Meet the Board (We call it Top Circle)
Jason Herlands, Top Circle/Treasurer/Finance Lead
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.
Annabelle Wilkinson, Top Circle/In Reach
1. Describe your involvement with the co-op. I started noticing the awesome yard signs around town on my walks around the neighborhood. Once I read about the Food Co-op, I knew I had to be a part of it! So far, my involvement has been fairly minimal, as I joined as an owner in August, but I thought joining the Leadership Team would be a great way to increase my involvement in what I think is an important step for our community.
2. Do you have any other relevant experience? My experience around community outreach, fundraising, and education are key skills that I believe could contribute to the co-op. I spent four years as a Manager of Volunteer Services for nonprofits, where I both conducted outreach to engage over 3,000 volunteers and assisted our development department in fundraising campaigns. I have experience working at a local credit union, and am Treasurer of the Community Collaboration on Climate Change (C4) on the Executive Committee. In my current role as Environmental & Climate Justice Specialist with the City of Grand Rapids I research and engage on food waste reduction as a climate mitigation technique, and food justice and food sovereignty as climate adaptation movements integral to address the impacts of climate change. I am also a member of the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum. Lastly, with my schooling (master of urban and regional planning) and experience as a planner, I am hyper-organized and focused on systems planning and how all aspects of our world intersect - how thinking of food access must also incorporate transportation availability, etc. For a fun fact, I am also an avid vegetable gardener who loves cooking a home cooked meal for friends and family with the bounty of my small but awesome harvest. :)
3. What should the co-op’s role be in the broader community? I think the co-op will play an important part in moving towards a local solidarity economy in Grand Rapids where economic practices prioritize people and the planet over profit. I think it's important for folks to realize that traditional capitalism is not the only way to engage with an economy, but instead participatory democracy can apply to not just political voting, but be an essential part of how we engage with our economy as well. I see the co-op as an essential way to address food insecurity and economic pressures that prevent access to healthy, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods. I hope the co-op provides access to education on food systems, cooperative values, and the interconnectedness of food, health, and the environment. Lastly, I see the co-op working to address inequities in our food system, and specifically how the co-op can help address food access disparities for our communities of color and low-income communities.
4. Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that owners should know? Ultimately, food unites us. It provides an opportunity to come together and share a meal and conversation with community. It's a powerful tool of connection, but in our country's history it's often been used as a form of erasure. Stealing land, prioritizing large agricultural practices over small farms, denying financing for farmers of color, and ultimately attempting to erase traditional Black and Indigenous food culture. Whereas for Latinx and Asian/Pacific Islanders, American culture has only accepted their food and not their people and culture as a whole. Yet I believe food can still bridge that gap, and create connections to culture and land that white supremacy has tried to wipe away. I would like to work with the co-op to ensure those values are embedded in every aspect of bringing the owners' (and community's) dreams to reality.
Linda Jones, Top Circle President/Secretary
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.
Evan Edwards, Top Circle/Outreach
Describe your involvement with the co-op:
I joined the co-op in 2020, and have tabled for the organization as part of a membership drive. Beyond that, however, I have mostly been a spectator so far.
Do you have any other relevant experience?:
My background is in foodservice, hospitality, and agriculture, so I have been immersed in the world of food since childhood. In addition to working in conventional restaurants and farms, I have worked in several cooperatives, including but not limited to Firestorm Cafe (where I was a worker-owner from 2008-2010), the Driftless Cooption (a buying club that supplements a more formal brick and mortar food coop in Viroqua, WI), and Green Thistle Farm (a cooperative farming venture in Clarksville, MI). I have also been researching food systems for the last decade and have taught courses on the environmental impact of food, as well as the business ethics of foodservice and hospitality. This research has culminated in my doctoral dissertation entitled Restorative Gastronomy: On Plant Life, Food, and Hospitality.
What should the co-op’s role be in the broader community?
Unlike conventional grocery stores, whose primary motive is not to provide quality food, but to generate profit for business owners, cooperatives are a tool for communities to supply themselves with local, healthy, reliable food. I believe that our cooperative has an opportunity to generate genuine interest and passion for good food by creating an organizational structure that encourages participation in the sourcing and purchasing of products that fulfill these needs. Beyond handing control of sourcing to the people, our cooperative can also help to provide resources and educate consumers about ways to use their groceries and about who is growing it.
Bryan Heijstek, Top Circle Outreach Lead
Describe your involvement with the co-op.
I volunteered briefly for the Tabling at A Glimpse of Africa event at Rosa Parks Circle. I also helped to translate the Food Co-op flyer into Spanish and did some promotion of the co-op at an event organized by my mom, Kathy Siegenthaler, and East Congregational Church. I’m also part of the Pleasant Park cohort and hope to increase co-op membership in Creston through my work as an intern at the Creston Neighborhood Association.
Do you have any other relevant experience?
Co-ops have long been a part of my life. Since I was a boy, I went to summer camp at Circle Pines Center in Southwest Michigan, a co-op that teaches peace, social justice, and environmental stewardship through cooperation in work, education, and recreation. I also became a Founding Fellow of Thoreau College back in 2017 when I joined a small cohort, with five others from around the world, to lay the foundations of a microcollege in rural Wisconsin. I stayed on for another year as the Labor Coordinator and invited the first cohort of four students who also shared in the responsibilities of running the college. From this time, I learned about decentralized decision-making (inspired by holacracy), organic farming and permaculture, and collaboration among a variety of organizations. These experiences have made me excited for the opportunity and already imagining how to apply them to bringing a food co-op to Grand Rapids.
What should the co-op's role be in the broader community?
At its core, the co-op’s role in the broader community should be to bring people of all backgrounds together “around a table of a variety of dishes”. It should work towards answering how we can bring food from local farms to create dishes from around the world, bringing the cultures representative of our community into communion with our local agriculture. This can be realized through inviting diverse members of the community to teach how to make their favorite dishes, with recipes participants can then take home with them to try. As a centralized hub, the Grand Rapids Food Co-op can also be a gathering place for other similar ventures that strive to enrich the value of cooperation within our community or simply be a hangout to imagine what the future may bring. The co-op should also work to empower its members and surrounding community through educational opportunities like the one mentioned above, to cultivate a greater appreciation for where food comes from, and inspire local action like how to volunteer at a local farm and get to know ones farmer.
Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that owners should know?
The most intimate relationships I have formed have been through the sharing of food. Food brings us sustenance and imbues us with ideas that can change worlds. The way those beginning seeds are sowed, cultivated, harvested, prepared, and finally consumed are all integral in the forming of novel ideas. As Michael Pollan has said, “we are not only what we eat, but how we eat, too.” Through my time in Viroqua, WI, I have seen the way food Co-ops bring this statement alive. How we gather around food is just as important a question as how that food is produced. “Food justice is Social justice”, and food Co-ops are a way to marry these energies and bring vitality to our future. My wish is to bring my former experiences and future imaginings to the Grand Rapids Food Co-op Top Circle, Membership, and broader community and to work towards developing a community where we can all sit around a common table, with uncommon tongues, and imbue ourselves and each other with a sustaining energy that can never be used up.
Describe your involvement with the co-op.
I volunteered briefly for the Tabling at A Glimpse of Africa event at Rosa Parks Circle. I also helped to translate the Food Co-op flyer into Spanish and did some promotion of the co-op at an event organized by my mom, Kathy Siegenthaler, and East Congregational Church. I’m also part of the Pleasant Park cohort and hope to increase co-op membership in Creston through my work as an intern at the Creston Neighborhood Association.
Do you have any other relevant experience?
Co-ops have long been a part of my life. Since I was a boy, I went to summer camp at Circle Pines Center in Southwest Michigan, a co-op that teaches peace, social justice, and environmental stewardship through cooperation in work, education, and recreation. I also became a Founding Fellow of Thoreau College back in 2017 when I joined a small cohort, with five others from around the world, to lay the foundations of a microcollege in rural Wisconsin. I stayed on for another year as the Labor Coordinator and invited the first cohort of four students who also shared in the responsibilities of running the college. From this time, I learned about decentralized decision-making (inspired by holacracy), organic farming and permaculture, and collaboration among a variety of organizations. These experiences have made me excited for the opportunity and already imagining how to apply them to bringing a food co-op to Grand Rapids.
What should the co-op's role be in the broader community?
At its core, the co-op’s role in the broader community should be to bring people of all backgrounds together “around a table of a variety of dishes”. It should work towards answering how we can bring food from local farms to create dishes from around the world, bringing the cultures representative of our community into communion with our local agriculture. This can be realized through inviting diverse members of the community to teach how to make their favorite dishes, with recipes participants can then take home with them to try. As a centralized hub, the Grand Rapids Food Co-op can also be a gathering place for other similar ventures that strive to enrich the value of cooperation within our community or simply be a hangout to imagine what the future may bring. The co-op should also work to empower its members and surrounding community through educational opportunities like the one mentioned above, to cultivate a greater appreciation for where food comes from, and inspire local action like how to volunteer at a local farm and get to know ones farmer.
Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that owners should know?
The most intimate relationships I have formed have been through the sharing of food. Food brings us sustenance and imbues us with ideas that can change worlds. The way those beginning seeds are sowed, cultivated, harvested, prepared, and finally consumed are all integral in the forming of novel ideas. As Michael Pollan has said, “we are not only what we eat, but how we eat, too.” Through my time in Viroqua, WI, I have seen the way food Co-ops bring this statement alive. How we gather around food is just as important a question as how that food is produced. “Food justice is Social justice”, and food Co-ops are a way to marry these energies and bring vitality to our future. My wish is to bring my former experiences and future imaginings to the Grand Rapids Food Co-op Top Circle, Membership, and broader community and to work towards developing a community where we can all sit around a common table, with uncommon tongues, and imbue ourselves and each other with a sustaining energy that can never be used up.
Lauren Greer, Top Circle/Inreach Lead
Describe your involvement with the Co-op.
Although my involvement with GRFCI has thus far been limited, I would like to submit myself for consideration for the Top Circle. The elements of my life have aligned in such a way that now seems the moment for me to invest more deeply in this cause. So far, I have tabled at one event, and have been periodically delivering yard signs as needed. Though not an intensive effort, sign delivery at least functions as a way to keep the coop top- of-mind for me and I appreciate this connection.
Do you have any other relevant experience?
I have a strong interest in food: I have independently studied nutrition, and am a prolific cook/baker, with most of my “playtime” spent in the kitchen. I have also devoted time to learning about home gardening techniques and growing my own food, and one year I had a working farm share at Blandford and earned my veggies through weekly field work shifts.
I also have experience in customer service roles (a diner, a garden center, the Children’s Museum), and lots of experience working with diverse families. Though currently furloughed, I have been employed by the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum for a little over 9 years. During my time at the museum I have had the opportunity to work in many different roles and gain diverse skills. I held direct guest- interaction positions, served as staff trainer, worked in management, and was a department director. I developed procedural documents, worked collaboratively with my colleagues and community members on projects, and developed short, and long-term programs. I created hands-on experiences for children and their families, wrote and managed budgets, presented at conferences, hired performers and guest facilitators, and designed print collateral for various events/programs. Although my experience has been focused on operations and educational programs (and not administration or development), I have also learned a lot about non-profit business strategy. Most importantly to me, my museum experience has given me a firm belief in societal improvement through education-- and what is a coop if not a hub of community-based knowledge sharing??
When possible, I am involved in community theater in both acting and technical capacities. I am currently a member of a commedia dell'arte troupe, I have developed basic carpentry skills by assisting in the building of sets, and creatively solved problems while finding and building props and costumes. I have honed my ability to work as a contributing team member both on stage and in the wings, and bring this experience into all that I do: I “stay in my lane”, listen to my colleagues, and put in the necessary effort to complete the job well.
What should the co-op’s role be in the broader community?
I would love to see many different educational opportunities through the coop around nutrition, food prep, food history, gardening, etc. I am specifically interested in engaging families/children through marketing and educational efforts-- perhaps even periodic special events. With the shift in public school education away from home economics (among other subjects), there is a need for instruction in how to healthfully feed oneself. The coop should be seen as a welcoming entity for everyone, regardless of means, in accordance with the coop principles, and I envision a community center atmosphere, with space to have casual social interactions, participate in workshops, and purchase fresh food.
Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that owners should know?
Since food is one of the most basic necessities, it is a most natural topic around which to engage our community in dialogue-- discussions about the economy, the health of our families, equity and food security, cultural differences, and sustainability are all directly tied to the aims of the coop. This initiative is poised to work in collaboration with existing and growing organizations to search out members, build the coop we dream of, and work to bring equity to the Grand Rapids area through education and access to healthy food.
Describe your involvement with the Co-op.
Although my involvement with GRFCI has thus far been limited, I would like to submit myself for consideration for the Top Circle. The elements of my life have aligned in such a way that now seems the moment for me to invest more deeply in this cause. So far, I have tabled at one event, and have been periodically delivering yard signs as needed. Though not an intensive effort, sign delivery at least functions as a way to keep the coop top- of-mind for me and I appreciate this connection.
Do you have any other relevant experience?
I have a strong interest in food: I have independently studied nutrition, and am a prolific cook/baker, with most of my “playtime” spent in the kitchen. I have also devoted time to learning about home gardening techniques and growing my own food, and one year I had a working farm share at Blandford and earned my veggies through weekly field work shifts.
I also have experience in customer service roles (a diner, a garden center, the Children’s Museum), and lots of experience working with diverse families. Though currently furloughed, I have been employed by the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum for a little over 9 years. During my time at the museum I have had the opportunity to work in many different roles and gain diverse skills. I held direct guest- interaction positions, served as staff trainer, worked in management, and was a department director. I developed procedural documents, worked collaboratively with my colleagues and community members on projects, and developed short, and long-term programs. I created hands-on experiences for children and their families, wrote and managed budgets, presented at conferences, hired performers and guest facilitators, and designed print collateral for various events/programs. Although my experience has been focused on operations and educational programs (and not administration or development), I have also learned a lot about non-profit business strategy. Most importantly to me, my museum experience has given me a firm belief in societal improvement through education-- and what is a coop if not a hub of community-based knowledge sharing??
When possible, I am involved in community theater in both acting and technical capacities. I am currently a member of a commedia dell'arte troupe, I have developed basic carpentry skills by assisting in the building of sets, and creatively solved problems while finding and building props and costumes. I have honed my ability to work as a contributing team member both on stage and in the wings, and bring this experience into all that I do: I “stay in my lane”, listen to my colleagues, and put in the necessary effort to complete the job well.
What should the co-op’s role be in the broader community?
I would love to see many different educational opportunities through the coop around nutrition, food prep, food history, gardening, etc. I am specifically interested in engaging families/children through marketing and educational efforts-- perhaps even periodic special events. With the shift in public school education away from home economics (among other subjects), there is a need for instruction in how to healthfully feed oneself. The coop should be seen as a welcoming entity for everyone, regardless of means, in accordance with the coop principles, and I envision a community center atmosphere, with space to have casual social interactions, participate in workshops, and purchase fresh food.
Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that owners should know?
Since food is one of the most basic necessities, it is a most natural topic around which to engage our community in dialogue-- discussions about the economy, the health of our families, equity and food security, cultural differences, and sustainability are all directly tied to the aims of the coop. This initiative is poised to work in collaboration with existing and growing organizations to search out members, build the coop we dream of, and work to bring equity to the Grand Rapids area through education and access to healthy food.
Wojtek Nocon, Top Circle/Marketing
1. Describe your involvement with the co-op. I was actively involved in the early stages of GRFCI, in 2015 and 2016. During that time, I attended the Midwest co-op conference and learned in great detail what it takes to startup a food coop. I was actively involved in all the meetings during this 2-year span and was voted to the first Top Circle that we ever had. I worked closely with Linda and others and helped form many of the early concepts about our mission, values, community and membership. This experience is invaluable when running for Top Circle again.
2. Do you have any other relevant experience? I am passionate about community, sustainability and solutions to climate change. I recently received my Master’s in Sustainability and the information that I learned is well applied to many concepts related to food co-ops. I lived in Minneapolis and was an active member for 10 years at the Wedge Community Coop, this is good first-hand experience to apply to Top Circle decision making. I am passionate about making positive change in the community.
3. What should the co-op’s role be in the broader community? Our co-op can have many roles in the broader community. Educating our members on various topics focusing on food, cooking, farming, health, and climate change will enable the co-op to be a change agent in the community. A healthy and informed community is a stronger community to fight for good and sustainable causes. The co-op should actively engage in community affairs as it pertains to food security/insecurity as this topic is closely related to poverty and communities in need. Activism for causes that support the coop values can be another role played by the coop.
4. Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that owners should know? I am excited to get involved again in the coop and to help wherever help is needed and to keep on building our membership to make the dream come true.
1. Describe your involvement with the co-op. I was actively involved in the early stages of GRFCI, in 2015 and 2016. During that time, I attended the Midwest co-op conference and learned in great detail what it takes to startup a food coop. I was actively involved in all the meetings during this 2-year span and was voted to the first Top Circle that we ever had. I worked closely with Linda and others and helped form many of the early concepts about our mission, values, community and membership. This experience is invaluable when running for Top Circle again.
2. Do you have any other relevant experience? I am passionate about community, sustainability and solutions to climate change. I recently received my Master’s in Sustainability and the information that I learned is well applied to many concepts related to food co-ops. I lived in Minneapolis and was an active member for 10 years at the Wedge Community Coop, this is good first-hand experience to apply to Top Circle decision making. I am passionate about making positive change in the community.
3. What should the co-op’s role be in the broader community? Our co-op can have many roles in the broader community. Educating our members on various topics focusing on food, cooking, farming, health, and climate change will enable the co-op to be a change agent in the community. A healthy and informed community is a stronger community to fight for good and sustainable causes. The co-op should actively engage in community affairs as it pertains to food security/insecurity as this topic is closely related to poverty and communities in need. Activism for causes that support the coop values can be another role played by the coop.
4. Are there other statements relevant to your candidacy that owners should know? I am excited to get involved again in the coop and to help wherever help is needed and to keep on building our membership to make the dream come true.
