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by
Mandy Catlette
 What
if our society were set-up in such a way that each and
every little action you performed made sense,
environmentally and ecologically? What if you had the
opportunity in your daily life, as part of your regular
routine, to effect change at no cost?
Thanks
to an exciting new idea blossoming at the Wedge, this type
of sanity is now available to co-op members and
non-members alike! Introducing the Sow the Seeds Fund, a
chance for all Wedge shoppers to contribute effortlessly
towards the bettering of our environment and the health of
our local family farms.
The
Sprout of an Idea
Several years ago, Barth Anderson of the Wedge Research
and Development team, was impressed by an idea he heard
about from the Puget
Sound Co-op in Seattle,
Washington. They had organized a "Farmland
Trust" which members
could contribute to if they were interested in donating
money towards the protection and organic certification of
local farmland. "It was a great idea and I put it on
the back burner," he said, "thinking it might be
something the Wedge could do at some point."
That
point came this past year, when another member of the
great Wedge think-tank, Elizabeth Archerd (Member Services
Director) began to discuss the idea of non-member
involvement in the co-op, specifically, if there might be
a way to utilize a non-member patronage refund at the end
of the fiscal year. As members of the Wedge Co-op know,
purchases made using a member number at the register are
totaled at the end of the fiscal year, and depending on
the size of the entire co-op's profit, a percentage of
that total is returned to the member. The amount of money
the Wedge makes from non-member purchases is
substantial-and so Elizabeth noted that if there were a
way to sign-up non-members under a non-profit's
"membership umbrella," those total purchases
could accrue and the refund would be paid out to that
non-profit.
"After
Lindy (General Manager of the Wedge) gave us the
green-light, all we had to do was find an existing
non-profit organization who would be willing to partner
with us," Barth explained.
It
turned out after some searching that an ideal partner
would be found in the Institute for Agriculture and Trade
Policy (IATP).
The IATP, a non-profit think-tank that develops policy
alternatives for agricultural and environmental issues of
the day, was founded in 1986 in response to family farms
in crisis against expanding industrial agriculture. Dale
Wiehoff, communications director for the IATP, enthused
that they were "honored and excited" to become a
part of an idea with such potential.
Sow
the Seeds Fund
The final product of this brainstorming is the Sow
the Seeds Fund. The Fund, in consultation with a board
of local environmental and agricultural leaders, will
distribute grants to farmers, organizations, and
applicants whose proposed projects will strengthen the
local food system and environment. Potential applications
of the fund include assisting local farmers with organic
certification fees, training for conversion of farmland
towards organics, or even purchase of farmland to be
reserved for environmental education and stewardship
training.
You
can join Sow The Seeds Fund as a non-member or current
member of the Wedge Co-op, and it's as simple as filling
out a form at the customer service counter during your
next visit. You will receive a newsletter from the Fund
and can then use the Fund's member number as your own at
the register. You are also able to make a tax-deductible
contribution to the fund on any visit to the Wedge, which
is reflected on your cash register receipt. Co-op
member-owners who use the Sow the Seeds member number will
not receive their usual member discounts or specials, and
will not be able to use quarterly discounts on these
purchases.
At
the end of the fiscal year, the Fund will receive a
patronage refund based upon the purchases of all its
members, and this is its primary and expected source of
yearly income. In time, it is hoped that other
co-operatives will offer membership numbers for the Sow
the Seeds Fund, too, beginning with the Twin Cities
Natural Food Co-ops (TCNFC), but with the potential to
expand and team up with co-ops throughout the entire upper
Midwest. The uses of the grant money could thus remain
relatively "local" and have a tangible impact on
the Midwestern farming community and local food economies.
Join
Today
The only way the fund will work is if people remember to
sign up and use the Sow the Seeds number for all purchases
at the register. It is so simple, so sane, and such a good
use of the cooperative business model, that truly it is
providing us a rare opportunity to see something
potentially beautiful grow out of nothing!
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