Renaissance Community Cooperative

Casey Thomas (Board Member)

620 South Elm St, Suite 307. Greensboro, NC 27406
540-621-5370 (Cell) 336-638-1722 (RCC Phone)
caseymerie@gmail.com

December 30, 2015

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Dear Starmount Presbyterian Church,
Summary Statement
Thank you for offering the Renaissance Community Cooperative (RCC) an opportunity to apply for funding from
the Community Hunger Grant Program. We are applying for $50,000 towards start-up staffing for a full-service,
community-owned grocery store that we are opening in a northeast Greensboro neighborhood that has been without
a grocery store for eighteen years. The funds will be used to pay for staff in the weeks before the store is open, so
that new team members can be paid while they undergo training, stock the shelves with the initial inventory,
establish sound operating procedures, and generally learn to operate as an effective team. The grant would save the
RCC from depleting our initial operating capital, which in turn allows us to build equity and offset our debt, while
providing us with more flexibility in addressing the surprises and contingencies that often impact new operations.
This grant will strengthen the cooperatives financial position as we transform northeast Greensboro into a
community where healthy food is available and affordable.
Statement of Need
We are asking for this grant to address hunger in northeast Greensboro and the lack of investment that classifies the
area as a food desert. A food desert is an area that faces food hardship due to one third or more residents living
below the poverty line and over a mile from a grocery store. Last year, Greensboro and High Point were jointly
ranked as the metropolitan area with the highest level of food insecurity in the nation, with almost one third of
residents unable to access enough food. Food insecurity is tied to increased risks for hypertension, diabetes, and
cardiovascular risk factors. In Guilford County, chronic diseases, many of which are preventable with a healthy diet,
account for two-thirds of all deaths. We need to make healthy food affordable and readily accessible in a sustainable
way, because struggling to obtain it is killing our neighbors.
Tired of waiting for chain grocery stores to meet this need, the northeast Greensboro community came up with its
own solution: to build and own their own full-service grocery store, specifically a cooperatively owned grocery
store that will be financially self-sustaining and prioritize benefit to the community. A cooperative, or a business
owned by the people who use it, is able to offer competitive prices and higher wages because its purpose is to meet
community needs, rather than making profits for outside investors. Further, many residents of food deserts do not
only want programs, or pure charity. Instead, they want to be able to access the anonymity, convenience, and
normality that conventional supermarkets offer without having to leave their own neighborhoods. In addition to
offering these dignities, the RCC will offer an opportunity for the northeast Greensboro community to control its
food access and impact economic development through becoming owners in the store. The RCC will be an anchor
for other businesses in the shopping center, including a credit union, independent pharmacy, and restaurant, creating
the kind of economic vibrancy that prevents food deserts from coming into existence. In short, northeast Greensboro
needs a co-op to build community health and wealth.
Description of Project
The Renaissance Community Cooperative will be a full-service grocery store that will be open to anyone who
wishes to shop there. The RCC will be a consumer co-op, a business owned by its customers and community
membersin this case the residents of northeast Greensboro and allies from around the city and the nation. We have
over 680 owners, most of who live in northeast Greensboro, whom will each have one vote in electing the board and
in matters that are put before the General Body. The store will be community-owned, but professionally managed by
our General Manager, Michael Valente, who has over 27 years of experience in the grocery industry.

We have found concrete ways to combat hunger at its root. We are addressing hunger in northeast Greensboro by
targeting four of its root causes: lack of access to transportation, lack of access to affordable and nourishing food,
lack of good jobs, and a lack of investment in the community. As it stands, many of our neighbors in northeast
Greensboro do not have sufficient access to transportation. The busses only permit four bags per rider and only
come once every 30 minutes during weekdays, and hourly during evenings and weekends. To get to a grocery store
requires riders to transfer between busses, so buying four bags of groceries can easily become a three-hour affair.
Many are forced to trade food stamps or money for a ride to the grocery store, putting a significant dent in the
amount of food they can bring home to their families, and often limiting them to the kinds processed foods with
little nutritional value pop tarts, cans of chef Boyardee, chips, hot pockets and soda that are available at
convenience stores. While treats are an important part of anyones diet, nobody should have to live on the limited
nutrition they provide, and be in the position of paying the higher prices that convenience stores charge. As a fullservice grocery store, the RCC will make fruits, vegetables, meats, and other parts of a healthy grocery list available
at the more affordable prices that larger stores can provide. The RCC will open within a walkable one-mile radius of
several neighborhoods including one public housing area (Claremont Courts). More than 35,000 people live in a 2mile radius of the store and for most of them the RCC will be the closest grocery store. Thus, the RCC will provide
tens of thousands of people with access to food that does not cause an extra strain on their household resources.
Additionally, larger economic forces contribute to the prevalence of hunger in northeast Greensboro in at least two
ways: lack of access to good jobs and lack of investment. The unemployment rate in northeast Greensboro is more
than 18%, triple that of the City of Greensboro as a whole. Lack of access to good jobs means that families just
dont have the income to afford healthy food. The RCC will add more than 30 jobs to the area, with a minimum
starting wage of $10 per hour, 38% higher than the federal minimum wage, the level where most grocery stores start
their entry level workers. RCC will also serve as a community wealth-building tool for the neighborhood. Once the
store becomes profitable (estimated to occur in year four of its operation, which is typical in a start-up grocery), the
profits will stay in the community, where they can be invested in ways that further the communitys interest in
revitalization. The story of how northeast Greensboro became a food desert in the first place is instructive about the
ways that community ownership via a cooperative can sustain economic revitalization. In contrast to the Winn Dixie
that closed as part of a national consolidation 18 years ago to maximize profits for outside investors, the RCC will
be owned by people who prioritize keeping prices affordable, providing dignified jobs, and making food available to
the residents of northeast Greensboro.
Statement of Desired Outcomes
The Renaissance Community Cooperative is on its way to building a grocery store that is geographically accessible
to residents of our community who currently cannot access a full-service store, and to provide a healthier, more
affordable selection of food for northeast Greensboro.
Concretely our goals are as follows:

To provide greater access to produce, fresh meats and other foods that are essential to the communitys
nutritional wellbeing.

To help members of our community spend less money on transportation to purchase food for their families,
allowing them to purchase more food or address other needs.

To provide at least 30 jobs with decent wages primarily for people in the RCCs neighborhood

To have one fewer census tract in Guilford County labeled a food desert. Currently there are 24.

In order to measure these desired outcomes, we will use a number of data collection approaches, such as plotting the
addresses of employees of the store to see how many live within the neighborhood and including questions on our
customer-satisfaction survey cards that ask shoppers about the stores impact on their shopping and eating habits.
RCC also plans to use data from the Guilford County Health Department, which does surveys of various parts of the
county to assess food access and affordability.

Organizational History
The RCC was born from the long-term efforts of northeast Greensboros residents to court a grocery store to locate
in the Bessemer Shopping Center, the energy and organization the community in the area has developed in fighting
to improve their neighborhood, and the Fund for Democratic Communities (F4DC)s cooperative development
training. When F4DC approached leaders in northeast Greensboro with the possibility of starting a co-op, we started
having community meetings to gauge the interest of the residents in building a community-owned, democratically
run grocery store from the ground up. The response was overwhelming, with meetings drawing between 50 and 100
enthusiastic attendees. After developing by-laws through a committee comprised of northeast Greensboro residents
and neighbors from across town, we elected our first Board of Directors in late 2013 We have since grown to 682
members, raised over $2.22 million towards a $2.36 million goal, and are in the final stages of negotiating a lease
with Self-Help Ventures Fund, new owner of the shopping center on Phillips Avenue where the Winn-Dixie once
stood. Construction is underway to revitalize the shopping center where we will be located, and RCCs architect and
construction firm are poised to begin the refurbishment of 10,521 square feet of space within the footprint of the old
Winn-Dixie. We have hired a General Manager with over 27 years of experience in the grocery industry managing
cooperatives, both conventional and natural grocery stores, and working in diverse neighborhoods with low and
high incomes. The construction schedule will determine the opening date for the store, which we expect to happen
between July and August of 2016. While we are well on our way to opening a grocery store, we need your help in
building equity that we do not have to pay back, furthering the communitys ownership of the store and providing us
the flexibility we will need in the stores opening months.
Budget
The request we have for your church is part of a larger organizational budget. We have attached our Sources and
Uses document which provides an overview of our entire budget. We intend for the $50,000 we are asking from
your church to go towards funding start-up staffing (i.e., staffing during the period before the store is open for
business). Included in start-up staffing funds are the wages and health-insurance payments for 31 employees, who
will earn between $10.00 and $17.50 per hour. On the Sources side of the budget, you can see that we are seeking
equity funding from foundations and churches totaling $376,400. We currently have received or have commitments
for $361,400 of this amount. A grant of $50,000 from Starmount Presbyterian would cover this $15,000 gap and also
allow us to offset $35,000 in debt financing. Not having to repay that $35,000 in debt will move us to profitability
several months earlier, and put us in a better position with regard to operating capital. We hope that you will grant
this significant portion of our budget and be part of building a long-term, self-sustaining solution to hunger in
northeast Greensboro. Help us build equity in a substantial community-owned asset that will be around for
generations to meet the communitys needs for fresh, affordable food, good jobs, and break the cycle of poverty.

Sincerely,

Casey Thomas
RCC Board member

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