Recent Update

HUGE Membership Drive During the Month of January

We want to make January 2010 our biggest membership month ever and secure the additional loans needed to open the store!  This is the end of our BIG PUSH to OPEN in 2010!

Why?

If we are able to recruit more owner-members and raise more member loans in January, we will be able to open the store in 2010.  We are currently scheduled to sign two documents on Feb. 1st, 2010.: Our lease and our primary loan.  When these are official, we can begin our renovations.  We cannot sign these documents until we are closer to our goals for membership and the member loan campaign.  There will be a delay if the membership drive in January does not elicit enough membership growth.

How?

1. Encouraging members to do everything they can during this month to ask others to join.  Word of mouth has been our most successful means of recruiting co-operative owners!
2. Holding an all-day drive on Tuesday January 26:

A Bowl of Good Café – 7 a.m.-10 a.m.

Hardesty Higgins House – 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Artful Dodger – 5 p.m.-7 p.m.

Come on out and get involved with the Friendly City Food Co-op.

 

Now Hiring - General Manager and Outreach Coordinator. Job description below.

GENERAL MANAGER

The Friendly City Food Co-op has a downtown storefront, a lease and over six hundred committed members. We just need YOU to bring the store to life.  This is an exciting chance for someone with great energy and the right experience to build a cooperative grocery store from the ground up.

Never heard of the Friendly City?  Harrisonburg, Virginia is located in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, surrounded by scenic and productive farmland, close to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Skyline Drive, and two hours from a major metropolitan area.  It's home to two universities, some of the most diverse public schools in the state, a successful downtown revitalization movement, and a thriving farmers' market.

The general manager joins a fun and dedicated team that has been working with FoodCoop500 and CDS to make the venture as successful as possible.  The GM is responsible for hiring and supervising staff, and for all aspects of operation of the 6000 sq.-ft. store.

A successful candidate will possess industry and product knowledge, merchandising abilities, and have strong leadership and financial skills.  Experience with project management, new businesses or expansions would be very useful.  This position is a great fit for someone with experience and passion for connecting consumers with local and regional producers.

FCFC offers a competitive salary and benefits. Submit cover letter, resume, references, and salary requirements to Ben Sandel, President, Friendly City Food Co-op at ben@friendlycityfoodcoop.com

More info about FCFC at friendlycityfoodcoop.com.

 

OUTREACH COORDINATOR

Seeking a passionate, self-motivated individual to coordinate events, manage our database, write newsletters, call prospective members and more! Contact Ben Sandel at ben@friendlycityfoodcoop.com with a cover letter and resume or for more details.

 

FCFC Announces SITE LOCATION and PRIMARY FINANCING

The Board of the Friendly City Food Cooperative is pleased to announce that the co-op has secured its first-position financing of $484, 600. This loan is at a competitive interest rate and with favorable terms that will save the cooperative a great deal of money over the long term. This loan is contingent upon continued progress in meeting other goals, including membership growth and our member loan campaign.

The second piece of great news is that we are finally able to publicly announce our site location: 150 E. Wolfe Street – corner of Wolfe and Mason, in the former Mick-or-Mack grocery store, between the U.S. post office and Dollar General. This location has excellent parking and a strong clientele synergy with surrounding businesses, churches and residences. Our lease negotiations have progressed sufficiently that we felt it was important to share this information with our owner members and the community at large. The lease terms are excellent from a business point of view. However, the lease will likely carry a significant contingency: while we intend to lease 6100sf of a 10,100sf space, the landlord is insisting that the additional 4000sf also be leased at the same time. This means we cannot go to closing without another tenant in that space. We encourage all members to get the word out that there is a very marketable 4000sf storefront available right next to an amazing new co-op grocery store!

If you have not joined, now is the time! We have passed the
$200,000 mark for the member loan campaign. But we need your support. Please consider making a loan to the co-op, increasing your loan size, or putting us in touch with that person or family in the community who might make a $5,000 or 50,000 loan to the
food co-op to help us reach our goal of $600,000.

 

FCFC Brochure:

Click here to view our new brochure.