BRATTLEBORO — The Shareholder Forum at the Brattleboro Food Co-op has met six times since its initial meeting on Aug. 10.
We've continued to meet monthly primarily as a “for shareholders, by shareholders” space for people to voice their concerns and learn together about how we can make change and what that change should be. The forum is also open to community members who aren't shareholders of the co-op.
It is the result of a deeper history of the Brattleboro Food Co-op: a history of people who have come, struggled, and gone and of an institution made of people and their labor - which has since veered toward a corporate model based on national averages rather than local vigor.
It's an inevitable turn for any institution that relies on profit, and we're all a part of its continuation. If we want to survive, we have to keep pushing profit.
However, to thrive in our beloved Brattleboro, we've got to get down to our roots. We need everyone who is involved - farmers, workers, shareholders, community organizations - to be invested, which means that this cooperative should benefit our local community to the maximum.
The Shareholder Forum, initiated by Kathy Carr as a way to honor all voices, has been supported by many and is about reinvigorating a cooperative that is made of people. But we're missing lots of voices and vital members of the community and of our food system. We can do better than we're doing.
The BFC was created 40 years ago by people who agreed to put in their time and labor to have unadulterated food at a reasonable cost, benefiting all who belong.
So who is a part of our co-op? And whom do we want to benefit from the labor?
Longtime shareholders and new ones alike have taken part in the forum. We've had co-op employees take part, as well as board members. The number of participants has ranged between 15 to more than 30. It has been tense, and that tension is never comfortable.
But as our latest facilitator, Angela Berkfield from the Root Social Justice Center, tells us, “Hard does not equal bad.”
Our next meeting is Sunday, Dec. 14, from 5 to 7 p.m., in the BFC Community Room. We hope that you can attend.