Your co-op, October 2010

Fall member meeting

Please note : member meeting date change*

• Wednesday, October 27, 5:30 p.m.
  St. Demetrios Hall
  2100 Boyer Ave. E., Seattle

Join us for our fall member meeting; the program will be fun and informative. Using a lively “game show” format, we’ll talk about the purpose, scope, challenges and success-to-date of the fair trade movement. In addition to our fair trade vendor experts, game participants will include a panel of PCC staff who make purchasing decisions. The two panels will be able to inform about fair trade from the producer, vendor and retailer perspectives.

Directions are available online or by calling 206-547-1222. Free parking. Accessible by Metro Bus: http://metro.kingcounty.gov/.

RSVP by October 19 online.

* Due to a request by St. Demetrios Hall, we have changed the date of our fall member meeting to Wednesday, October 27. We will notify those who already have RSVP’d. If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact us at
board@pccmarkets.com
We apologize for any inconvenience and hope you’ll still be able to join us as we celebrate Fair Trade Month.

Edmonds PCC Salmon Safe Certified

PCC was the first Washington retailer to support Salmon-Safe certification of farms and wineries, and now we’re the first Washington retailer to earn this distinction — for our Edmonds store.

The Salmon Safe seal ensures that practices are in place to protect waterways and allow native salmon to spawn and thrive. At Edmonds PCC, we harvest rainwater from the roof for landscape irrigation and to flush toilets in the store, redirecting about 160,000 gallons of water away from the stormwater system.

Our rain gardens redirect an additional 1 million gallons of water from the parking lot. They collect and filter runoff through plants and soil amendments before letting it flow through the storm sewers to Puget Sound — much cleaner than it was in the parking lot! Storm drains have “witch hat” filters to catch debris. PCC also does not allow pesticides found harmful to salmon.

Public policy update

Here’s a brief update on PCC activities to help create a sustainable food environment:

• Joined a coalition opposing the FDA’s plan to allow production of genetically modified salmon.
• Signed on to a letter supporting USDA’s authority to write regulations defining violations of the Packers and Stockyards Administration.
• Submitted a letter to Canada’s Cohen Commission urging its investigation of the decline of salmon in the Fraser River to include analysis of the impact of neighboring fish farms.
• Submitted a letter to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife urging support for the Revised Puget Sound Rockfish Conservation Plan.
• Joined a coalition supporting legislation (HR 1549 and S. 619) to restrict antibiotics as a feed-additive for livestock.
• Signed a joint letter to U.S. senators re: the Food Safety Modernization Act, S. 510, urging amendments to improve food safety without unnecessarily handicapping small-scale food producers.

View these and other public policy statements in our Issues & Education section.

Board report

The board was scheduled to meet on September 28. At press time, it was expected that they would have follow-up discussions on the August retreat. The board also was to be updated on plans for the October 27 fall member meeting. We anticipate another well-attended meeting.

Work plans for this year’s four standing committees (Board Development, CEO Evaluation, Finance, and Member Relations) were scheduled to be discussed and approved.

The board also was to hear a strategic report from management summarizing 2009 community outreach projects.

The nominating committee was to discuss its work to date. Board applicant interviews are to be conducted in late October, with a 2011 candidate slate to be finalized by early November.

The agenda included reports from the trustees on recent outreach efforts. The majority of the trustees each spent time at the August and September Healthy Living Fairs, meeting members, shoppers and vendors.

Next board meeting

The board will meet November 30 at 5 p.m. at the co-op office. Member comment period begins at 7 p.m.

Upcoming Talk to the Board

All the trustees look forward to meeting you at the fall member meeting, Wednesday, October 27.