Bill Gessner Startup Food Co-op Award

Bill Gessner Startup Food Co-op Award

In honor of Bill Gessner, cooperative hero and primary creator of the Four Cornerstones in Three Stages Food Co-op Development model, the food co-op community is proud to make an annual award to recognize excellence in food co-op development.

The award winner will be chosen from applications submitted by startup food co-ops in Stage 2b (business planning and final feasibility) or Stage 3 (implementation after site commitment).

Criteria for selection include: 

  • effective use of the 4-in-3 model, 
  • strong community organizing and support, and 
  • realistic prospects of feasibility. 

The award will include an unrestricted grant of $2,000.

Application Deadline: Applications for the 2024 award are open! Deadline to apply is April 16th, 2024.

The winner will be publicly announced and celebrated at the CCMA conference on June 1st  and presented their award at the Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference September 12th-14th in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Bill Gessner inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame with Marilyn Scholl

CLICK HERE TO APPLY!

Congratulations to

Hudson Grocery Co-op

winner of the 2023

Bill Gessner Startup Food Co-op Award!

A special thanks to the Bill Gessner Memorial Committee and the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) for making this grant possible. CDF promotes self-help and mutual aid in community, economic and social development through cooperative enterprise. CDF administers a family of funds that provide grants to promote cooperative development and innovation. The foundation also engages in educational programming that both enables networking among cooperative development practitioners and raises awareness about cooperatives in the public policy arena. You can learn more about Bill Gessner and his deep and lasting impact on startup food co-ops here.

Previous winners:

2020 Assabet Co-op Market Maynard, Massachusetts
2021 Prairie Food Co-op Lombard, Illinois
2022 Detroit People’s Food Co-op Detroit, Michigan

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