If you were at our Annual Owner Celebration on September 17, you already heard much of this message. If you weren’t, here’s the recap.
And what a great night it was!
About 150 Food Shed owners gathered at Kishwaukee Brewing Company, pretty much filling every chair inside and out. We took care of the official business required at an annual meeting, but most of the evening felt much more like a party—a room full of neighbors, good conversation, good food and, yes, some very good beer.
A huge thank-you goes to Kishwaukee Brewing Company for turning over the brewery to us for the evening. And thanks to Board member Carol Alfus, with help from Nathalie Gamboa, for putting together our Taste of the Shed, featuring a terrific assortment of foods from the store.
But amid the celebration, there was some serious business to discuss.
Where We Are
The central message of my State of the Co-op remarks was simple:
We built the store. Now we build the business.
Opening the Food Shed in May 2024 was an enormous accomplishment. Today our challenge is different: building a grocery business strong enough to keep those doors open for decades to come. As I said that evening, we’ve learned that having a beautiful store and a wonderful mission isn’t enough. We have to earn every shopping trip.
We are making progress. Sales have grown, and generous donations from owners and supporters have helped us considerably this year. But the Food Shed is not yet financially self-sustaining.
Recently, our weekly sales have consistently been running between $50,000 – $55,000. At the Annual Meeting, Treasurer Vern Heinen reported that we need to be closer to $62,000 per week to break even. Below that level, we continue to use our cash reserves. We are not that far off.
That gap is getting smaller—but it is still a gap.
A Leadership Transition
I also shared an important change in our store leadership. Nathalie Gamboa has stepped down as General Manager, but thankfully, she is not leaving the Food Shed. She is moving into a different role that provides a better work-life balance.
Suzie Q. Grumko, a longtime food co-op leader who has already been working with the Food Shed for the past several months, has agreed to serve as Acting General Manager while we search for our next GM.
What About More Capital?
I also addressed something we shouldn’t dance around.
As our cash reserves decline, there is an increasing possibility that our business will need another infusion of capital before the store reaches financial stability.
Before asking owners for more, the Board is exploring grants, low-interest loans and other financing possibilities. And if we eventually do return to owners with a capital campaign, I made a commitment: we owe you a business case.
We need to explain what the money is for, what has changed, what we expect the investment to accomplish and how it gets the Food Shed closer to financial sustainability.
But there is something much more important that every owner can do right now—and it doesn’t require writing another check.
Shop Your Co-op.
With more than 2,700 owner households, relatively small changes in our collective shopping habits can make an enormous difference.
One additional trip. One more dinner purchased here. A few things you normally buy somewhere else moved into your Food Shed basket.
And help us bring more people through the doors. Tell your friends, neighbors and coworkers why you shop at the Food Shed. As we used to say while raising the money to build this store:
Tell it, don’t sell it.
Your personal story about why the Food Shed matters is more powerful than any advertisement we can buy. Multiplied across thousands of owners, those shopping trips and conversations can materially change the trajectory of our business.
We have already proved that this community can do something pretty extraordinary together. We took an idea that existed for years on paper, raised the money, built the store and opened the doors.
Now comes the next part.
We built the store. Now we build the business.
And this time, we’re building it to last.
Scott T. Brix
Board President
This article was originally published in the Owner Beet newsletter as part of the Cultivating Cooperation series by Board President Scott Brix (September 2026).