by Kirsten Moore, Cooperative Services Director
Because of you, we are able to offer several charitable programs to the community: Double Dollars to support shoppers using SNAP; donations to five partner food pantries and grants to local nonprofits and cooperatives; and our Access Discount Program for Owners experiencing financial hardship. We also continue to maintain and update our COVID-19 practices and advocacy based on your feedback and support as well as what we learn as the pandemic continues. Thank you!
Holiday Double Dollars Fundraiser Meets Its Match!
Every holiday season for the past four years, your Co-op has held a matching campaign to support both Double Dollars and our five neighborhood food pantry partners. When you donated to Double Dollars at the registers, or when you reused bags to carry your groceries, we matched your cash donations 1:1 and matched the 10¢ we save for Double Dollars from bag reuse to give to the food pantries, up to $10,000. The match was made possible thanks to Owners who abandon or donate their equity to our Co-op to use for educational or charitable purposes.
I am pleased to report that by the end of the giving period in November and December, Co-op Owners met our match with $10,858.15 in cash donations and bags reused. Your generosity not only helps keep Double Dollars operating, but also allows for us to provide $2,000 in gift cards to each of our partner food pantries: Goodman Community Center Fritz Food Pantry, Lussier Community Education Center, Middleton Outreach Ministry, The River Food Pantry, and Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center. They will use the gift cards in the winter season to purchase items that are harder to come by through food donations and recovery. Thank you for your support!
Double Dollars Needs Your Support Now More Than Ever
Double Dollars is a nonprofit nutrition incentive program provided by a team of public and private partners to help those using FoodShare/QUEST purchase fresh or frozen fruits, vegetables and legumes; and seeds and seedlings for growing edible plants. Every Tuesday from October 20 through March 9, any shopper using their FoodShare/QUEST card to purchase groceries is eligible to receive up to $20 worth of Co-op Double Dollars vouchers per Tuesday. Last month, we reported that the increase in SNAP benefits participation county-wide has increased the demand for Double Dollars. Projections at the time of writing anticipate that we will end our Double Dollars season at the Co-op this year with a 33% increase in redemptions (an even larger increase than we anticipated in last month’s Reader). This, combined with the reduction of bag reuse due to COVID-19 means that the Co-op, which has fully funded the Co-op side of the program and a portion of the program at local farmers’ markets as well, is looking at a potential $30,000 deficit in funding for the Fiscal Year 2021 program. The Double Dollars partners (City of Madison, Dane County, Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, and the Co-op) are currently seeking grants and other private donations to fill the gap. Our goal at this time is to maintain the program throughout the scheduled season without altering the incentive match or duration of distribution and redemption at the Co-op. We do anticipate changes both to the maximum match and the season length for the next Double Dollars season starting October 2021.
If you are interested in the sustainability of the Double Dollars program throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, please continue to support Double Dollars through the Double Dollars fund! There are three ways you can contribute: by using one of the scan cards at the registers when you shop in store to add a cash donation to your receipt, by purchasing a Double Dollars donation on shop.willystreet.coop (you do not need to purchase other groceries or pay any online shopping fees to make a donation on its own), and by reusing bags when you shop the Co-op. A $5 cash donation is the equivalent of one Double Dollars voucher. Thank you to all of you who continue to support this important food security program.
Reusing Bags is Good For the Environment, Double Dollars, and Your Co-op!
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic we followed public health and Safer at Home orders to cease accepting reusable bags. Since then, the guidance has changed. Nick Heckman, Food Security Policy Analyst for Public Health Madison and Dane County (PHMDC) says “Retail spaces that have remained open during the pandemic have assumed risks associated with customers moving through the retail space and the frequent handling of items by staff, distribution teams, or other customers, however transmission from surfaces to individuals is not believed to be a primary driver of COVID-19 infection. Customer use of clean reusable bags is not likely to increase the chance of COVID-19 transmission above the risks that are already present in these environments. At this time, PHMDC does not recommend treating reusable bags differently than other items handled in grocery environments. Staff and customers in retail spaces remain encouraged to frequently wash hands and use hand sanitizer to support personal hygiene.” The U.S. Center for Disease Control agrees: “Currently, no cases of COVID-19 have been identified where infection was thought to have occurred by touching food, packaging or shopping bags.”
Since we started allowing reusable bags again at the stores in August, customers are reusing bags 75% less than they did pre-pandemic, though we see bag reuse increasing every week. We know it’s hard to build a habit and that once habits change it’s challenging to go back. When you reuse bags you make a huge difference: you support the environment by keeping paper and plastic bags out of circulation, and you support the Co-op’s ability to pay into the Double Dollars program, a program that is actually more cost effective than buying paper bags at $0.17 per bag. If you were committed to reusing bags before we encourage you to recommit now, or give it a try if you have never done it before.
Community Reinvestment Fund Grant Application Deadline February 28
On January 1 we posted the application for 2020 Community Reinvestment Fund grants and the deadline to apply is February 28. $25,000 is available this year for nonprofits and cooperatives serving the Greater Madison area doing projects that support food justice and/or access, sustainable agriculture, health and well being, social change, or creating or further developing co-operatively incorporated businesses. This funding comes from the same pool of funds we used for the Double Dollars match, and is made possible thanks to Owners who abandon or donate their equity to our Co-op to use for educational or charitable purposes. Grants are competitive, and in Fiscal Year 2020, the Co-op made awards to 12 organizations. In the last three years, the average award provided to each organization was $2,301. As it says on our website, we seek to fund “innovative, hands-on, educational, and entrepreneurial projects that impact a large group of people, reach out to underserved populations, create jobs or develop skills, foster social engagement, and offer opportunities for diversifying partnerships and collaboration.” For more information, to learn about past grants awarded, or find the application form, visit www.willystreet.coop/community/CRF.
Access Discount Renewals Due March 31
The Access Discount Program is an Owner benefit available to those with a financial need and offers a 10% discount on your purchases as well as a longer time period to pay any outstanding Owner equity ($4 per year for Individual Owners, $7 per year for Household Owners). When you enroll in the Access Discount Program, the benefit is activated through the calendar year. If you still have a financial need at the end of the year, you must renew by March 31 in order to continue receiving the benefit. Current Access Discount participants will receive reminders in mid-February, and those who have not renewed by mid-March will receive a second reminder. To protect the privacy of our Owners, we do not provide renewal reminders at the registers.
Applying for the Access Discount is easy at the Customer Service desk, and you do not need to bring any special information with you. Following completion of a simple form, you will sign that you agree to the terms of service. See sidebar to see if you may qualify. You may also qualify to receive the Access Discount if annual gross income within the last year has been at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty Guideline (FPG). FPG charts are available on the Access Discount form.
The Access Discount Program is supported by annual sales income. In FY2020 the Co-op distributed $316,637 in discounts via the program to 1240 Owners. That means 0.5% of our sales support just about 3.5% of active Owners. The best way to support the Access Discount Program is to shop the store. Thank you!
COVID-19 Vaccinations
Finally, the time of writing, the Co-op submitted formal comments to the Wisconsin State Disaster Medical Advisory Committee (SDMAC) Vaccine Distribution Subcommittee urging them to reconsider their initial proposal for inclusion in COVID-19 Vaccine Priority Group 1B. The draft proposal excluded grocery workers. We shared our formal comments with State, County, and local officials urging them to get involved and ensure that grocery workers be added to the list as per the recommendations of the CDC as well as their own definition of front line workers as indicated in Wisconsin Emergency Order 12: Safer at Home, when not only were grocery workers identified as essential, but also provided Tier 2 prioritization for childcare. “Our front line workers, our business, and our community deserve the extra security vaccinating our employees early will provide: protection for our staff to continue keeping the public fed, and added protection for our customers who may rely on shopping our business in person,” we said. “Our workers adapt to ever-changing recommendations and guidelines, bear the brunt of face covering scofflaws, and many of them take extra care to keep distance from friends and loved ones to keep them safe from the public exposure to COVID-19 workers face every day. Please consider including our workers in Tier 1B for vaccination as essential as your word that we are essential.” are pleased to report that the SDMAC has now included grocery workers in Tier 1B. Thank you to all of you out there who also provided comments to the Vaccine Distribution Subcommittee regarding this topic. We appreciate your supporting grocery workers and safer shopping throughout our state.