Kitsap Community Food Co-op organizers have wrapped up this year’s fairs and fundraisers and appearances at community events and farmers markets and turned toward planning for next year.
For the past two years, co-op organizers have worked to open a member-owned grocery store with a focus on organic and sustainable foods.
I talked with Marit Bockelie from the Kitsap Community Food Co-Op Welcome.html this week to get a year-end update on the co-op’s progress.
They’re still perhaps two to three years from opening the store, Bockelie said.
“It’s a long and slow process … but we’re doing it right and putting a lot of thought into it,” she said.
They’ve decided that to be sustainable, the co-op store needs to be a full-service, 10,000 square-foot grocery store. The Kitsap Food Co-op did not want to disclose proposed locations.*
And they’re still working to get more members to ensure it will happen. Money from memberships will help the co-op have enough capital to open the store.
So far, they have 174 members. They hope to have 200 members by the end of the year.
They’ve also been pursuing grants and raising funds at events, such as fruit deliveries and the recent fall fair, in which they raised about $7,000. They also plan to start a member loan drive, offering something similar to certificates of deposit to raise initial operating funds, Bockelie said.
For more information and updates on the Co-op, visit their website at kitsapfoodcoop.org.
*Note to readers: This post previously stated possible cities, but those were tentative and the Co-op called after seeing the post and said it was not yet willing to disclose the areas they were looking at.
