PCC Board of Trustees report, October 2011

This article was originally published in October 2011

Fall Member Meeting: “Every Day is Food Day at PCC”

Nash Huber

Nash Huber of Nash’s Organic Produce will join us to celebrate Food Day.

Tuesday, October 25, 5:30 p.m.
St. Demetrios Hall
2100 Boyer Ave. E., Seattle, WA

This month’s member meeting is especially exciting because of its association with the first annual Food Day celebration (more info at foodday.org). “The priorities of Food Day mesh so well with PCC’s goals, we were pleased to make it the program topic for this meeting,” notes board chair Carol Binder. “The board is in the midst of a multi-year study of our regional food system.

We are learning more and more about the importance of PCC’s product standards, the local vendor relationships our management staff have built over the years, and our support of local, sustainable farming.”

This will be a fun program where we will learn about the local vendors who grew and produced the ingredients of our dinner that evening. Nash Huber of Nash’s Organic Produce plans to be with us and we’ll be enjoying some of the amazing carrots he grows on the first farm saved from commercial development by PCC Farmland Trust in 1999. We’ll talk about the history of the trust and meet the newest trust farmers from the Hudson Bay Farm in Walla Walla.

We’ll also meet other local producers and distributors who bring you some of the great food we sell. You’ll have a chance to meet them during dinner, to thank them for their work, and to ask any questions you may have about their practices.

Board outreach

Talk to the Board events are important elements of the board’s ongoing member outreach efforts. Usually scheduled around high-traffic events in our stores, they are informal opportunities for our trustees to meet members, store staff and vendors.

Member Relations Committee chair, John Sheller notes, “PCC’s commitment to our members is one of the major differences between our co-op and for-profit stores. The board is elected by our membership, and we place a high value on interacting with members one-on-one in stores and at our member meetings.

Please watch for Talk to the Board events at your store, and do come out to the meetings. We want to hear your thoughts.”

Board report

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(l-r) Pure Eire Dairy farmer Richard Smith with board member Bruce Williams at last month’s Taste PCC event. Smith will be among the local producers you can meet at the October 25 member meeting.

The Nominating Committee was to lead a discussion of the process for selecting board candidates. The application deadline for the 2012 election is October 11 and a number of PCC members have applied including several incumbents. Interviews were scheduled to take place over the second and third weeks in October. The 2012 slate should be finalized by early November and will be published in December.

The board was to meet on September 27 (after our publication deadline) with an agenda that included consideration of work plans for this year’s four standing committees, Board Development, CEO Evaluation, Finance and Member Relations.

Next board meeting

The board will meet on November 29 at 5 p.m. at the co-op office. Member comment period begins at 7 p.m. Comments are limited to three minutes unless a longer presentation is approved by the chair prior to the meeting.

Also in this issue

Sweet on sugar

If bright white is the only sugar you’ve used for baking or sweetening your tea, you’re in for a treat. We have a range of sugars at PCC, from the sultry, caramel-like Muscovado, to the earthy, unrefined Sucanat, to glistening Turbinado.

Letters to the editor, October 2011

Sensitivities and allergies beyond wheat, Co-op standards, Hothouse produce, and more

Soil & Sea: reports from our producers

October reports about the apple and tree fruit industries, Northwest pears, Washington cranberries, lemons, Oregon's hazelnut crop, yellowfin tuna, Alaska's salmon catch and Governor Chris Gregoire's request to USDA.