Mission: “Hunger Mountain Cooperative exists to create and sustain a vibrant community of healthy individuals, sustainable local food systems, and thriving cooperative commerce.”
“The Co-op is committed to providing access to natural foods and products that support the health of our customers and community. In addition, we are committed to solutions that consider the environmental impacts of the production, distribution, and use of our products.”
The purposes for which this corporation is formed are stated in the articles of incorporation as follows:
Several principles and values are mentioned in the coop's bylaws. These are covered in detail on the Bylaws and Policies page.
If you have any thoughts or contributions to share about this principle, please share them with us.
On the Governance page of the website is a link to the International Cooperative Alliance's cooperative principles and values. The cooperative values are:
These have been developed democratically over decades, and are constantly under reconsideration by the ICA to ensure that the values reflect the needs of cooperatives around the world.
In ICA's excellent Guidance Notes document, the values are inseparable from the Cooperative Principles. Building a cooperative that practices the principles goes hand-in-hand with living the values at every level and in every interaction.
The ICA Cooperative Principles are listed on the coop's website Govenance page as "provid[ing] guidance for how we put our values into practice." These principles are known to practically all cooperatives, and are central to the cooperative movement around the world. They form the basis for organizing cooperatives at the individual cooperative level, as well as regional, national, and international levels.
The principles are:
Membership at Hunger Mountain Coop is voluntary and open, without discrimination.
The leadership of Hunger Mountain Coop is by a board of directors (the Council), which is elected by the membership at large.
However, policies at the Council level are not designed to ensure shared power over important strategic decisions that affect members, employees, suppliers, and the community at large. In addition, Council leadership has avoided publicizing events and meetings at which member input would impede their own ideas of how these decisions should go.
We will be adding a Bylaws and Policies page to examine how the coop's policies can ensure active participation in setting policies and making decisions, to the greatest extent possible. (The Bylaws and Policies page also reflects many of the other principles in this list.)
If you have any thoughts or contributions to share about this principle, please share them with us.
Members democratically control not just the elections of the board members, but also the capital of their cooperative. One aspect of this is the member equity and patronage refunds.
Another aspect is the allocation of surpluses by members for developing the coop and supporting other activities approved by the coop. Here, we hope to provide an assessment of how well the coop has reflected this principle.
"Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organisations controlled by their members." There are many members and employees who believe that the coop's adherence to this principle is in doubt. Read more here [to come].
"Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives. They inform the general public - particularly young people and opinion leaders - about the nature and benefits of co-operation."
Principle 5 is the subject of a lot of passion and excitement in cooperatives, because this is where we strengthen participation by our fellow cooperators, build trust among them, recruit new members and allies, and build resilience within our cooperative, all by offering education around how cooperatives work.
This is a broad subject with many facets, and soon we hope to provide insight into how well the coop performs on this important cooperative principle.
Cooperatives "work together through local, national, regional and international structures" in order to strengthen the cooperative movement as a whole, and strengthen understanding of how economic democracy builds community wealth and resiliency. This principle takes many forms, including cooperative trade agreements, leadership camps, networking, and sharing best practices.
We would love to see the coop's participation in Principle Six take a form that includes members, not just the General Manager and the Council's Executive Committee.
"Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members." What does sustainable mean to Hunger Mountain Coop member-owners? What does development mean? What part of the community (or communities) should the coop be part of developing? These are great questions for the membership at large. In our opinion, these are questions that the coop should be capable of soliciting good answers to, and using those collaboratively generated answers to inform the coop's vision and strategic plans.
The coop expresses its concern for community through the Give Change charity campaign -- soliciting round-up transactions from shoppers to benefit a rotating local charity. Soon, we will add a page detailing the coop's policies that reflect Principle 7.