2024 Mississippi Market Co-op Election

1. Why are you interested in running for this board?

The Market is very important to my neighborhood and I want it to continue and thrive.

2. Please describe your experience in one or more of these areas: board governance, long-term and strategic planning, leadership or supervisory experience, diversity and inclusivity, creativity and imaginative thinking, and financial experience.

I have served on the Mississippi Market board as well as the North Country Development Fund Board (now Shared Capital Cooperative) as member-director, secretary and treasurer. I was involved in the long-term and strategic planning for both the West 7 and East 7 Market locations, and I managed a four-person accounting department at Mississippi Market for 16 years. My prior experiences included public accounting senior staff and private company controllerships.

3. Please describe how you would contribute to the diversity, equity and inclusivity of the board.

I will support efforts to be DEI aware and competent as a Board and as individual directors, and I would support the Board’s efforts holding the GM responsible for a DEI supportive workplace, and I support setting metrics that measure both the Board’s and the GM’s effectiveness.

4. In your opinion, what is the role of the co-op in the community?

The Market is where we support our locally grown and sourced food products and vendors. The Market is a community meeting place. The Market employs a diverse staff from the neighborhood to the extent possible. And the Market is democratic – it is owned by members who live in the community, and is governed by a board of directors elected by the member / owners.

1. Why are you interested in running for this board?

I am interested in running for the Mississippi Market board of directors because I believe in the cooperative movement and would like to continue the work I’ve started as current Board President: updating our policies, streamlining our procedures, and lifting up and digging into DEI efforts. Care for people, food, and the environment drive my work – food cooperatives care for and nourish each of these passions. I love Mississippi Market’s atmosphere, product mix, commitment to social justice and support of the greater cooperative economy. I have spent my last four years on the board deeply learning how the co-op works and how crucial it is for a board to know how to support the operations team on behalf of the membership.

2. Please describe your experience in one or more of these areas: board governance, long-term and strategic planning, leadership or supervisory experience, diversity and inclusivity, creativity and imaginative thinking, and financial experience.

I have been serving on boards since I was in high school and involved in the cooperative movement since college. I am well versed on effective board governance: serving as the President for four years at the MN Association for Environmental Education and completing my third year as President of Mississippi Market. Additionally, I work with Columinate leading workshops on effective board service and consulting with cooperative boards of directors on governance, adult education, and cooperative leadership. At Mississippi Market, I have led the effort to update our policies to reflect our current ecosystem to allow the board to support our operations team into the future. I have led organizations through successful long-range and strategic planning efforts. While President of MN Assoc for Environmental Education, I led a strategic planning effort that incorporated lots of member feedback and input to develop an attainable vision. At Mississippi Market I serve on the strategy committee where we interface between operational strategic planning and board long-term visioning.

As Executive Director of the West Side Farmers Market I relied on my leadership skills and creative thinking to successfully run a safe and vibrant market in the depths of COVID lockdown working with vendors, market staff, volunteers, and customers to ensure success. I bring my experience as a leader and supervisor to my board work, whether interacting with other board members, or our one employee – the CEO.

3. Please describe how you would contribute to the diversity, equity and inclusivity of the board.

I have served on, and currently chair, Mississippi Market Board’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee and am continually educating myself about different cultures. I have championed efforts to increase the board’s cultural competency and to amend or discard policies that were unintentionally disproportionately impacting BIPOC board members. I also bring the perspective of a secular Jew, an often-invisible identity that has been subject to a sharp rise in hatred in recent years.

4.  In your opinion, what is the role of the co-op in the community? 

Concern for community is one of the seven cooperative principles, calling on co-ops to take a positive, active role in community. Co-ops and the cooperative economy are key to a just and thriving community. Co-ops have always served, unmet community needs: mutual aid societies in the Jim Crow Era; natural foods stores of the 60s-70s’, and new food co-ops bringing good food into areas impacted by food apartheid. Co-ops show a path to economic success that puts community well-being above individual enrichment and greed. Crucially, cooperatives are examples of functioning representational democracies. The co-op is more than a place to buy groceries, it’s a path to a more equitable society where all the people share the power and society is stronger.

1. Why are you interested in running for this board?

I never used to care where my food comes from. I’d shop at the closest, cheapest places. This sustained me and I’m thankful. Nowadays I have a bit more interest in giving this sort of thing my time. I’m learning how food is medicine and that civic engagement is a form of self-care. I love Saint Paul and I’m eager to get more engaged with community involvement. I’m really not a reader but I’m reading a book right now that puts it so well: “Making your voice heard and becoming engaged in your community are fundamental assertions of self-work and self-esteem. In a democratic society, this is how you say, ‘I have a voice and the right to use it, and my contributions and beliefs matter.’” – Democracy in Retrograde by Sami Sage and Emily Amick.

2. Please describe your experience in one or more of these areas: board governance, long-term and strategic planning, leadership or supervisory experience, diversity and inclusivity, creativity and imaginative thinking, and financial experience.

My time in undergrad, I served on a club executive board where I was introduced to “Robert’s Rules of Order” and WOW, stressed-out sorority student-athletes cramming for more study time in their college schedules sure know how to run an organized, efficient meeting while also pulling in dollars and coordinating logistics to multiple events. Honorably, I can say this governance insight is one of my experiences. Later, as a consultant who floated between non-profits, education spaces, and clients, I developed a knack for utilizing solution-oriented goal setting and discovered the magic of a “work-back timeline” (okay, maybe I was a late-bloomer on that tool, but I use it all the time, now!).

In professional settings, I bring financial experience from my time as a Ramsey County Tax Clerk throughout the pandemic years, and as a former certified MNsure Health Insurance Navigator, both demonstrating my ability to connect with stakeholders and community members on sensitive, often emotionally charged topics in our effort to identify next steps. Creativity and Imaginative thinking are part of my weekly practice as a grant writer, as I often must adjust storylines to specific funders while remaining true to both organization’s missions. Language is a tool for drawing connections between program goals and funder language and I think these skills will translate nicely to the Mississippi Market Board of Directors.

3. Please describe how you would contribute to the diversity, equity and inclusivity of the board.

Even within like-minded groups and/or groups with similar identities, there is a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. I believe my communication and collaboration skills from my experiences as a grant writer, my pragmatic inclination to contextualize issue starting points, and my desire to promote a culture of inclusivity, will contribute to the board’s efforts of fostering a supportive environment for all members (and prospective members!) alike.

4.  In your opinion, what is the role of the co-op in the community? 

A grocery co-op has the ability to bring people back in touch with their interconnectedness with other humans, in a time when the “town square” meeting place has vanished, grocery delivery services are increasing, and more and more community connections are taken online. A community grocery co-op has the important role of withstanding social deterioration while innovating the food economy so that access to healthy food continues. This, and co-ops educate the community on sustainable practices– at home and beyond.