Membership Report

By Elizabeth Archerd, Member Services Manager

There are so many things to tell you about this month.

We are expecting to once again celebrate locally produced food with other co-ops in the Twin Cities later this summer. Keep an eye on the August/September issue of At the WEDGE for more information.

In early March, we received this email regarding relief efforts that followed the devastating Haitian earthquake:

"Of the nearly $40,000 contributed so far to the Cooperative Development Foundation's Co-op Emergency Fund for Haiti, one-third has come from the food co-op sector. You have generously responded to many disasters affecting cooperatives and their members from North Dakota through Kenya to Katrina and now Haiti. Your contributions for Haiti will be used to help Haitian cooperators put their lives back together and to rebuild the Haitian cooperative sector. The Cooperative Development Foundation and the Bowers Fund advisors thank you for your and your members' great generosity!"

Thank you, Wedge shoppers.

Also, we are pleased to learn that Twin Cities area co-ops were the third largest contributor to Minnesota FoodShare this year! That's right—local food co-ops, as a group, came in just behind Medtronic and the Cargill/Cub coalition.

This was the first year we did a concerted all-co-op friendly competition to raise food and money for the FoodShare drive, though each individual co-op has participated for years. We met 91% of our group goal—not bad for a first effort.

Remember too that your register discount is changing July 1, 2010 to allow more members the full benefit. On the first of every month, a $3.75 discount becomes available for each active membership. If you buy $10 of product on your first trip to the Wedge in a month, you can use that discount to receive $1 off the purchase. The remaining $2.75 will still be available when you shop next and the process can be repeated until the discount is used in full. In addition, the discount will not vanish if you do not use it within a calendar month; instead, unused discounts will accrue until June 30, at which time all member accounts will start fresh for the new fiscal year.