to the fund. This year also the council elected to donate uncashed patronage refund refunds to the fund. So thank you to the council with those funds that co op is able to support projects that we know are making a real difference in our community. We're gratified to receive 12 applications this year. We're very happy to announce that we were able to award $11,500 in grants to 10 deserving local organizations and businesses. So here's a, and here's an overview of the groups that receive funding. The Montpelier parks and trees department got funding to build a wash pack station for the feast farm. Cabot community action received funding for the Cabot harvest hub, which is an online winter farmers market for local producers. Role Vermont received funding to host two workshop series that will provide farmers and consumers with more options for buying, selling and processing their own food. Caps and community action received funding to put up some shelving for their online food ordering system. And good Samaritan Haven received funding for their project to purchase renovate a motel complex in order to provide emergency shelter beds and services for our homeless folks in the area. It's part of a matching funds campaign. Down street housing and community development to support their project to create sober living housing for women and their dependent children. Earth beat seeds, which is a co-op vendor for seed packing equipment. The children's early learning space to support them to purchase land and building in order to expand local childcare opportunities, including outdoor spaces. The mad river path to fabricate and install a kiosk to inform people about the public land, the path and the apple orchard on the path. And the orchard Valley Waldorf school to build a kitchen to process food grown in the garden. So congratulations to our grantees and thank you all for supporting our community cooperative funds. Take care. Wow y'all over $11,000 this year to local organizations who are transforming the region and a lot of different ways that we've just heard so way to go co-op community that's you. I'm seeing a lot of love in the in the chat to an appreciation from some folks representing some of these organizations so big shout out and cheers to how the community is showing up and the co-op is channeling resources toward back into the community for these amazing projects. Thank you. And now I'm going to turn it over to Stephen Farnham from council to share the hunger mountain cooperative community fund award. Greetings. Each year the hunger mountain cooperative community award is presented to a co-op member customer vendor employee or other stakeholder and recognition for special donations. The recipient has made to our cooperative community consistent with the hunger mountain co-op mission to create and sustain a vibrant community of healthy individuals sustainable local food systems and thriving cooperative commerce. The court council solicits nominations for the community award and then selects a winner in the fall. Our winner will receive a beautiful glass apple locally crafted by Matt C. Schultz along with gift certificates from the co-op. This year the award goes to Peter Coleman of AR market and Vermont salumi. Pete Coleman grew up in Eastmont Peter on Kate farm pioneers of Vermont's organic movement and a long time supplier of tomatoes seedlings and other produce to the co-op. As a youngster helping out on the farm and at the co-op Pete learned the importance of sustainable farming techniques for supporting healthy people, animals and communities. During many visits to Italy while reconnecting with its roots. Pete apprentice with the Norsini feigned butchers of Umbria who taught him the methods techniques and centuries old traditions of salumi making. Pete returned home and founded Vermont salumi a purveyor of authentic all natural cured and fresh pork sausages. It is part of Vermont salumi's mission to make products from simple ingredients with careful craftsmanship. Their process starts with antibiotic free pork because they believe it's healthier and better for the environment. Vermont salumi has grown to be one of the state's finest and most recognizable local food brands. Never content to rest on past successes, Pete opened AR market and independent full service grocery in the heart of downtown Barry. As a local food producer retailer and consumer, Pete is truly a great asset for the local food community. Congratulations Pete and thank you. Hi everyone at the national meeting. It's Pete from Vermont salumi reporting to you from our new dry care facility at 159 North Main Street in downtown Barry. We moved our dry care portion of our facility here as well. We built a grocery store up front. You can't see it because we're on the roof. This little pipe here is actually attached to our aging rooms and the smell of capicolo and salami is wafting up as I speak. About two weeks ago, Kara emailed me and said, Pete got five minutes for a phone call and I thought to myself, oh god, he's letting me know that they're going to open a grocery store in downtown Barry. And I've spent the last year trying to gain some traction with the grocery store in downtown Barry and they're going to put me out of business. But lo and behold, I was wrong. He called with another exciting piece of information. Kara was calling to tell me that I was awarded this community award which I was not familiar with but I'm very appreciative and thankful and I don't really know why I'm getting it but I don't ever feel like I'm quite a huge steward of the community but I'm impressed and honored to feel like there's enough people out there who do think that. I grew up in Montpellier, had a job at Hunger Mountain when I was 17 or 15. I don't remember when it was. Stocking shelves, had my paper route in downtown Montpellier and moved out to East Montpellier with my folks who owned the Cape Farm and kind of lived the lifestyle without even knowing it or trying it. They were so ingrained in Saturday Farmers Market back when it was teeny. Hunger Mountain Co-op back when it was teeny. They were all a pretty intrinsic part of the evolution of our food system here in central Vermont and I guess I was part of it without even really knowing it or being conscious of it and I feel pretty lucky about that but afterwards I ended up building upon that and starting from Montsalumi which is a sausage, salami, meat company here now in downtown Barry which has been incredibly exciting. Hunger Mountain Co-op has been a big role in growing and fostering this business. Now the Co-op is paramount in shaping some of these small food businesses around here. You take the time to work with us as infants to help us grow and I guess at the end of the day I look, this is in Montpellier, we're over here in Barry there's a little bit more vacancies but same problem. We all have these downtowns that we really need to work on and here's 9,000 square feet here, got another 9,000 square feet there we've dealt with this one, it's been empty for 10 years and really I think the Co-op and all those folks shopping there can feel proud that it didn't happen overnight but you just keep putting down your money for the right customers, for the right companies and they're going to take over these spaces and they're going to try their best to fill them up and they're going to try and build these little lifebloods in our community that just give us all a little bit more reason to wake up and shop downtown and feel like we are connected to something a little bit larger than just our little Insular Family Unit So with that being said, I want to thank everyone for I guess choosing me as the recipient of this award I'm still humbled and I think the thing that I take away from the last 2 years is really if you just keep plugging away a little bit every day, don't go big, just a little bit every day you know, all of our actions do accumulate and they do turn into these pivotal moments in the way our landscape around us is formed So keep up the good work, I'll keep doing my part, you keep doing yours Thank you so much and next year we'll be meeting in person Ciao So congratulations to Pete on all your contributions to the Co-op community He clearly is a humble guy And he did a great job, you know, connecting the dots between the role that the Co-op plays as an incubator for small businesses and small farmers and producers like him and how, you know, so really three cheers for you all as the member owners who are the heart of this Co-op for purchasing from Pete and other producers and that they are then able to grow their businesses to 9,000 square foot operations in neighboring communities and then grow them and then reinvest back in their communities So thank you for being part of that beautiful cycle and I'm seeing a lot of love and appreciation for Peter and enjoying the sound of Canada geese in the background and the appreciation for the rooftop view of Barrie So really exciting to see how that connects back to the Co-op's mission and vision and how really exciting it is to recognize Pete for his role Great, well, Kari, I'll turn it back over to you one last time to wrap things up and close our evening together So thank you all for having me again, it's been a pleasure I love seeing your participation and go Co-op Thanks Bonnie and congratulations to Pete I just wanted to mention that for the past couple of years our prepared foods department has been proactively seeking local meats for our sandwiches And so when we reached out to Pete, he took that seriously and he developed a local ham for us And if you haven't tried it, it's a fantastic product, it's tasty, it's unique And not only has it become so popular that he's now selling it in other grocery stores But Pete's ham has helped us to work with other local producers for our sliced meats And this fills an important gap in our local food profile So I really think that's a great story, it's the kind of innovation that really helps us to build a resilient local food system Thanks Pete So let's move into our closing section now And I want to start by recognizing our outgoing council members First, Rachel Andreyev, who has been our staff representative for this past year Rachel, thank you so much for your service And Deb Robinson, who is our treasurer Deb, it's been a pleasure working with you And last but not least, Eric, who served on the council for four years total and this last one as president Certainly it was one of the most challenging years that the co-op has ever faced And thank you so much, Eric, for your thoughtful leadership And we have gifts for each of you and much appreciation for your hard work and dedication As we mentioned earlier, the council is planning to appoint a member to serve until the next year's election The application to be appointed is available at our website and it's due November 18th At that point the council will interview applicants and then plan to select someone in early December So I hope you'll consider applying and let us know if you have any questions And also, as was mentioned earlier, we will be having one more member roundtable discussion It's this coming Monday at 5.30pm And this will be an opportunity to further discuss the topics that we covered here tonight or any others that you would like So join us via Zoom and you can find the login at our website And you can also email us at annualmeetingathungermountain.coop We will respond to all the questions and comments and we really appreciate hearing your input And we appreciate you being here tonight So thank you very much and back to you, Eric Thank you, Kari, Kari, and thank you for that very kind comments All that is left to do now is just to thank our donors and participators Artists Matt C. Schultz and Pazaz Pottery for their work We receive ongoing support from Northfield Savings Bank, from Feral Distributing, and the Cabot Cooperative And thank you Orca Media for broadcasting and recording tonight's meeting Many thanks to Bonnie for moderating our meeting, it was a wonderful job And we also need to thank the employees who put many hours in planning and preparing this event Stephanie Canonen, Rowan Sherwood, Jess Knopp, Robin Pierce, and Kiles Boulez Thank you all for your support And we would love your feedback on how this meeting went A survey will be emailed to all participants shortly And last but not least, on to our raffles Drumroll, please The slide lists our first group of winners, congratulations Winners, we will be contacting you about how you can pick up your prizes And our grand prize goes to, here it is Our first mega food basket raffle number one to Kaling Kuten Congratulations Mega food basket raffle number two to David Lahar Congratulations and the hundred dollar Hunger Mountain Co-op gift card to Witt Dahl Congratulations to all the grand prize winners Thank you for joining us to everyone, all of our members And I hope you have a safe and a happy holiday season So with that, let us adjourn by consensus at 7.22 p.m. by unanimous consent And we'll leave up the Zoom so that you may leave comments and questions So thank you very much to everyone again and good night