Salem Food Co-op Closing Its Doors

Sad for the sturdy, stalwart volunteers who worked so hard, but not unexpected. 

My take is that a startup food co-op is a much harder proposition now in the 2010s than it was in the 1970s or 1980s when organic and natural foods weren't being featured at mainstream corporate grocery chains all over the place.

Without a unique niche to fill, a new food co-op had a much more difficult challenge.

Well-established co-ops, particularly in cities and towns with big universities, can survive on member loyalty for a long time, but new co-ops really have to have something unique to offer that will motivate people out of their routines and make them feel that they want to deal with the vagaries of cooperative ventures, which are often a little hurdle for people new to them.

Here's hoping that the end of Salem Food Co-op is not the end of cooperative ventures or participatory economics in Salem, and that there will be lots of learning to be realized from this chapter that will benefit the next one.

We're Closing Permanently Liquidation Sale! Each Saturday through December 19th, at the Salem Public Market everything is on sale at the Salem Food Co-op booth, including our refrigerator. We're Closing Permanently This is a newsletter to announce that, after much soul searching and a few tears, we've decided to close down operations of the Salem Food Co-op due to a dearth of volunteer involvement and lackluster sales. We've accomplished much in the three plus years we existed:  We worked with multiple farmers, supported local farms and businesses - Minto Island growers, Teal Creek Farms, Port Orford Sustainable Seafood, Harmony Jack, Cascade Baking, Steel Bridge Coffee, and Full Circle Creamery.  We created a structure for a community co-operative that still remains.  We worked in collaboration with First Alternative Co-op and the NW Hub, and we tried to work with Willamette Friends.   Our mission and vision in developing the Salem Food Co-op was to elevate local, fresh, organic food and cooperative culture, offering members and the greater community the experience of participating in true democracy through the experience of owning and running a member-owned, volunteer-driven food co-operative.  Unfortunately, Salem residents didn't step-up and take advantage of this opportunity.  Liquidation Sale! Each Saturday through December 19th, at the Salem Public Market everything is on sale at the Salem Food Co-op booth, including our refrigerator. All food, except for produce, will be 20% off retail price.   Come by, stock up on dry goods, and wish us all well. You can still send questions to our email: info@salemfood.coop Sincerely,  The Salem Food Co-op Board friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Copyright © 2015 Salem Food Cooperative, All rights reserved. Thank you for being a Salem Food Co-op customer or other newsletter subscriber! Our mailing address is: Salem Food Cooperative PO Box 2726 Salem, OR 97308 Add us to your address book

Yes. The answer is yes.

Is Coffee Life's Elixir? A morning buzz does the body good. Continue reading

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

brilliant -- Teaching Pecking Pigeons to Detect Breast Cancer Cells in Images

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pigeons-breast-cancer-study_564dfecce4b00b7997f98cf5


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Some guy who actually knows something - Climate change is the world's most pressing problem

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/11/climate_change_is_the_worlds_m.html


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

A must-watch life-changing 90 second video

Great candidate for your year-end thankfulness giving plans

If you are lucky enough not to know that America still suffers greatly from lead exposure, then you can be thankful indeed this fall -- here's a great organization that deserves much more support to keep working on the problem.

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

It's almost the end of the year and we've almost met our 2015 goals! Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Just over 6 weeks left in 2015!  November 15th!—wow, that happened fast! We wanted to share an exciting update with you....At the beginning of 2015 we set an "outrageous" fundraising goal of $200,000; $200,000 seemed almost unattainable, but "reasonable"—because that was really the minimum we needed to raise - in our 5th year as a nonprofit - to keep expanding our outreach activities and services to families at our current pace of growth. [We helped more than 16,000 families in 2014, and our reach and impact in 2015 has already far exceeded that!]  We're also excited to share that we have earned a 2015 Top Rated Nonprofit badge with GreatNonprofits.org! And on top of that, we are simply thrilled to share with you that not only are people recognizing our work (e.g. the nod at GreatNonprofits), but they are also personally acknowledging our work—by giving: in 2015 we have already raised (with pledges and gifts received so far this year) more than $170,000! So in terms of that super-ambitious target of 200K, that leaves just $30,000 left to raise in these final six weeks of 2015 - and with your help we believe we can do this! (Actually... if everyone on our list just donated one dollar we would exceed our goal!) So in your "end-of-year" giving planning (for "Giving Tuesday" or December 31st or any day between now and then) please think of Lead Safe America.... and now is as good a time as any to make your tax-deductible end-of-year contribution in support of our work.   If you are the the kind of person who has sufficient cash-flow to be in a position to make a monthly gift (no matter how small) please also consider joining our Honor Roll in 2015. [Our monthly Honor Roll contributions truly sustain us through the slow months—and even $10 or $25 a month makes a huge difference.] Thank you for your support this year; we're excited for a bright and productive future as a nonprofit, and a 2016 where we continue to help ever greater numbers of families! Sincerely, Tamara Rubin Mother of Lead Poisoned Children Founder Executive Director Lead Safe America Foundation FOLLOW ON TWITTER FRIEND ON FACEBOOK FORWARD TO FRIEND  Copyright © 2015 Lead Safe America Foundation, All rights reserved. This email is being sent to you by the Lead Safe America Foundation. Feel free to unsubscribe by using the link here. Thank you! Our mailing address is: Lead Safe America Foundation P.O. Box 820044 Portland, OR 97282 Add us to your address book

We need about 750 times more hearings on this than Benghazi!!

Read it and weep

Great example of why we've got to rethink student loans

http://keepjessicaafloat.com/

Given the vast protections the student loan lenders enjoy, the only interest rate that doesn't qualify as usury on these loans is 1% or less ... Though most new student loans should be converted to grants and past ones forgiven entirely for anyone 60 or over.

Goal of housing homeless veterans is within reach: Editorial | OregonLive.com

Portland is ending vet homelessness, why is Salem, the seat of government, not able to even conceive of it?

The north State Hospital parcel would be an ideal place for siting a full-service veterans recovery and reintegration program to get homeless vets and their families housed and reconnected to services.

As the nights get cold, why are we letting those buildings sit idle?

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/11/goal_of_housing_homeless_veter.html

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

HERO who will also be ignored by the test scam lobby: A venture capitalist searches for the purpose of school. Here’s what he found. - The Washington Post

You would think that there can be no way the educrats can ignore this critique, but I guarantee you they will, in Salem as in everywhere else that the standardized testing scam has taken hold.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/03/a-venture-capitalist-searches-for-the-purpose-of-school-heres-what-he-found/?tid=pm_local_pop_b


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Is 'climate change' really the world's most pressing problem? (OPINION) | OregonLive.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/11/is_climate_change_really_the_w.html

This is depressing. This idiot squeezes one of these out every few months, wipes himself, and the O prints the result dutifully.

I'm trying to figure out how much it would cost to build a small tabletop demonstration kit for schools. It would have identical transparent containers with wireless thermocouples, save that one is insulated with air having 200 ppb CO2 and the other having 400 (and maybe for fun one with 600 ...) and the cans would be receiving identical emissions from one of those full spectrum light bulbs.

Something like that might be the only useful response to this sort of propaganda ... SHOW kids in grade school every year that even though it's an invisible gas, it has powerful properties of a most inconvenient kind.

If kids saw, every day, a device that inarguably demonstrates the very simple physics at work -- and saw for themselves that a can insulated with more CO2 holds more heat than one with less CO2 -- it might make a difference over time. It would sure help them sort out nonsense like this.

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Feynman on Beauty and Doubt

https://youtu.be/cRmbwczTC6E

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Worth remembering in Salem: Word: Trump's ' skill

http://prorevnews.blogspot.com/2015/11/word-trumps-skill.html

Word: Trump's ' skill

One of the big probleems in the US is that we are made to believe that real estate speculation is economic development when it is simply another way for the rich to steal.- Greg Gerritt

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."