Message from the Board President - Rose Marie Klee
It is an interesting time to be reflecting on the 45th Anniversary of the Wheatsville Co-op. It begs reflection on our founders and the passion they brought to creating our organization. I have had the great pleasure of meeting several people who played direct parts in our origin story. They were passionate about the potential for Wheatsville to provide an inclusive place where a community could come together, a source of delicious food, all delivered though sustainable economic practices: fair prices to producers, fair wages to staff, and fair prices to consumers, along with mindfulness about environmental ethics. This is captured in the preface to our bylaws:
“The purpose of Wheatsville Co-op is to create a self-reliant, self-empowering community of people that will grow and promote the transformation of society toward cooperation, justice, and non-exploitation. The mission of Wheatsville Co-op is to serve a broad range of people by providing them goods and services, using efficient methods that avoid manipulation of the consumers and minimize exploitation of the producers or damage to the environment. The primary focus for this mission is supplying high-quality food and non-doctrinaire information about food to people in Austin, Texas.”
Our four and a half decades of history include our share of high points and challenges, and often they are inter-twined. Those times when it seems hardest also demonstrate our passion and commitment; they have been opportunities for us to find each other, to lead, to support, and to remember that the mark of our caliber as humans is all about how we show up to support each other and how we bring out the best in each other and ourselves.
It has never been easy, but our work has been made easier by the joy we find in coming together in cooperation because we know that there are things we can do together that we cannot do alone. Wheatsville is our gift to ourselves and our world; a place where we seek to grow and cultivate the best that is within ourselves and others because we know that that is how we make a better world.
Thank you all for bring the best part of Wheatsville and your constant commitment to making us better each and every day!