2012 Annual Report

Enriching

Expanding

Engaging

People’s Food Co-op Exists to Create Access to FoodThat Is Healthy for People, Land and the Economy2012 was a great year for People’s and for the community! It was our first full year in the new store, and we’re continuing to make our collective dreams come true through this evolution. Our purpose in the community is to create access to good food, with good food being defined as that which is healthy for people, land and the economy. This report is designed to demonstrate how far we’ve come toward this goal of creating access this year, and features the voices of several staff and board members.

When we think about “creating access”, we think more about knitting together community than anything else. To this end, you’ll find reports on last year’s Read & Seed program, on our work with ERAC/CE, and on some of the local farmers we work with. “Healthy for people” means developing the skills to grow food (through Grow-It-Yourself Day), and skills to cook (through our cooking classes). “Healthy for land” means sourcing locally to lower our carbon footprint, and working with growers that use Organic farming methods and other sustainable practices. Finally, “healthy for the economy” means a strong business that employs great people and contributes heavily to the local economy through local purchasing. As a cooperative, we feel strongly that a cooperative business model and engaged staff contribute greatly to the local economy, so you’ll find stories about some exciting staff programs as well.

Read on, and be in touch about ways that you imagine we can continue to build on this gratifying and incredibly important work.

People’s Food Co-op Exists to Create Access to FoodThat Is Healthy for People, Land and the Economy

Board Education:Investing in Our Future

Consumer CooperativeManagement AssociationConvention

Eliminating Racism andClaiming / Celebrating Equality(ERAC/Ce) workshops

Consumer BoardLeadership 101 training

Board retreat

2

218

boardmembersattending

2012growth and developmentopportunity

Visioning Through Owner EngagementIn 2012 the PFC board turned its focus toward the future of the Co-op. One of the board’s main responsibilities is to articulate this vision, and we needed YOUR help! The board created the Read and Seed program,a series of 12 events meant to gather your feedback.

Board Programs Chris Moore, board vice-president

The Board voted to pay down

$108,000in debt, thereby saving

$9,800in interest payments.

facilitated conversations on Folks, This Ain’t Normal and Seedfolks

2 screenings of Urban Roots

1 chef demo with the Fresh Food Fairy at the Douglass Farmer’s Market

In the fall, Joel Salatin came to speak in Kalamazoo, and we held our Read and Seed culminating event that very night! Called IDEAscape, this event featured food, a collaborative art project, and of course an outpouring of your ideas for the futureof food in Kalamazoo.

Malik Yakini, a leading figure in the national food sovereignty movement based in Detroit, spoke at the SW MI Community Harvest Fest and in Kalamazoo at the Urban Blend coffee shop. Both events brought owners into discussions about the co-op’s role in Kalamazoo’s food justice movement.

9

Together we created our futuristic vision of the food system.

Local Purchases Max Hospadaruk, produce assistant

Purchasing from local food growers and producers is one of the most important ways the PFC can help support the area and community that we live in. Despite untimely frosts and droughts in western Michigan throughout 2012, PFC spent more on local purchasing in 2012 than ever before!

Though it was a rough season for many area farmers, local produce purchasing increased from $60,000 to $83,000 tomeet the growing demand for fresh local produce.

Local meat purchasingalmost tripled, leapingfrom just under $22,000to almost $63,000!

In the bulk department,local purchasing increased from 13.2% of sales to 17.4%, and nearly doubled in terms of dollars spent.

Store wide, local purchasing

increased by about $148,000, for

a total of $381,962 spent on

products grown or made within

100 miles of the PFC. That’s

21.2% of our total purchases!

2011 2012

$60K

$83K

2011 2012

$22K

$63K

2011 2012

13.2%

17.4%Blue Dog Family Farms, right down the road in Bangor, MI. Some highlights of their all-Organic crop: salad mixes, sungold cherry tomatoes, and purple bell peppers.

Cinzori Farms in Ceresco, MI, brought us an incredible variety of organic produce, including cabbage, peppers, brussels sprouts, and much, much more!

People’s works with many different types of local food producers, and our local farmers are a huge part of that! We’d like you to meet them all in person (keep an eye out at the farmers markets this summer!), but in lieu ofthat, how about a brief introduction?

Local Farmers Max Hospadaruk, produce assistant

Ted Kirklin and Pat Smith of Kirklin Farms supplied us with a multitude of Kalamazoo-grown produce: Melons and tomatoes in the summer, along with dried beans for the bulk department in the fall.

William and Connie Straathof own Hilhof Dairy in

Hersey, MI. Their herd of 48 certified Organic, 100% grass fed and antibiotic-free cows

supplies us with milk and cream year-round, and even

eggnog this winter!

The Mitchell family of Mitchell’s Blueberries farms 21 acres of blueberries just 27 miles from the PFC, and brought us over three thousand pounds of incredible blueberries this season!

Trent and Ruthie Thompson operate Green Gardens Farm out of Battle Creek, MI. In addition to a plethora of great produce during the spring and summer, their brand-new hoophouse greenhouses kept cold-weather crops like kales and carrots alive and fresh for us deep into winter!

2012 was a big year for our cooking class program. Hosted in Fair Food Matters’ Can-Do Kitchen, folks of all ages got delicious hands-on experience in preparing everything from school lunches and smoothies to sushi and holiday feasts!

Building Skills Participants learn all about knife safety, a variety of kitchen tools, and proper food safety along with preparing the meal itself!

Cooking ClassesChris Broadbent, Kalamazoo Farmers’ Market manager

Building Confidence

So many participants tell me that

they’ve never felt more comfortable

in the kitchen, and are excited to

go home and try their new recipes.

I personally gained the confidence

to start cooking in my own home.

The confidence to explore cooking

has had a huge positive impact on my life. classes offeredin 2012 local chefs

participants!14 5 144

taught by

At People’s, we strive to create access to food that is healthy for people, land, and the economy. This goal calls us to remove barriers to healthy food that may arise from structural and institutional inequality, especially racism. Because of this interest, we’ve chosen to work closely with a local organization called Eliminating Racism and Claiming/Celebrating Equality (ERAC/Ce).

Five of our staff and board members also serve on ERAC/Ce’s organizing team, three of our board members also serve on the ERAC/Ce board. In 2012, the PFC Board Inclusion Committee and PFC ad-hoc organizing group laid the groundwork for creating a PFC Anti-Racism Team. This team would work on structural and institutional issues that stem from the Co-op’s identity as a primarily white institution, and would consist of board, staff, owners, and community members.

This partnership between our two organizations is helping to foster new and exciting awareness in both ERAC/Ce and PFC.PFC has sent many of its board andstaff to ERAC/Ce workshops, while ERAC/Ce has begun to look more closely at the important food justice issues that exist right here in Kalamazoo. Together we’re working toward a bright future!

PFC Partners with ERAC/Ce Chris Moore, PFC board member and outreach assistant

PFC Board and Staff attended ERAC/Ce workshops in 201213

89%

66%

Aliisa Lahti, Jo Ann Mundy and Chris Dilley all serve on both the PFC and ERAC/Ce board of directors

Staff Benefits Chelsea Emery, cashier

What makes People’s a great workplace? Every work shift at the co-op includes cooperation, respect and lots of laughs! As we work diligently in the store to meet the Co-op’s goals, we all feel a mutual sense of teamwork and enjoyment. We are not merely working; we care about the reasons we are here, and for one another!

During 2012, staff members attended cooperative conferences around the country and trainings with ERAC/Ce here in Kalamazoo. We also take turns attending the Co-op’s cooking classes held in the Can-Do-Kitchen.

Michelle Brenes, Chris Moore, board president Matt Lechel, Simon Borst, and Dave Grant in Philadelphia at the 2012 Consumer Cooperative Management Association conference.

Because of the staff’s hard work, PFC had a successful first full year in our expanded home! We’ve done well enough to allocate extra money toward paying staff higher wages. We have been able to raise the base starting pay to $8 per hour, with the goal of getting each staff to $9 per hour by the end of their first year!

The board has also approved 1% of sales to be dedicated to staff benefits, which will total about $31,000 in 2013. Over the past several months, our team has come together to brainstorm which choices will benefit every staff member.

CHART OF BENEFITS

l 36% Shift meals

l 37% Paid time off

l 3% Direct deposit

l 24% Still brainstorming

$11,100

$11,500

$7,500

$900

In the depths of the month of May 2012, a select team of representatives from each PFC sector was assembled by the store managers and tasked with making the Prep Room, or Action Laboratory, fully operational! This team has claimed their identity as The FORCE (Forming Operational Responsibilities through Cooperative Energy), defenders of the PFC Galaxy and equality and justice therein!

The FORCE would go on to overcome the Maintenance Closet! Then, following an electrifyingly democratic PFC Planetary Congress in which potential Staff Benefits were prioritized, the FORCE devised the instillation of Free Soup in the PFC Relaxation Chamber, or Break Room, and teamed up with the local Produce Lord to extend Paid Time Off for all! The valiant FORCE, in symbiosis with the people, continues to fearlessly consider further staff benefits, which could include a Personal Development Grant and supplemental health insurance!

To this day the FORCE stands at the forefront of cooperation and lateral organizing, surmounting any obstacles (including milk crates) that seek to impede their ability to analyze and better PFC systems at an inter-departmental and non-managerial level!

The FORCE Simon Borst, lead cashier

The FORCE

Grow-It-Yourself Day 2012 Jakob Strohauer, grocery assistant

… a gentleman asked me as I sat cross-legged on the floor stocking the product from “my farm.” I couldn’t blame him; I was dressed in stained overalls with a straw hat tipped slightly over one eye. Other than a bit of confusion as to who were the farmers and who were the grocers, Grow-It-Yourself Day 2012 was remarkable! Started in 2009, GIY Day was originally conceived to kick off the growing season as a community invitation to educate, participate in, and celebrate growing your own food.

Despite Mother Nature’s attempt to wash us away, many folks bundled up with umbrellas in hand to join us in celebration. Leaders on the local sustainability front held seven workshops. We heard music straight from the hands and lips of local musicians, PFC produce assistant Jace Raver brought his chickens, and Bill Caskey from the Kalamazoo Public Library provided story timefor the kids.year!4th

Our

“Are those eggs straightfrom your farm, sir?”

Bill Caskey entertains the Co-op’s littlest owners.

Our largest expense is the food that we sell, second comes our staff. We’ve done a great job of keeping these items in proportion during a huge leap in store size, staffing and sales.

2012 2011 2010 2009 ASSETS current assets $435,188.00 $398,899.00 $816,019.00 $212,565.00 property/equipment $930,637.00 $927,915.00 $75,831.00 $10,257.00 other assets $70,344.00 $67,300.00 $69,073.00 $8,521.00 total assets $1,436,169.00 $1,394,114.00 $960,923.00 $231,343.00 LiABiLiTiES current liabilities $132,036.00 $77,521.00 $38,662.00 $21,715.00 long-term liabilities $1,190,218.00 $1,315,460.00 $696,350.00 $44,600.00 total liabilities $1,322,254.00 $1,392,981.00 $735,012.00 $66,315.00 EquiTy owner equity $276,976.00 $207,433.00 $144,569.00 $93,563.00 retained patronage $18,587.00 $18,587.00 $18,587.00 $18,587.00 retained earnings ($181,648.00) ($224,887.00) $62,755.00 $52,878.00 total equity $113,915.00 $1,133.00 $225,911.00 $165,028.00 total liabilities/equity $1,436,169.00 $1,394,114.00 $960,923.00 $231,343.00

The value of our business has increased six times over the past four years due to our expansion/relocation. To accomplish our expansion, we took on $1.3M in debt, but were able to pay down that debt by $120,000 in 2012 due to better-than-projected sales and performance.

2012 Financial Highlights

62.4% l Cost of Goods 21.9% l Labor 7.2% l Misc. 2.9% l Occupancy 2.1% l Outreach 2.0% l interest 1.5% l Net income

After hovering around 10% annual sales growth, our expansion quadrupled our size and doubled our sales in our first full year open.

Annual Sales Growth

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

9.9%

5.5%

9.5%

75.1%

62.0%

2012 Total Sales $2,830,590

507 Harrison St.Kalamazoo, MI 49007

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