COOPERATIVES IN ACTION

Last October, we joined cooperatives nationwide to celebrate National Co-op Month, an opportunity to raise awareness of a trusted and proven way to do business and build community. As a member of Three Rivers Market, you know the value of our cooperative and its impact on our community and we thank you for your commitment.

The theme for the year is “Build Back for Impact,” which we find very timely given the past two years of uncertainty and loss. As a Board, we have an opportunity to help you “build back” through our annual patronage dividend to members.  For the second year in a row, we voted to allocate 80 percent of the patronage dividend as a refund, which will be returned to you, our members, in the form of a store credit. The remaining 20 percent of the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 dividend will be allocated equity to your membership account.

We hope this decision contributes to our shared efforts to “Build Back for Impact” as we continue to face many of the same challenges that prompted us to reverse the percentages previously apportioned to cash and allocated equity last year. We know our fantastic community of members demonstrates and promotes cooperative values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity not only at Three Rivers Market, but far beyond the co-op as well.

As always, we thank the outstanding management and staff of Three Rivers Market for continuing to exemplify resourcefulness, steadfastness, and embodiment of cooperative values through the ongoing challenges and uncertainty of these times. We are grateful to them for the co-op’s strong financial position that enables us to issue a patronage dividend. We are grateful to them for the co-op’s strong financial position that enables us to issue a patronage dividend this year, one greatly enhanced by income from the forgiveness of our Paycheck Protection Program loan which we were allowed to include.

Members who had paid the equity requirement in full or through a payment plan as of July 1, 2021, and retained membership through the fiscal year will be mailed their qualified written notice of allocation that shows their equity holdings in Three Rivers Market, patronage refund history, member loan history, and patronage dividend for FY 2020-2021. From April 15, 2022, through December 31, 2022, patronage refunds will be applied to purchases made under your member number until depleted.  Be sure to bring your Member Card with you! Patronage refunds not claimed by December 31, 2022, can be used by Three Rivers Market for other purposes.

Thank you for your commitment to your local grocery cooperative, your community, and making the world a healthier, more communal space to live.