Co-op Award Winners Announced at CCMA 2016

Outstanding food co-ops and co-op leaders were awarded recognition at the June 2016 CCMA (Consumer Cooperative Management Association) conference in Amherst, Mass. The 2016 award recipients were: 

•  Cooperative Excellence: City Center Market – Cambridge, Minn.

•  Cooperative Service: Sean Doyle, Seward Co-op – Minneapolis, Minn.

•  Cooperative Service: Sharon Murphy, Whole Foods Co-op – Duluth, Minn.

•  Cooperative Board Service: Marshal Kovitz, La Montanita Co-op – Albuquerque, N.M.

•  Cooperative Innovation and Achievement: Central Co-op – Seattle, Wash.

•  Startup of the Year: Renaissance Community Co-op – Greensboro, N.C.

Food co-ops are encouraged to nominate from among their peers outstanding co-op leaders and businesses that deserve wider recognition. These annual awards are overseen by Cooperative Development Foundation. Marilyn Scholl presided over this year’s awards ceremony, and National Co+op Grocers sponsored the event.  

The 2017 award for Cooperative Excellence was presented to City Center Market in Cambridge, Minn., and its general manager, Gayle Cupit. After previously serving as the board president, Cupit became general manager in 2009 and has guided this small-town co-op through recovery, then growth and expansion that has generated strong local support.

Recognition for Cooperative Service was awarded to Sean Doyle, general manager of Seward Co-op in Minneapolis and a graduate of the Saint Mary’s University master’s program in co-op and credit union management. During the most recent three years of a career dedicated to cooperatives, Doyle has guided Seward Co-op through challenging expansions to two additional retail and production facilities, following an earlier strongly successful expansion of its original store. Doyle and other Seward leaders also led conference workshops on meeting co-op diversity challenges.

A second Cooperative Service award was presented to Sharon Murphy, who is retiring from her general manager position after 36 years of leadership contributions at Whole Foods Co-op in Duluth, Minn. The co-op is thriving, opened its second store earlier this year, and now has 160 staff and 10,000 members. To accept the award, Murphy sent a short video giving a straightforward and soft-spoken thanks and farewell.

The award for Cooperative Innovation and Achievement went to Central Co-op in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash. Represented at the podium by Dan Arnett, their cooperator in chief, Central Co-op successfully implemented a $15/hour entry wage; swiftly and with strong owners’ support merged two co-ops in Tacoma and Seattle; and also won approval for its new solidarity co-op structure that establishes an equity and governance stake for co-op employees along with consumers. (For more on Central Co-op and $15/hour, see the recent report at grocer.coop.)

The Cooperative Board Service award was presented by Martha Whitman of La Montanita Food Co-op in Albuquerque, N.M., to Marshal Kovitz, that co-op’s mourned late leader. Kovitz, who served on the La Montanita board for 35 years, died suddenly this past spring; among his various qualities, he was appreciated in his local and national co-op community for insightful and humane contributions to improved group dynamics and decision-making.

Finally, Food Co-op Initiative announced its Startup of the Year, Renaissance Community Co-op in Greensboro, N.C. This determined campaign, centered in a food desert and a largely black community, now has over 800 co-op owners and will open its new store in 2016. A moving video of these owners who want a good food store was shown, and several co-op members and the general manager, Michael Valenti, were on hand to receive the miniature “golden shopping cart.” Renaissance members also led a workshop case study discussion at the conference.

A full CCMA conference report appears in the July-August issue of Cooperative Grocer.