Workshops at the Co-op

For the past two years, the London Food Co-op has been offering workshops on a variety of topics. Perhaps you have attended one or two of them?

Some years ago, Board and staff met to do some strategic planning. There was a great deal of emphasis placed on positioning the London Food Co-op as a community space, and to provide a friendly, welcoming space for meeting and learning. One of the seven principles of Co-operatives is to offer education training and information (principle number 5), so workshops were a way to fulfill that mandate.

The first few workshops were sparsely attended, but the Board continued to plan them and to try and engage the community with a broad range of topics. Recently we have attracted a dozen or more participants, many of whom are not (yet) members.

The Board’s policy is that all are welcome, and workshop presenters are not remunerated, except for the cost of materials. When we did the “Things in Jars” workshop, all participants went home with a mason jar full of pasta salad. We had 16 participants and they each paid $5.00. When we learned about “Edible Landscapes”, there was no charge.

We have partnered with the London Environmental Network, City Hall, and some of our own members to provide these training opportunities. Our extremely popular pickling workshop was offered by one of our members, and the well attended tallow workshop was led by one of our Board members.

We continue to plan and organize workshops for our membership and the broader community. We are developing a Kitchen Gardening workshop in early March, just in time to help folks plan out their gardens.

If you have any suggestions for future workshops, or missed one and would like the Board to present it again, please don’t hesitate to contact me. The Board is actively pursuing several ideas, but we would love to hear from you.

 

Helene Golden
helenegolden9@gmail.com