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GOURMET NEWS OCTOBER 2017 www.gourmetnews.com Retailer News RETAILER NEWS 1 2 Ashland Food Co-op: Selling Well-being in Southern Oregon BY LORRIE BAUMANN If the Zombie Apocalypse ever does even- tuate, the members of Ashland Food Co-op may have a leg up on most of us. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which offered a basic plan for surviving the Zombie Apoc- alypse in a 2011 blog post, it's a good idea to have a supply of go-to food items on hand as part of an emergency kit. Ashland Food Co-op has already taken care of this with its own network of local food produc- ers so that the store can continue to provide its members with basic necessities even if civilization collapses around it. And the produce will be certified organic. Ashland Food Co-Op makes a point of sourcing from within 200 miles of the southern Oregon store. "We've got a lot of local farmers that we love, and we have a lot of local producers who are within 50 miles," says Ashland Food Co- op Marketing Manager Annie Hoy. Among the local bounty available to the market are or- ganic potatoes, fish from the Pa- cific Ocean, basil and arugula from The Farming Fish, some va- rieties of Lundberg rice, Califor- nia olive oils, Rogue Creamery cheeses, and wines and craft beers. "We can get pretty much everything we need from that 200-mile radius if we ever had to de- pend on that," Hoy says. Like many other food co-ops, Ashland Food Co-op started with a few families who wanted to eat healthy, minimally processed food, and when they couldn't find it in their local grocery store, they started clubbing together to buy things like rolled oats and whole grain flour in bulk. From that 1972 beginning, Ashland Food Co-op has grown into a business that does $31 million in an- nual sales from an 18,000-square-foot store in a community of just over 21,000 people. The store has 10,000 co-op owners and em- ploys 180 people, of whom about 90 per- cent are full-time, according to Hoy. "We can see the value of taking care of our employees. We consider ourselves one of the best employers," she says. That means that the company offers a starting wage that's substantially higher than the state and federal minimum wage and that the benefits package includes things like discounts at local fitness centers and a spa to support employees' health and well- being. "We make a very safe workplace," Hoy adds. The company also rewards customer service: Employees who are observed pro- viding good customer service are handed two wooden nickels, one for themselves and one to pass on to another member of the community. Each is good for a free cup of coffee. Those free cups of coffee might have something to do with the dedication that Hoy feels from the store's customers, who contribute to that $31 million in annual sales volume. "They come for everything, and one of the member benefits is that the more you use the co- op, the more you share of the surplus is at the end of the year," she says. "We have a very loyal consumer base that is right here in our area. Tourists and other visitors are bonus, and they come back every year, and they tell their friends." Ashland's location just 16 miles north of the California border near the south end of the Rogue Valley draws a dependable stream of tourists to the area, the Pacific Crest Trail draws hikers who come to the post office that's a block and a half from the store to pick up their provisions boxes, and the lawn that's right outside the store draws people to the neighborhood, Hoy says. "The best thing about the Co-op is the peo- ple watching. Every day there's music hap- pening in the green space outside the store. There's a rotating cast of characters that's out there every day. They meet there, gather there, watch others," she says. "It's a very joyous atmosphere outside the Co- op every day.... It's a fun town to be in and a fun place to work, and for our customers, it's a fun place to shop." Inside the store, Ashland Food Co-op is celebrating its tenth year as a certified or- ganic retailer. "We're the only one in our region," Hoy says. "The whole store is cer- tified organic." That means that for each of its products that bears a USDA-certified Or- ganic label, Ashland Food Co-op can pro- vide a paper trail from its source through all of its processing and transportation steps all the way to the store's dock. "We've been inspected by our certifier, Oregon Tilth, that it has been handled correctly all the way through our supply chain," Hoy says. "We believe that certified organic is the way to go, and our customers demand that from us, and we want to be able to guarantee that when it says 'organic,' we mean it, and we can show you the big binders of documentation if we need to." That dedication to food as a source of well-being is also reflected in the store's weekly health and wellness classes that are focused on nutrition as well a regular schedule of cooking classes in the store's teaching kitchen. Topics for the classes in- clude "everything you can think of," Hoy says. "We recently had a Korean cooking class. We have a fermenter who taught a fermentation class." Instructors for the classes are recruited from the community by an education coor- dinator. "We've been doing our culinary program for over 10 years, and we've never had a problem finding people to teach," she says. "We vet them and coach them, and they get high marks." Once a quarter, the store offers a free class on co-op basics that highlights value products in the store, discusses ways to use bulk products to save money and demon- strates simple recipes with whole foods. The co-op also conducts classes in local schools and offers special events for the community, and during the summer, part- nered with Rogue Valley Farm to School for three summer camp sessions for kids ages 7 to 11. "They got to go out to the garden and pick herbs and carrots and kale from the garden. They made their lunch every day," Hoy says. "It gave them something to do in the summer. We might as well teach them to cook." GN Jayne Homco Retires from Kroger The Kroger Co.'s Michigan Division Presi- dent, Jayne Homco, has retired from the company after 42 years of distinguished service. She is succeeded by Scott Hays, previously vice president of operations for the company's Fry's division. "In her more than 40 years with Kroger, Jayne has touched the lives of countless customers and associates, and her dedica- tion to the community – especially her work with feeding the hungry, education and women's health – has been an example to us all," said Rodney McMullen, Kroger's Chairman and CEO. "We are grateful for Jayne's many contributions over the years and wish her and her family the best in re- tirement." Homco began her Kroger career in 1975 as a store clerk in Kroger's central division in Indianapolis. She spent time in store management roles in the division, before relocating to the company's Dillons divi- sion in Kansas in 1998 as a deli/bakery merchandiser. She went on to hold several leadership positions in Dillons and multi- ple Kroger divisions, before being pro- moted to vice president of merchandising for the QFC division in 2004. She was named to the same position for Kroger's southwest division in 2007. She was pro- moted to her current role in the Michigan division in 2013. During her four years in Michigan, Homco was passionate about ending food insecurity, helping raise and contribute more than $7.5 million dollars to area food banks and rescuing more than 19.2 million pounds of healthy foods from Kroger stores. Homco also dedicated her time to Detroit's chapter of the American Cancer Society and made women's health a top priority, as she led the division to raise more than $1.2 million under her tenure. Homco is a member of the Network of Executive Women, serves on the board of directors for Forgotten Harvest, board of advisors for Michigan Business & Pro- fessional Association - Women and Lead- ership in the Workplace, board of direc- tors for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and board of advisors for the Michigan Food and Beverage Associa- tion. She was named one of Progressive Grocer magazine's Senior Level Execu- tive Top Women in Grocery in 2008, an honoree of the Women and Leadership in the Workplace Distinguished Service Award for 2014, and one of the Most In- fluential Women in Michigan in 2016. Homco and her husband, Daniel, are re- tiring to Texas, where they also have plans to travel, play golf, take culinary classes and more. GN

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