Exciting Change For Your Co-op!
Northside Food Co-op has always been about community empowerment, democratic business, and a permanent grocery solution for Wilmington’s Northside neighborhood. The co-op’s board is excited to propose a change: for the co-op to become a cooperatively managed non-profit!
This process is being carefully managed with the guidance of attorneys specializing in cooperative development.
Our primary objectives are to:
- Preserve our member-led structure and management
- Improve overall organizational stability
- Ensure legal compliance in refiling our organization
The transition is still a work in progress and we are committed to keeping members informed throughout the process.
And that starts now! Please participate in this transition by sharing questions, ideas, and thoughts. Member input will play a crucial role, and a collaborative approach will help ensure a smooth and positive transition that benefits everyone involved.
What can you do?
- Read FAQs
- Share your thoughts: growingresilienceilm@gmail.com
- Attend an info session: more details coming soon!
f.a.q.
You have questions. wE have answers.
This is a significant change, and you likely have questions! Here are some common ones we anticipate you might ask. If you have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
The co-op is becoming a membership non-profit!
Like a cooperative model, a membership non-profit is an organization that is governed by its members. BUT, a membership non-profit is able to accept funding that a co-op cannot.
The short answer: to be able to access over $6,000,000 in grant funding from the Endowment, and facilitate smoother access to charitable funds in the future.
The detailed answer: Northside Food Co-op was presented with an amazing opportunity in early 2024 when the New Hanover County Endowment awarded over $6M to fund our project. One of the stipulations of endowment funding is that the money cannot go to for-profit organizations (Northside Food Co-op currently is for-profit).
After significant consideration, the NFC board believes that a non-profit transition is in the best interests of the Northside Food Co-op project. After working with attorneys who are experts in cooperative and non-profit law, the leadership team has developed an organizational model that preserves the community control and membership experience of the co-op within a structure that can accept funds from a variety of sources to help ensure the financial viability of our store.
More details: The organization’s legal name will be Growing Resilience DBA (doing business as) Northside Food Co-op.
This reflects a merger of the existing associated non-profit, Growing Resilience, (developed in 2021 to support the community-focused mission of the co-op), and the Northside Food Co-op, as advised by legal experts.
The organization will still be democratically run, with similar member rights.
Unless requested, all existing memberships with the co-op will transfer to the new organization. The new organization will continue to grow the membership from folks in the community.
Yes! Member control of the organization remains. Members will still have voting rights and input into major decisions. The organization will continue to use a democratic process for member voting, which can be done through paper ballots, electronic ballots, or both, as determined by the Board. This ensures that members maintain their voice in important organizational matters.
Patronage dividends are a form of profit-sharing in co-ops, where some of the profit is shared with owners based on how much business (patronage) they do with the organization. In a consumer co-op, the business/patronage is measured in shopping dollars. Because, as a non-profit, members do not own the business, this will not be an option. However, the store will be able to offer rebates to member-shoppers as profitability allows.
- No, this change will not affect the store’s appearance. It will continue to look like a typical grocery store. Additionally, members will still have the opportunity to provide input on the store’s design.
- We’ll likely continue to publicly refer to the organization as Northside Food Co-op, although ultimately the name of the grocery store might end up with a different name altogether.
No, all are still welcome to shop at the store! Regardless of income level, this grocery store is designed for everyone in the community. We believe that all neighbors deserve access to affordable, fresh foods.
The members still control the organization and have final say on the business. We do have agreements in place with the County and the Endowment and we will need to abide by them to continue to benefit from those agreements (e.g. receiving funds, leasing the building)