This information was posted on our website for a few months after the Cambridge Food Co-op finished the last leg of the Main Street Grant. Text is from the Late Fall 2021 Newsletter.
View slideshow by clicking on the arrows above to the right and left.
When the Cambridge Food Co-op, Inc. bought its current building nearly eight years ago, the Board and members knew that we would have to put a little love, sweat, and money into fixing up the historic structure. In the ensuing years, we chipped away at the foreseen (and some unforeseen) tasks a little at a time. A critical loan from the Community Loan Fund of Albany, a New York State grant, and the willingness of members to lend support both physically and financially allowed the Co-op to make many updates to the building (see timeline on pages 6 and 7)!
This last leg of renovations – flooring and painting – in late summer 2021, put an end cap on the planning and work that was started when the Co-op purchased the building in 2014. While, by no means, will this be the end of the structure's maintenance, we all can finally take a breath and not worry about the building so much for a little while.
With minds less occupied with building needs, the Co-op can start to focus on big topics that affect the organization. Items that impact governance of the organization, such as: should we explore a new mission? What are the co-op's values? And, the organization can look at items that drive the daily operations of a successful co-operative: ways to provide for our members by offering sales, events, education, the creations of ways to gather together and ways to help care for our community.
Before we get rolling on all the new and necessary possibilities for our Co-op (woohoo!), we would like to take one last time to honor and say deep and profound thanks to all the people that helped make the building's structure and store-space safer, more energy efficient, and hopefully, just as welcoming as its always been. The Co-op couldn't have done it without its members' support, care, time, and efforts. Many, many thanks to you all.
Video from Charlie Reiss
Specific thanks to the following persons and companies:
Lane Green - Advising on the paint color scheme;
Andrew Pate, Geoff McQuerrey, David Bayne - Repurposing, refinishing, and installing register area;
Lux Brush - Painting;
Bennington House of Tile - Flooring;
RMB Mechanical - Cooler maintenance;
Mabey's Moving - Moving equipment;
Jason Nolan - Electrician;
Jeff Suite - Plumber;
OUR MEMBERS who volunteered their time at the beginning and end of this project;
OUR STAFF who helped with almost every part of this adventure.
