A Director's Chair:
Got Money? A Way to Invest in Your Co-op's Future

by John Godfrey, Board Treasurer

The Honest Weight Food Coop will be embarking on an expansion project sometime in the future. It might be a second store or it might be a bigger store in our Albany location. Who knows what the future will be offering us. Either way we are working to meet HWFC current and future demands of parking, space, product offerings and more importantly providing the community with affordable, high quality natural foods and produce for the healthy living. Since HWFC is not a giant corporation with access to monetary resources (this is a good thing), we need to be creative in how we access funds for the future. Most major projects requiring funding have a mix of bank loans, community foundation loan, HWFC own equity and, the best of all — Member/Shareholder Loans. This is were you come in!

A member loan program is a community-based process allowing members and shareholders to invest in the future of HWFC. The loans are usually a five-year loan with interest payments made annually. The interest rate ranges from 0% to 6% depending on the choice of the member/shareholder. Yes, you choose your interest rate. The loan is repaid at the end of the five-year term. This also entails signing of legal documents. A document is currently being prepared to divulge more of the specifics. Again, these member loans are a critical piece of HWFC future endeavors.

As a member/shareholders lender you get valuable benefits more than anything monetarily. You personally take part in helping HWFC and its community expand and enhance. The expansion and enhancing process will provide the capital to get better parking, wider variety of high quality natural foods, enhanced store space and much, much more. Your commitment will enhance your grocery dollars staying in the local economy, supporting local farmers, producers, service providers and the community itself. Your commitment will reaffirm why the HWFC has been listed in Metroland as the Best Natural Food Store in 2003 and 2005, Best Coop 2006 and as Best Cheese Staff 2006.

You know HWFC is the best natural food market around and you didn’t need Metroland to tell you that. Now, the time is coming to show the Coop community why we also have the best member/shareholder of any co-op. How can we do this? We can start by exceeding what other Coops have raised through there member/shareholder loan program. The River Valley Co-op in Northampton (Mass.) raised $950,000 from 240 members. This co-op doesn’t even have a store yet. The Common Market Coop in Frederick, Maryland raised $224,000 from just 53 members. That is approximately $4,200 raised per member. Another co-op in Buffalo, the Lexington Co-op, raised $560,000 with an average loan of $3,000 per member. What does that mean for HWFC potential to raise money for the future? Well, just recently we had 696 members and 4,315 shareholders. With our larger number of member and substantial shareholder base, why couldn’t we raise more the $1.5 million? This does seem like a lot. However, that is only an average loan of $300 per member/shareholder. If that average were just $500 then the potential exists to raise $2.5 million. No official goal has been set. However, the potential is just amazing, with other co-ops averaging more than $3,000 per member/shareholder.

Now, not everyone can afford to show their commitment through a loan. We have very dedicated members that show their commitment every day by cashiering, stocking, cleaning, recycling and various other helpful duties at HWFC. Those who would love to commit more time than they can may be the lenders that can give more than the average member/shareholder. The River Valley Co-op had a member loan $50,000 to their future. I don’t see why not one of our more fortunate members/shareholder couldn’t exceed that. Keep in mind, greatness doesn’t come from one but from the community of many acting as one.

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