A representative from the Food Coop 500 will be in town in early March to lead a business planning workshop. The Food Co-op 500 Program is a support system that seeks to enable a faster and more efficient start-up process to develop new retail grocery co-ops. These heavy hitters are getting behind our effort here in New Orleans.

The Board and other participants will spend a weekend working with Bill Gessner, a nationally recognized expert who has assisted many communities around the country realize their vision of having a food co-op, to plan out the next steps in our development. Our work with Bill is sponsored in part by Food Co-op 500, a collaboration of the National Cooperative Bank (NCB), NCB Capital Impact, Cooperative Development Services, and the National Cooperative Grocers Association. The Food Co-op 500 Program is a support system that seeks to enable a faster and more efficient start-up process to develop new retail grocery co-ops. For more information, see www.foodcoop500.coop. These heavy hitters are getting behind our effort here in New Orleans. Bill will give us an overview of the Food Coop 500 model for co-op development, and at the end of the weekend, we will have a time line and a uses and sources budget detailing what it is going to take to open our cooperative grocery at St. Claude and St. Roch.

We want to have about a dozen people from our group work with Bill. Amanda Anderson, the Board’s president, John Calhoun, the vice president, Budd Hirons, the secretary, Erin Laine, who has served on the Board and coordinated the Buying Club, and Anne Sobol, the treasurer, will be involved, but we need more people who are interested in learning about the Food Coop 500 model and in crunching numbers specific to our effort here in New Orleans.

The weekend will be March 8-9. We will spend about six hours Saturday and six hours Sunday on our work. If this is your cup of tea and you can commit all or most of this block of time. If you would like to participate in one or both of the two 6-hour business planning sessions, please send and email to info@nolafoodcoop.org to get included on the e-vite. Please note that this kind of meeting and work is not for everyone, but if you are capable, and are willing to dive into this project, our co-op needs your help.

The business planning weekend builds on the work of the market study we are having done at the end of this month. Among other things, the market study will tell us what kind of revenue we can expect from our store at St. Claude and St. Roch. The market study will compare the demographics of our market area with the demographics of existing food co-ops to determine likely annual dollar sales per square foot of retail space. After the weekend with Bill Gessner, we will move on to preparation of financial pro forma necessary for a full-blown business plan that will be refined enough to present to any accountant or bank.

Again, if you would like to participate in one or both of the two 6-hour business planning sessions on March 8th and 9th, please send an email to info@nolafoodcoop.org to get included on the e-vite or give John a call at 914-6936