By Amanda Knox

Last we heard from them http://www.westseattleherald.com/2014/02/28/features/delridge-sustainin…, Delridge Co-op, the grassroots grocery mission for the Delridge corridor, was hosting music events at Skylark Café in order to inform the local public of their activity and attract potential members. Now, almost a year later, the Co-op is so close to finally opening it hurts. The board members, however committed, are weary. “They’ve been at it so long and it’s been completely volunteer,” explains Ranette Iding, a member of the board.

They’ve had some set backs—six years of them in fact, where it usually takes a new co-op only three years to come together. A big part of that delay had to do with the fact that for the first three years, the board had proceeded with a mind towards a different business model: a produce stand instead of a grocery store. Then the acting president of the board, Galena White, moved away to be closer to family. Most recently, a mailer wasn’t sent out as scheduled, so it was only by mid-January that the community received word that Delridge Co-op was soliciting a membership count of at least 300 by December 31st. “We’ve had some bad luck,” says Iding. But these greater and lesser setbacks have also taught the board a great deal towards constructing an ultimately successful business.

They’ve also made a lot of progress. Despite the late arrival of the mailer, they met their goal of 300+ members by the end of this year. They have secured a location below Cottage Grove Commons off Delridge Way, as well as the moral and financial support of their landlords, the DESC. They’ve updated their business model from produce stand to grocery store, which they hope will be more useful and profitable to the community. In addition to that, they’re also determined to be a multi-stakeholder company, extending ownership and management of the company to all interested parties. “It’s the idea that not just the consumers own the co-op and have a voting arm and it recognizes their needs and their wants, but the producers, like the farmers and small item producers, can also option to be owners of the co-op, as well as the workers,” Iding explains. The board hopes this will guarantee fair prices for consumers as well as fair wages for workers and farmers providing the store’s service and product.

The grocery store is yet to be built, but the construction is expected to take only three months to complete and can begin as soon as the co-op can scrape up another $25,000. They hope to receive this investment through member loans. The timing of this campaign, immediately post the holiday season, isn’t ideal, but the board is confident that existing members will step up to support this latest financial push, especially when they understand what it’s all going to. “One of the questions we get from the community is, ‘Why do we need so much money?’ The main reason is industry standards. We’ve researched what we need, but on top of that, it’s money to keep our business solvent without necessarily expecting a profit for a period of time,” Iding explains.

Despite their bad luck, Delridge Co-op has had the good fortune to rely on the talent and passion of its community members, who for six years have volunteered their time and talents to the fresh food mission. The board also knows that there’s even more talent out there in the community, and they are working to better communicate and reach out to the resources that are hidden in plain sight across the corridor. Even when the ball hasn’t bounced the way they planned, Delridge Co-op has somehow survived. “We know what we’re doing,” Iding explains. “We just need to keep trudging along.”