Three Rivers Market’s Board of Directors has been studying diversity and inclusion since spring 2016, and we hosted a discussion of diversity with members at the 2016 Annual Meeting in December.

Three Rivers Market is also a supporter of CDS Consulting Co-op’s work exploring issues of racism and oppression. CDS recently released “Everyone Welcome? Personal Narratives about Race and Food Co-ops” by Jade Barker and Patricia Cumbie. In this report, fifteen co-operators from a variety of backgrounds — class, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation — talk about their introduction to co-ops and respond to two questions: how did food co-ops become so white and what can be done to make food co-ops more racially inclusive? You can find the report and here: http://library.cdsconsulting.coop/everyone-welcome-personal-narratives/

More material will be forthcoming from this project, including case studies of individual co-ops exploring their challenges around race and what they have learned (available November 2017) and educational materials (available March 2018).

Your Board of Directors welcomes your thoughts on the importance of diversity and inclusion to Three Rivers Market. Share your thinking with us at the monthly Board meetings, where the agenda always has time set aside for a Member Forum, and you can write to us at board@threeriversmarket.coop