UP & Coming Awards

Hiring and onboarding a General Manager is one of the most important tasks a start-up co-op Board will ever do. In this Session, Siobain will share the many different ways that Assabet Co-op Market prepared to hire and onboard its GM, how that hiring and onboarding actually unfolded, and what lessons we learned in the process. This interactive session is designed to not only share Assabet’s story, but also to give you concrete tools and advice to help you prepare for your own GM Transition

Communities with low food access do it differently. This superstar panel of food co-op organizers share their experiences organizing co-ops in areas where fresh foods are scarce. Join us for an inspiring, enlightening conversation about what’s resonating, and how to learn from the experience of folks in the trenches!

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 by crafting a vision and values statement that shaped outreach strategies, guided a highly successful community survey with over 950 responses, and positioned a website, tabling events, social media, and newsletter as central engagement tools.

Through insights from key contributors – including community leaders, design experts, and public health professionals – we’ll explore practical steps for creating inclusive outreach, designing an effective survey, and leveraging digital tools to build early trust and enthusiasm. Whether you’re launching a co-op or refining your engagement strategies, you’ll leave with actionable tools and inspiration to strengthen community connections and drive buy-in for your project. The session will include a panel discussion, real-world examples, and a Q&A to address your co-op’s specific challenges.

The co-op is incorporated, you’ve got your leadership team together, you feel like you are doing all the right things – but where are the owners? Join us for a peer panel on a common startup food co-op struggle:  lack of ownership growth. Skipping building an ownership base can lead to disastrous outcomes later in a co-op’s development, but sometimes it feels like the hardest part in the earlier stages of startup development. There will be three startups on this panel, designed and facilitated by Dr. Angela Sayels, sharing their stories. Each will offer the chance to learn from their co-op’s story of lack of ownership growth in their early stages, all the things they tried that didn’t work, what eventually turned around their “ownership momentum” to get them to the ownership success they are having today, and what advice they would offer their fellow startups. Each startup’s struggle ended up rooted in different issues, and each of their solutions that  turn it all around have different flavors, which will give you a broad view of what could be going on and what might work at your co-op to get that missing ownership growth momentum!

When organizing a new co-op grocery, we are walking with our communities – developing our vision for the co-op with them, engaging them in every step of the development process, and showing them how their fledgling co-op is manifesting their values – is a hallmark of startup food co-ops that successfully get to the opening day for their dreamed-of store.  Historically, though, during the actual opening of the retail business, there starts a transition into doing for our community – staff/board making all the decisions, not engaging owners in the co-op’s work, not manifesting the owners values on and within the walls of the store in visible, accountable ways –  that then results in a weakening of the co-op’s vital connection to its base. This has very real and tangible impacts not only on the co-op community, but the co-op’s success as a business. So how can we better ride the wave of walking with our owners and community through the opening of our stores. instead of letting it come crashing down?  Cooperators from the Detroit People’s Food Co-op, the Gem City Market, and Green Top Grocery will explore lessons learned from the real experiences of their startup food co-ops. We’ll hear about how well they were able to maintain (or bring back) that with energy to their co-op after opening, the impacts of it, and gather their insights about how to continue the co-creative, owner-engaged culture past store opening.

The goal for this workshop is that you leave with a better understanding of the many types of funding you might include in your co-op’s funding plan. Organizing, building, and opening a new food co-op grocery store takes a lot of financial resources. While all startup food co-op organizers are generally aware of this from the start, figuring out where to get it all is a major challenge. Funding to get the doors open might come from a number of sources and each can have very different impacts on your co-op’s financial feasibility and long-term sustainability. During this session we’ll talk about equity, grants, preferred shares, loans from your co-op’s owners, institutional loans, landlord financing, local government support and new market tax credits. We’ll talk about the long-term financial impacts of each type of funding and scratch the surface on how to pursue sources.

For those of you who missed this exciting session last year, we’re doing it again!  When you are ready to search for a site, how do you get started? What do you need to know about securing a site with a lease or purchase agreement?  Who should be on the team? How will you know if it’s the right site?  So many questions during this exciting phase!  

We’ll walk through real estate and site search basics, and build an understanding of how to look at a site as a customer, an operator, and a budget-conscious builder.  Finally, we’ll workshop a site to practice evaluating and negotiating to improve site access, visibility, and parking.

Developing and communicating your co-ops vision in a way that balances big aspirations to solve community problems with the realities of running a sustainable grocery business. This session will guide you through how to gradually hone in on a vision and business concept that engage and inspire your community while being informed by sales potential and operational realities.

If your co-op is in Stage 2 or 3 development, you may not feel like Stage 4 is right around the corner, but trust Chris Gilbert, experienced food co-op general manager and project manager who has lead multiple startups through the building and opening work of stage 4 – the decisions your board has to make in these earlier stages can either smooth the path to opening or complicate it when the pressure’s highest. In this session, Chris will walk attendees through the key stage 2 – 3 choices that have the biggest impact on your co-op once the construction starts. This session will look at decisions startup boards often have to make long before a GM or PM is hired and how those choices will either support or strain your co-op’s ability to get open and stay open.

Not every capital campaign meets its goal—but that doesn’t mean you haven’t made meaningful progress. Every dollar raised reflects trust, and every “no” is a step toward deeper clarity and connection. This session explores how co-ops can move forward when the numbers fall short—by celebrating what has been accomplished, evaluating next steps with transparency, and strengthening relationships with member-owners along the way. Through real-life examples and lived experience, you’ll learn how to navigate funding gaps with resilience.

Emerging leaders share what they’ve learned about leadership while organizing food co-ops in their communities. What do they wish they had understood before they started? What challenges have shaped their approach? Hear how they’ve managed the ups and downs of organizing—turning setbacks into lessons, and small victories into momentum for lasting change. Join us for candid stories, practical insights, and inspiration from those navigating the rewards and realities of cooperative leadership—and leave with ideas you can take back to your own community.

Farm Stops are streamlined retail experiences that prioritize locally grown and produced items, and prioritize the grower, often through a consignment system. Join seasoned Farm Stop manager, Laura Matney, and Farm Stop trainer, Casey Miller, of Argus Farm Stop in Ann Arbor, MI, for a look at the farm stop model. Joining them will be peer co-op organizers from Kennett Community Grocery (Kennett Square, PA) to share their recent experience working toward opening their co-op as a Farm Stop.

In this interactive session, we’ll look at best practices to help build functional working boards that don’t do it all. We’ll focus on developing committees that get their jobs done, and how to engage and empower volunteers to provide value and share the load. We’ll hear from the group and work together to workshop some solutions in real-time!

Vision is one of the big four areas of the Food Co-op Development Framework, and it’s at the very top of that big four in the “Framework” graphic for a reason – because it drives every other part of developing your food co-op and must blaze bright and clear to activate your community and open a successful food co-op!

In this session, we’ll start with what the Vision is in food co-op development and its role, but will quickly then dive into how you actively engage your community and owners with the Vision and use it as a tool to drive engagement. Practical techniques for engaging your community in creating the Vision as well as tools to keep your co-op’s Vision a living, evolving, dynamic force in your co-op organizing will be shared and you will walk away with both core knowledge around this piece of the Framework as well as hands-on ideas for connecting your owners to the Vision at every stage of development.

Strong owner engagement isn’t just a byproduct of a successful co-op—it’s the foundation. Whether you’re in the early planning stages or growing your established co-op, understanding how your owners think, feel, and act is critical to building a thriving, resilient community.

This session will introduce a user research approach to co-op development, showing how listening deeply to owners—through surveys, interviews, observation, and data—can shape smarter decisions, stronger participation, and lasting trust.

The session will start with fundamentals like:  what is owner engagement, and why it matters at every stage of a co-op’s life cycle; what traditional tools have startup co-ops used to foster engagement; and the common gaps and missed opportunities. The session will then take a dive into practical, modern strategies your startup co-op can start using right away like:  how to apply user research principles to understand owner needs; how to design better surveys and interviews for real insights; how to use simple data tools to surface patterns and pain points; and how to turn your research into deeper engagement. If you are new to all of these concepts, don’t be intimidated – this session will be at an accessible level for those new to using data for engagement!

Whether you’re trying to recruit your first 100 owners or re-energize an existing base, this session will equip you with a toolkit for co-creating your co-op with your community, not just for them.

Does your co-op have an intentionally stated culture that your organizing team is actively working to build?  If not, you are not alone!  If we are not deliberately building the culture we dream of as we organize, the default mainstream culture starts kicking in, taking over, and kicking our @$$es!  Come explore how to define, understand, and build a thriving organizational culture at your co-op.

The moment someone becomes a member-owner is full of energy—but too often, that excitement fades without meaningful next steps. This session offers a roadmap for the critical first 100 days after someone joins your co-op. We’ll explore how to design intentional, welcoming experiences that deepen connection, build engagement, and inspire continued participation—whether your new member-owner wants to volunteer, share their story, or simply feel part of something bigger. You’ll leave with tools to create an onboarding journey that turns signups into lasting relationships.

This session will explore how food co-op boards and General Managers can foster a productive, trusting relationship that balances GM autonomy with board accountability. Drawing on real-world examples and start-up insights, we’ll cover practical tools for defining roles, setting realistic reporting expectations, and supporting the GM’s strengths while addressing operational gaps. The goal is for attendees to leave with ideas and approaches they can adapt to build a collaborative partnership—one that keeps the co-op mission-driven, financially sound, and connected to the community, even in the challenging start-up phase.

A clear business concept can build alignment amongst the team, attract talent and potential resources, and strengthen your organization’s community appeal. In this session participants will explore the role of the “business concept” as a key element of the co-op startup framework. Participants will discuss the definition of the startup co-op business concept, how it may be different from a business plan, and why it is important. Join us as we break down what it is, how to use it, and how to develop or articulate yours!

The Food Co-op Development Framework received an update last year with the addition of a new stage to the development journey. Based on reviews of start-up co-op experiences and early performance post-opening, recognition emerged that the collective lift to bring a new food co-op grocery store to life extends far beyond opening day.  From the experiences of actual startups that lived the post-open experience and experts that have supported dozens of startups through it, it became clear that there was a need to name this unique and critical stage of a startup’s journey so both startups and their support partners can be prepared to successfully move through it.  This session will examine “Stage 5”, what it is, what work needs to be done during this part of the startup food co-op journey, as well as share some true startup experiences from this stage.

In Stage 2 the goal is to find a viable business concept that is rooted in your core values, and realizes your purpose through a viable and sustainable business model. We will cover all four areas of feasibility: community, market, site and financial, so you can take stock of your path and know what’s next.

Food Co-ops can be more than grocery stores – they can be spaces of collective power. In this 65 minute workshop; we’ll dig into how co-ops often replicate harm, practice redistributing resources with justice, and leave with one concrete action to grow liberation in our own communities. Come ready to plant the seeds of change.

The legacy of food and agricultural cooperation among people of the global majority throughout U.S. history is often overlooked. From mutual aid networks and land trusts to farming cooperatives and community-owned grocery stores, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and immigrant communities have long used cooperative strategies to reclaim food sovereignty, resist economic exclusion, and build collective resilience.

This session will trace this deep-rooted history beyond the modern food co-op movement, highlighting examples of agricultural cooperatives, community kitchens, and mutual aid food systems shaped by the lived experience and leadership of marginalized communities. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the power of cooperation as a tool for liberation, survival, and inspiration to carry this work forward.