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8 More Days!

Until October 31st, those who purchase their membership (via initial $50 installment or $200 full membership) by using our new online form and PayPal will have their PayPal fee waived. It couldn't be easier. Remember, your investment is not an annual fee and entitles you to one vote in any matters the Board of Directors puts before its membership at the annual meeting.

Help us get to 675 Member-Owners as quickly as possible! (Stay posted on our progess at our website -- every 10 new Owners gets another orange guy added to our tally.) The three people who bring in the most new Member-Owners in October will receive a $100 gift card at the store once it opens.

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The Magic Number: 275

We previously mentioned that in order to allow us to progress to the next step, we've set a goal of recruiting an additional 275 new Member-Owners to get us to 675 total. Meeting this ownership threshold as quickly as possible is critical to our ability to take the next step: negotiate a site for our store.

A new kind of community grocery store will not be given to us--we have to be the ones to make it happen. Join today!

Wild Root Market Rallies for Membership

Offering a perfect example of how our community is coming together to make this happen, many local organizations are going the extra mile to bring the market to reality.

On Monday, November 12th, on a night they would normally be closed, George's Tavern is hosting a Rally for Membership Event from 6-8 p.m. Current Member-Owners are asked to bring their friends to learn more and sign up. Founding Owners, David Popoff and his wife Soosan will provide delicious Persian appetizers for $5. Please RSVP your name and number of attendees to info@wildrootmarket.com so David & Soosan can be prepared.

On Tuesday, October 30th from 6-8 p.m., Urban Trends Owner JoAnne Peterson is hosting her own version of a "house party" recognizing that, in order to bring a new kind of grocery store to our community, we have to do it ourselves! Again, please RSVP your name and number of attendees to info@wildrootmarket.com.

Bluegrass stylist LeAnne Talbert is welcoming the public to a Rally For Membership from 6-8 p.m. at Bluegrass Salon on Tuesday, November 13th. RSVP to info@wildrootmarket.com!

Founding Owner, Arthur Shattuck of Roots and Legends is offering $25 off an acupuncture treatment for any new Wild Root Market Member-Owner who signs up before November 1st! Please ask for a Roots & Legends confirmation when you submit your registration.

Students in Racine Montessori School's Meadow Classroom (ages 8-11) cook a homemade soup luncheon for their fellow students and teachers once a month and share their proceeds to benefit other organizations. We've learned of their intent to work toward buying a share of Wild Root Market for their school!

Here's another example of cooperative outreach in perhaps an unlikely place: Owner Ben Johnston-Krase, Pastor at First Presbyterian Church, inspired by his strong desire to see a co-op, a business model he knows is about values in action, in our community is asking congregations across Racine to participate in the First Annual Harvest Sunday on November 18th by focusing their worship service that day on issues of local sustainability. It's a chance for people of faith to celebrate food theologically by giving thanks for the harvest we've enjoyed this season.

These are amazing examples of our community coming together ("cooperating", pun intended) to create something for the greater good. How can you help?

Attention Wild Rooters!

Attention Wild Root Market volunteers: Watch your email for your invitation to join our new Yammer Volunteer Network which will allow our volunteer group to more easily interact as a community. Yammer is an "enterprise social network" owned by Microsoft which is similar to Facebook but is a CLOSED, by-invitation-only medium. Invited members can share items of interest, documents, comments, event ideas or information, feedback and more. More efficient than email, it's a channel to interactively share ideas on ways to spread the word about the market. You can even download the Yammer mobile app to your phone and access us on the go!

There’s so much we can, should and will be doing to promote this project and we think we've found a better way to involve you and keep you informed. We’re excited about using this technology to make that happen!

When you receive your invitation, just follow the instructions to join the network. You may choose to complete a brief profile with your contact information and add a photo if you like.

If you're not already on our list of volunteers and are interested in joining, please let us know at info@wildrootmarket.com to be added to our volunteer group.

Our Founding Owners

Make sure to check out our list of Founding Owners, those who boldly stepped forward when we very first began accepting memberships in August 2011. They helped fund the initial stages of investigation such as our market study and early marketing materials and, probably most importantly, showed in a very concrete manner that they believed in the value of this idea.

We hope to have our list of Pioneering Owners--all those who sign on before the doors open--available soon!

Build the Cooperative Movement Coast to Coast

Wouldn’t it be marvelous if everyone had access to a food co-op as wonderful as Milwaukee's Outpost or our coming Wild Root Market? We are proud to be a supporter not just of local cooperative initiatives but of new grocery co-ops nationwide through Food Co-op Initiative. As part of October’s National Co-op Month, we wanted to take a moment to introduce you to one of our important partners.

Food Co-op Initiative is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to helping communities like ours make their co-op vision a reality. They are the only national organization dedicated exclusively to helping startup food co-ops. Their grants, free consultations, and extensive library of educational resources have helped dozens of co-ops (including ours!) get their start since its inception in 2010.

Food Co-op Initiative has assisted our co-op with training, information and a huge library of resources during our start up process. Our friends there always seem to pick up their phone when we call!

When you support co-ops, you support whole communities. Maybe you bank at a credit union, have lived in co-op housing or belong to other co-op ventures. Visit FCI's website to see for yourself how the resources they make available have been instrumental to our project and how you can help bring Wild Root Market-style community grocers to more people nationwide.

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