Carols for the Feastin' Season!

Here are three Coop Carols to sing this Feastin' Season! --Tis the Season for the Feastin', the Autumn Carol, and the Get Ready for Winter Song.

TIS THE SEASON FOR THE FEASTIN'

Sing to the tune Deck the Halls

(1) Tis the season for the feastin',
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!
Taste nutrition can't be beaten,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!
Nurturing the land and people,
Farm and city joining hands.
Tis the season for the feastin',
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!

(2) Care for people and creation,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!
Hope throughout the bio-region,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!
From our farms onto our tables,
we will bless the way we eat!
Care for people and creation,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!

(3) Healing nature with earth's beauty,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!
Wisdom, joy fulfilling duty,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!
Eating with the changing seasons,
Chasing the CAFOs from our land!
Healing nature with earth's beauty,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!

(4) Social justice, sustainability,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!
Economic viability,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!
These our values, govern always,
They will take us forward far!
Three in number the core values,
Oklahoma Foods are good to eat!

The Autumn Carol

Tune: O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)

(1) O Autumn season, golden bright!

We hail the harvest welcome sight!

The air is crisp, the moon shines long,

It's time to raise our voice in song

The squash and pumpkins, taters sweet,

Peppers, greens, and nuts we greet.

O autumn season, golden bright!

We hail the harvest welcome sight!

(2) The heat of summer is now past,

We wait the time of winter's blast.

The children are in school today,

The farmers work to reap the hay.

Peach preserves and apple butter,

Set our hearts to be aflutter.

O autumn season, golden bright!

We hail the harvest welcome sight!

(3) There is no kinder time of year,

Than Autumn bright without a fear,

The peaceful times upon the land,

Bring hope and health, a time so grand.

So raise a glass of Autumn cheer,

A cider strong, a mug of beer.

O autumn season, golden bright!

We hail the harvest welcome sight!

The Get Ready for Winter Song

Tune: "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". . .

OH! We better not wait, it's time to make plans,

Compost, mulch, put away the fans,

Winter time is coming to town!

Squash and turnips and carrot plants,

Season extension for the cabbage transplants,

Winter time is coming to town!

Let's insulate the attic!

Insulate the floors!

Insulate the walls so deep,

and don't forget the doors!

So! Make your list, and check it twice,

Solarize, weatherize, don't roll the dice,

Winter time is coming to town!

Sweat Equity and Local Food Systems

Since its beginning, the Oklahoma Food Cooperative has been a triumph of sweat equity.  At one point a couple of years ago, I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation regarding the value of the sweat equity to the coop -- that is to say, what would it cost the coop to pay market wages for the labor (including management) donated to the coop.  At the time, that figure was in excess of $200,000.  To put this in perspective, customer and producer fees, presently set at 10% for customers and 10% for producers, would have to increase to about 18% each to replace sweat equity with paid staff.  The coop would then be operating on a margin of 36%, which is typical of regular grocery coops.

The sweat equity investments of our members made our success possible to date.

The growth pattern over the last seven years or so has been characterized by periods of rapid growth, followed by plateaus.  The longest plateau was the most recent, lasting for all of 2009, which saw an increase in producer sales of 7% over 2008, our lowest growth rate to date.  But in 2010, we are moving into another major growth spurt.  Producer sales for the first quarter were up 18% over the first quarter of 2009, and May 2010 was up 25% over May 2009. 

Once again, our management team is running to keep up.

Without the help of the membership, it will be hard for the coop management to keep up with the growth.  I would not be surprised if my the end of the year we are doing $100,000 in monthly producer sales, which will mean that we will finally cross the one million in annual sales goal post sometime in the upcoming year or so. 

If we are going to keep the sweat equity model, then there must be a renewed commitment of the membership to sweat equity.  While we don't have a volunteer requirement per se, we have a culture of volunteerism.  As a cooperative, all members are responsible for the success of the cooperative, and thus even though I am no longer on the management team, I want to send out this call to encourage members to contact our management team at gom@oklahomafood.coop and see what you can do to help.

Right now our existing volunteers are stretched to the limit.  Every month we are expecting more from the same group of people.  That is not sustainable, nor is it economically viable.  I am not asking anyone to quit their day job to help with the coop, but I am asking everyone to make a renewed commitment to the sweat equity model that has made us so successful.

• Show up early, or stay late, to help set-up your pick-up site or take it down afterwards.  Email your site manager before the delivery day to let him or her know you are available to help.
• Consider volunteering for a back office job, by contacting gom@oklahomafood.coop .
• Once or twice a year, take a vacation day and volunteer for delivery day.  Come early and stay late.
• Serve on a coop committee.
• Tip the volunteers by donating a dollar or two to the Volunteer Appreciation fund that feeds our delivery day volunteers.

Yes its work, and that includes some manual labor, but it is important work, it is necessary work, and the rewards of satisfaction are great.  You'll know that you are doing your part to make sure the cooperative becomes sustainable and economically viable, and that is a gift you can send to future generations that will follow us whose cost cannot be counted.

Welcome to my new blog.

At today's Board meeting, my resignation as President of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative was accepted, and a new president (Dawn Mahiya, member of the board, and presently also served as our Membership chair) was elected.

So what's the first thing I did? Well, I ate supper. Then I listened to the Te Deum on You Tube -- from Notre Dame Cathedral. And then I decided to start this blog. One of the comments at the board meeting was that some members didn't want to lose access to my various commentaries on local food issues and especially the recipes (and yes, post two will be a recipe -- Home-made Cheesey Poofs -- I kid you not. I made them and they are delicious.

So, even though I have several blogs, where I post more or less frequently as I have time, inclination, and something to say, I figured, "Why not one more blog?" None of my blogs have the specific focus of this one -- which will be on the politics of food, the local food coop movement, and the practicalities of the local food pantry. (With some occasional music, lol.)

I call it "Bobaganda" because that's what it is. I don't think I coined the term, someone else in the coop used it to describe my emails to the membership of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative and I picked it up as a good short-hand description of my writing on these subjects.

The topic of local foods is of course of endless fascination to me, and a growing number of other folks. When we started the Oklahoma Food Coop, we said, "Local foods are the next big thing." And that has come to pass. Now, everybody is talking about local foods. And the push back is starting. We're watching several regulatory challenges, one at least of which has the potential to destroy the burgeoning market for local meats, about which more will be said probably tomorrow. The price of local food is eternal vigilence, among other things, and I think we can't be passive about that. The big guys see the handwriting on the wall, and they know the easiest way to deal with us is through the regulatory system. It's up to all of us to defend our rights to produce and eat local foods (and to use locally produced non-food items).

When I was president, a certain reticence was required by my position. I know it's almost humorous to say the words "reticence" and "Bob Waldrop" in the same sentence, I don't feel that kind of restriction now, and with this blog I can freely comment on issues both within and ourside of the cooperative as time passes.

The Oklahoma Food Cooperative is in a very interesting time of transition, and I'm not just speaking of the transition from one president to another. In most cooperatives, there is a fairly strict line between management and the board of directors. Management is in charge of operations, and the board is in charge of governance. Yet, from the beginning, management and the board have largely been the same group of people. It is actually modeled on the typical method of operation of non-profit organizations, where an active board determines and executes policies. I think that model served us well in the beginning. It was probably the only way to get started, being as how we started small, and without any paid staff. We simply transitioned, by and large, the governance structure of the original Committee to Organize an Oklahoma Food Cooperative, into the actual Oklahoma Food Cooperative.

What I see happening now is a division of labor in the leadership. One of the tedious things about board meetings has been how much time we spent debating operations issues, even after we started a separate operations meeting. Over time, I expect the board will concentrate more on governance -- goals and means and boundaries and reviews -- and much less on operations, assuming our management team continues to step up to the plate and do what is required (and I have every confidence that that will happen). The coop will benefit from that division of labor, and as the Oklahoma Food Cooperative develops better systems of management and governance, we will do a better job of our core mission of growing a food system that is socially just, environmentally sustainable, and economically viable.

Expect to read more about this going forward, and feel free to post comments here at the blog about your views on developments in the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. Transparency is very important for the health of our organization.

Y'all bon apetit, you hear!