|
|
| Back to the Table of Contents |
A Director's
Chair: A New HWFC Tax Exempt Corporation for Community Outreach
|
by Bruce S. Huttner
|
The Honest Weight Food
Co-op is a great place to buy healthy and wholesome food products. That
is, of course, one of our primary functions. But the Co-op is also a
strong community presence, and a force for change. Embedded in our By
Laws is the mandate for the Co-op to "provide a forum for health and
nutrition education." At the HWFC we take that charge seriously; and
community outreach and education around nutrition issues has always
been an important part of the work we do.
The Collective Management Team (CMT) and staff have devoted a lot of
time and effort on this aspect of our cooperate mission. At least two
of our employees are devoting a substantial part of their time working
on education and outreach activities. They love the work, and would
actually like to do more. The Board of Directors decided that we wanted
to support those efforts and expand our education and community
outreach activities. Broadening this work can only serve to further the
Co-op's mission and its commercial goals of bringing healthy and safe
food and personal care products to as many in our region as we can. In
short, growing our educational and community outreach activities
furthers our cooperate mission while strengthening the Co-op's core
business.
The new store we are building will increase opportunities to provide an
even wider range of educational and outreach activities. With the added
space for community programming, and a shiny new teaching kitchen, the
new store can stand as a model for a commercial enterprise that cares
for and supports the community it serves. But building these services
has presented real challenges. It takes time and money to bring quality
educational and outreach programs to fruition. We can do it, and we can
do it better than we have in the past; but as these activities have
expanded, the Board has concluded that we needed a method of funding
this work in a way that is also compatible with our commercial
enterprise.
Our solution was to create a tax exempt, not-for-profit corporation
that will assume much of the education and outreach work being done by
Co-op staff. The new not-for-profit will be called the "Honest Weight
Food Co-op Community Education and Outreach Council" and will have its
offices in the new building. At least one Board member of the Co-op
will sit on the board of the not-for-profit; which will have its own
staff and agenda. The not-for-profit will be funded through tax
deductable contributions from the community, and hopefully, will
quickly become self-sustaining. Of course the Co-op will be a major
donor, and will be able to claim those contributions as tax deductions.
The Board and the CMT are both very excited about this new project. As
the new not-for-profit gears up, we'll be needing lots of help, so stay
tuned for a request for assistance from our outreach and education
coordinators. For the not-for-profit do be most effective, we will need
funding sources. If you have any ideas or insights with regard to
potential funding sources that the new not-for-profit can tap, it would
be great if you could share those with us. Contact Cindee Lolik or any
Board member with your thoughts and ideas.
|
| Back to the Table of Contents |
|
|
|
