Monday 3/24, 1p eastern, 12p central, 11a mountain, 10a pacific

Finding Feasibility for Your Co-op with JQ Hannah, Food Co-op Initiative

All businesses should build a detailed business plan and assess every aspect of it to make sure it can be financial successful, long before opening their doors. This process is called “feasibility.” For a grocery store business with narrow margins, feasibility testing your business plan is not just a “should”, it is essential! This session will be an overview of the four areas of feasibility that a startup food co-op business plan must meet, what they are, why they are critical, and what tools/support you’ll need to do the work of assessing them.

Monday 3/24, 3p eastern, 2p central, 1p mountain, 12p pacific

Shared Use Kitchens in Co-op Projects  with Chris Dilley of Food Co-op Initiative and Lucy Dilley of Can Do Kalamazoo

Shared use kitchens are an intriguing element to include in your co-op project, often because community partners have interest, and sometimes have money to offer to your project. In this session we will explore what types of shared use kitchen options there are, what it can mean to your operation to include one, and how to determine if it is a good fit for your project.

Monday 3/24 at 7p eastern, 6p central, 5p mountain, 4p pacific

Lessons From the First Two Years:  Navigating Startup Challenges  with Sam McCormick, Assabet Co-op Market

Opening a food co-op is an exciting but challenging journey, and the first two years of store operations are full of learning moments. In this session, I’ll share my experiences—from tackling financial and operational hurdles to building strong community engagement and governance. I’ll talk about what worked, what didn’t, and the unexpected lessons that reshaped our approach along the way. I hope these insights will support the planning and development of your co-op, helping you anticipate challenges and build a stronger foundation for long-term success. Let’s learn from each other and keep strengthening the cooperative movement!

Tuesday 3/25, 1p eastern, 12p central, 11a mountain, 10a pacific

The Other Side of Grants:  a panel discussion  with Dominic Breininger of Bethlehem Co-op Market; Grant Kessler of Chicago Market; Leslee Keri of Prairie Food Co-op, and Kim Frink of Suncoast Co-op Market

Grants have become a 100% necessary and siginficant piece of any startup food co-op’s “capital stack” when raising the funds to open a brick-and-mortar grocery store and startups. The good news is that startups are getting more and more successful at being award grants over the last five years! But being awarded the grants is just the beginning .  . . getting the actual funds into your co-op’s bank account so you can start building your store comes with more steps, often many more steps, that are important to be prepared for! In this session, FCI’s Faye Mack will be facilitating a panel of your peer startup organizers from co-ops that have won large grants and have experienced the “other side” of the grant process, accessing the funds. Come learn from their experience about these steps, and the potential pitfalls they encountered, so you are prepared for your co-op to succeed!

Tuesday 3/25, 3p eastern, 2p central, 1p mountain, 12p pacific

Getting the Store Open:  a Conversation with Chris Gilbert  with Chris Dilley of Food Co-op Initiative and Chris Gilbert of CTG Retail Services

One option for startups that have a location and are ready to move forward with the building of their store and business is to hire a project manager with the skills and experience to do both, and then hire a premanent general manager just before opening to take over on-going operations. Coming from a lifetime of working in the grocery industy, both as general manager of a co-op and more recently opening stores for some grocery chains, Chris Gilbert has begun to partner with startup food co-ops to provide store opening services. Join us for a candid conversation between Chris Gilber and FCI’s Chris Dilley about what we are learning about store opening, and what your co-op can do now to be ready for this step in your co-op’s journey.

Tuesday 3/25, 7p eastern, 6p central, 5p mountain, 4p pacific

Exploring the Multi-Stakeholder Model for Co-op Ownership:  Building Inclusive Co-ops through Ownership Models  with Allanah Hines, Independent Cooperative Consultant

The co-op model thrives on community ownership with open democracy and “one person, one vote,” empowering us to build businesses by and for the community. For startups, choosing the right stakeholder model early on shapes it’s branding, planning, and long-term vision. There are multiple ownership models for co-op businesses, but the challenges and benefits of the multi-stakeholder approach are often overlooked in favor of the consumer ownership model. This session explores the multi-stakeholder model using the successful food co-op, Weaver Street Market, as a case study. Allanah will share insights on the adoption of the model, impact of the model on both employees and the community, and the co-op’s governance. Whether you’re actively launching a startup food co-op or just curious about this model, you’ll gain practical insights into how it strengthens ownership and equity.

Wednesday 3/26, 1p eastern, 12p central, 11a mountain, 10a pacific

Effective Community Outreach:  Vision, Surveys & Engagement  with Karima Samadi, Columbus Public Health; Juliana Silveira, Neighborhood Design Center; Keryna Johnson, RISE Together Innovation Institute; Eric Hutchison

Building a food co-op that truly reflects and serves its community requires intentional engagement from the start. In this session, we’ll share how the Bronzeville Food Co-op built a strong foundation for its development by crafting a vsision and values stateent that shaped outreach strategies, guilded a highly successful community survey with over 950 responses, and positioned their website as a cenral engagement tool. Through insights from key contributors to their process – including community leaders, design experts, and public health professionals – the session will explore practical steps for creating inclusive outreach, designing an effectiv survey, and leveraing digital tools to build early trust and enthusiasm. Whether you’re about to launch your startup or you are refining your engagement strategies, you’ll leae with actionable tools and inspiration to strengthen community connections and drive buy-in for your co-op. The session will include a panel discussion, real-world examples, and a Q&A to address your co-op’s specific challenges.

Wednesday 3/26, 3p eastern, 2p central, 1p mountain, 12p pacific

Timelines:  Internal and External  with JQ Hannah, Food Co-op Initiative

When organizing your co-op, it is important that you, as the lead organizers, have a map of what you need to accomplish by when to get to the next stage of your co-op’s development; it’s also important there is a clear timeline to showing the co-op’s next big steps to inform and activate the co-op’s owners and broader community. Surely if you build a development timeline for your co-op with all the steps it will take to open you can use that same timeline to communicate what’s going on with your owners and community, right? Nope! Or, well kind of, but it’s complicated! Join us for this session to learn what the “internal” and “external” timelines are for a developing startup food co-op, what each needs to contain, what tools exist to help you build each, the different functions each serve, and how to utilize them both for your co-op’s success.

***NEW series offering! 

Thursday 3/27, 1p eastern, 12p central, 11a mountain, 10a pacific

Saviorism, NO! Cooperation, YES!:  Organizing For Self-Determination  a panel discussion on organizing with our communities lead by Darnell Adams of Firebrand Cooperative with panelists Erica “Zenzele” Hardison, One Community Food Co-op; amaha sellassie, Gem City Market; Tamah Yisrael, TMH Financial & Management Solutions

Join us for a dynamic panel discussion exploring the transformative shift from “doing for” to “walking with” in community organizing. This conversation will highlight the power of trust, collaboration, and centering community voices in cooperative efforts. Panelists will discuss the importance of moving from individual leadreship to collective leadership, challenging traditional approaches to organizing, and inviting attendees to rethink how they engage members/owners in their own cooperatives. They will share stories of successes and challenges in their organizing efforts, recognizing that communities create economies, while also combating systemic issues that hinder progress. Whether you’re part of a startup co-op, an established store, or a co-op that is thriving or struggling, this discussion will offer insights into building community-driven leadership that is critical to a sustainable and just cooperative movement.

Thursday 3/27, 3p eastern, 2p central, 1p mountain, 12p pacific

Radical Times, Radical Origins:  part one  with Patrice Lockert-Anthony, Black Soil Media

“Division” has become a mantra for our times. Startup food co-ops can defuse and redirect this negativity by redefining how democratic systems are created, function and are used to build sustainable communities within their own spheres. We can offer alternatives to current market, and other business practices, that instill belonging, equity (economic and justice-oriented), and relational transactions that will place a bulwark between that division and building a sustained, profitable future. To do this successfully, we must take a serious look at cooperation’s current challenges, our radical origins, and our vision for the future of food co-ops. This session will have three areas of focus:  Resist, Reset, and Restore. Resisting the status quo of business; Resetting mission and values; Restoring profitability and including “acting rightly” even while building community through the active pursuit of “Belonging and Purpose.”