Deborah Eid
1. Describe your involvement with the coop.
I am a co-founder and co-president of the GRFCI which began with a neighborhood conversation between Linda Jones and myself 3 years ago and has evolved to its current status as a fully incorporated Michigan cooperative representing the interests of people throughout the City in healthy food access and community building. I have led many of our meetings, alternating with Linda, including the early study groups in Sociocracy, our method of making group decisions.
I was involved with the creation of our Vision, Mission and Aims, have attended two years of the national food coop trainings in Indiana and Milwaukee and the three day Anti-Racism training with members of the People’s Food Coop of Kalamazoo.
As the former executive director of the Creston Neighborhood Association we hosted the coop meetings and assisted with in- kind organizing and staff support for the formative first two years of the organization, 2015-16. In that capacity I did some grant research and writing and did outreach with our City of GR commissioners and city staff and GR area foundations.
I currently serve as a member of the Top Circle (steering committee), Finance and Diversity Action Circles and participated in the Volunteer Engagement Short Circle. I participate in outreach events as a volunteer.
2. Do you have any other relevant experience?
Yes! I am a former member of a housing cooperative in Chicago and currently am a member -owner of a cabin cooperative which is a member organization of the Circle Pines Cooperative in Delton, Michigan. I have been active there for 11 years, teach Spanish Camp there twice a year, and have children who have attended the camp and worked there. I grew up in and attended university in the Twin Cities and shopped the food coops there. I seek them out when traveling to support this economic model and learn about their unique local models. My careers have been primarily in advocacy and social justice related work and most recently worked for twenty years in community and union organizing. I am trained as a mediator for peaceful conflict resolution and in group and interpersonal dynamics.
3. What should the coop's role to be in the broader community?
Our GRFCI aims describe the vision we have for our leadership role in the Grand Rapids and Western Michigan and I fully support those and look forward to making them a reality. This can be accomplished by cooperatively building “a welcoming place that fosters community awesomeness and generates positive change.” The aims address all the areas we hope to impact;
a profitable community owned business that offers and advocates for healthy food for every budget, good employment, cultural diversity, food security, education and environmental sustainability.
4. Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that member owners should know?
Engaging and training new leaders is a personal interest of mine and I am committed to the “true democracy” philosophy contained in our very effective sociocratic governance model. I have great group and oral and written communication skills and a network of community activists and leaders I have worked with over my 21 years in GR. We are anticipating a busy year with an uptick in our workload and I feel it’s equally important to bring in new leadership and have a core group with a good understanding in the history of our GRFCI, many of us with several years of training to move the project forward. I am running for a 2 year term at this time.
Catherine Gage
1. Describe your involvement with the coop.
I have been honored to be involved in the startup of our Co-op since the first official meeting of interested volunteers in 2015. While serving on the steering committee, I was selected as Markership Lead. In 2016, I was unanimously elected to serve as Top Circle’s first secretary which I continue at present. I led the marketing and membership campaign as its head, from inception through 2016. I have have worked on the design and implementation of marketing materials, Outreach campaigns, surveys and events. I assisted in recruitment, training and management of volunteers, and directed and executed meetings. I have also helped to restructure our marketing and membership teams to help us reach our best potential.
2. Do you have any other relevant experience?
My other relevant experiences include: Having served on several nonprofit boards throughout West Michigan for over 15 years. Most notably, was my 10-year term with Nourishing Ways of West Michigan, where I was elected to serve as vice president and president for a total of 3 years as well as serving as librarian and board member. NWWM’s goal is to educate the community about sound, historical nutrition practices and preparation. To engage the community, we organized local conferences with national speakers and organized an annual local monthly speaker series. I served on various school boards including a start up school, St. Theophan’s Academy. I have served on several committees to create weekend conferences for various organizations including Misericordia Ministries. I received my bachelor's in history with a minor in geography, political science and economics along with a teaching certification from Western Michigan University. I have also attended Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Valley State University, Indiana University and Harvard University.
3. What should the coop's role to be in the broader community?
I see the coop’s role in the broader community to be a place for all to come shop. Our Co-op will create opportunities and offer affordable, healthy, locally sourced, and organic food. I want our Co-op to transform the neighborhood we are in, by providing livable wages, help for the low income neighbors, and support local farmers to create a small-scale economy that is able to survive any national economic crisis (as coops have proven to do historically). I want to create a store can be a place to not only to shop, but also a space to stop and mindfully connect to our food, but most importantly to the people to whom the food nourishes. I hope that by shopping here and engaging our community as we do, it will help us to connect in a more meaningful way that will help to inspire and transform us as we go out in the larger world.
4. Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that member owners should know?
I have the joy and pain of living in a housing Cooperative that has lost its vision of what a Cooperative is. I work to educate my neighbors about who we are and to inspire others to move away from the tenant/ landlord relationship we have inherited, to recreate a cooperative model. I've also served as an elected two term precinct delegate. You'll find me at to be reliable, responsible and able to accomplish what task I am given. I love the challenge of a job well done and desire to see what I have helped to start to its completion: a consumer owned, full-service brick-and-mortar grocery, that strives to be a place for all income levels to find nutritious and locally grown, organic food they can afford, a place for community connection
Jason Herlands
1. Describe your involvement with the coop.
After hearing rumors about efforts to build a food coop in Grand Rapids, my husband and I decided to that our household should join in the summer of 2016, and that I would be ready to volunteer time and energy to see the project through to its fruition. I have regularly attended almost every meeting since then. In September 2016 I was nominated to be the facilitator for what is now the Outreach circle, which primarily involves disseminating information about the food coop initiative and signing up new member-owners.
2. Do you have any other relevant experience?
To this end I have organized presentations, hosted pop-up information sessions, tabled at Veg Fest and the Fulton Street Farmers Market and Eastown Bizarre Bazaar, sent messages to folks who have signed up, created promotional videos, contributed regularly to our social media, helped with ad campaigns and newsletter copy, and dedicated countless hours to speaking and messaging potential member-owners and volunteers. I continue to do many of these things as you read this statement. The potential to build a cooperatively-run grocery store in Grand Rapids makes these efforts worthwhile, and I would like to continue to work for the food coop by serving on its Board.
3. What should the coop's role to be in the broader community?
For me, a cooperative can be a special kind of business, one that fulfills its mission through the active participation of its owners — and the recruitment of more stakeholders — by creating a community space centered around a very basic need: food. To me that means efforts and outreach to ensure access to nutritious food at reasonable prices, to fulfill the needs of all members of the greater community. It requires support for sustainable and local agriculture, keeping the economy of West Michigan as well as the ecology of our planet in mind. I also believe that the coop should be a public space where, over a meal or a beverage, people can commune to build stronger ties, whether through educational programming, activism, the arts, or simply conversations among friends. That is, I imagine the food coop as a site of community interaction and nourishment, with inclusivity and openness at its core, whereby success is measured not only by sales figures but also by the positive effects of the store on the food options of the surrounding community.
Nancie Jenner
1. Describe your involvement with the coop.
I have been involved with the co-op since The summer of 2015. I became an official member the first day of our membership drive. I reached out to Linda Jones soon after the Facebook page was launched offering my expertise with graphic design and marketing. Since then I have been an active member working on marketing materials, the newsletter and serving on the development board as an outreach representative.
2. Do you have any other relevant experience?
As a graphic artist and marketing professional for 20 plus years, I have much experience with branding and marketing practices which I feel will be an asset to communicating the goals of our co-op. I have a long held interest in our food system as it relates to nutrition, access and sustainability.
3. What should the coop's role to be in the broader community?
I am a strong proponent of the cooperative model and through it, I believe, we can come together as individuals to support each other in the community. Our efforts will lead to increased food security for our neighbors, a more sustainable food system and a hub for positive community connections.
4. Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that member owners should know?
I am of the belief that if you want change, you need to be the change. I have, and will continue to be that change. I have enjoyed the opportunity of working with fellow coopers the last two years. The energy in this group is infectious and I would like to continue to help it spread as an elected board member.
Linda Jones
1. Describe your involvement with the coop.
I have been involved with the co-op from the beginning. I am one of the co-founders along with Deborah Eid. I’ve been serving as co-president of the development circle. My role has included
Envisioning and overseeing our cooperative
Bringing sociocracy as our organizational structure
Attending the national conferences for food co-op startups
Meeting one-on-one with new volunteers
Reaching out to community groups
Staying connected with the wider food co-op world and other sector co-ops
Reaching out to area developers and financial institutions
2. Do you have any other relevant experience?
My previous co-op experience includes living in a 100 person student housing co-op while I was a student at the University of Texas where I was head cook and chair of the kitchen committee. I also helped start a credit union for co-op members in Austin. My professional life was mostly spent as a public school music professional, church and community choir director. From these experiences I have gained skills to organize and inspire people to produce creative works of musical art together.
3. What should the coop's role to be in the broader community?
The cooperative business model seems to me to be the best way to create meaningful and systemic change in the way our economy is organized and our democracy is nourished. As a successful cooperative business that brings great food to the heart of Grand Rapids, strengthens our local food system, brings better food access to this part of town, and does it all as a grassroots effort of the people who will benefit from the store, we can show a better way to do business that includes everyone and empowers us to be able to make change democratically.
4. Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that member owners should know?
My passion lies in envisioning creative and systemic change that brings our community closer to the ideals of social justice, equality and true freedom. I find that in order to see this change come into being, I am led to spend my time connecting people to people to build stronger community. I feel we can do this best together through cooperation and adhering to cooperative values and principles.
Michael Ludwig
1. Describe your involvement with the coop.
I have been involved with the co-op for one year. I have sat in finance and outreach circles.
2. Do you have any other relevant experience?
I have managed multiple grocery stores. I have experience in small independent, mid-size and large corporate grocery environments. I understand the industry and the unique challenges of being both ethical (to the world, farmers and employees) and accessible to lower-income (or price conscious) shoppers.
3. What should the coop's role to be in the broader community?
The co-op's role in the broader community should be to provide food that is good for our bodies, our farmers and our planet before focussing on low-cost food. We should be a welcoming place of business for customers of all backgrounds, but when necessary, prioritize food justice as our highest value. We should be heavily focussed on being a good employer by providing livable wages as well as excellent training and reasonable benefits. In order to do this, we have to admit to ourselves that we will not be the least expensive grocery store in town (even if we pay minimum wage we will not be the lowest price grocer). We can be the best grocer in town by focusing on quality food and customer service.
4. Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that member owners should know?
My background within grocery has been somewhat focussed on the "dry" side of the business - that is, non-perishable items, dairy and (primarily) beer and wine. With the exception of managing a store, I don't have much experience in the meat, produce or the prepared foods (deli/bakery) side of the business.
Carrie Liebrock
1. Describe your involvement with the coop.
My current involvement with the co-op is as a member. My desire is to become much more than that and to really be a part of something magical for our community.
2. Do you have any other relevant experience?
Relevant experience that I have is not working with a co-op specifically, but I was nominated this year to be on another board - the West Michigan JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). We do a lot of outreach, education, and fundraising. One of the things I've been very involved in thus far is to help plan a JDRF Summit for children and their families in the UP. I'm proud that I have been an integral part of planning this event. Just like healthcare access, I feel passionately about people also having access to nutritious and affordable food. Food IS medicine!
3. What should the coop's role to be in the broader community?
On a broader level, I think the co-ops involvement in the community should be to really raise awareness about sustainability, access to affordable, locally grown food and about how this can bring our community together. Personally being on the board for the JDRF, attending lunches at the Hispanic Center, going to galas for the Red Shoe Foundation, the JDRF galas, Paws Claws and Corks, etc I see how charitable our community is. I have no doubt that if we get the word out we will have the support we need.
4. Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that member owners should know?
I have been a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator for nearly 20 years. Promoting health and nutrition and helping people is my absolute passion. I am a bit of a liberal minded hippie that believes in helping those in need and being a voice for those who don't have one. I am also in sales, so I'm very outgoing and unafraid to talk to anyone who will listen to me 😁 I'm accustomed to working as a vendor at events and also accustomed at trying to woo people. The reason I'm as successful as I am in my current job is because I believe in my product 150%. That is how I feel about the co-op and would love to be directly involved in something that helps all members of my community.
