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Onwards and upwards

Dear Owners,

It is with disappointment that we heard yesterday from Market of Choice that they can no longer go forward with the purchase of Food Front. Maybe it is better to share the words of Zach Wright, MoC President:

We appreciate the recent vote of confidence from the Food Front Cooperative. Our interest in the property stemmed from a concept my father, Rick, wanted to explore. However, his vision was still evolving and had not yet been formalized. Without his guidance, the path forward is less clear. After thoughtful review, we have decided not to move forward with the purchase.
Following the membership vote and Letter of Intent, Market of Choice initiated a thorough review and due diligence process. With consultation from industry experts Market of Choice conducted extensive research and carefully evaluated this opportunity, which led to the decision not to purchase the property.

As you can imagine, this was not the news any of us wanted for our store or neighborhood. We are moving quickly to talk with other parties who were interested in the building. As soon as we can share anything, we will be back to you all. Time really is of the essence.

We feel your frustration - believe us, we really do!

Very truly yours,
The Food Front Board of Directors
Kate, Sue, Katharine, Raluca and Aaron

Food Front Update 7/28

Dear Owners,

We are grateful for your big turnout to vote. 91.8% of you want to see Market of Choice open a store in our neighborhood. We were very happy that we had two such solid proposals, both showing respect and understanding of the big shoes they have to fill.

Some figures for you. 688 members voted. 91.8% of you picked Market of Choice and 8.2% selected Mark New's development proposal. On hearing the results Zach Wright commented that he was happy that there was so much support from our community.

This is a big step that has been a long time coming. We are so happy that we can proceed with confidence knowing this is what a large majority of you voted for. We will keep you informed as we progress through the process with Market of Choice.

Your board is working diligently with our pro-bono lawyers, Stoel Rives, to prepare the sale documentation for Market of Choice. As soon as we have a timeline and next steps we will share this information with members. If you have any questions, please email us at board@foodfront.coop. 

Very truly yours,

The Food Front Board of Directors

FOOD FRONT UPDATE: 10/27

Annual Food Front Meeting on November 12th, 2024 at 5:30 PM at Friendly House. If unable to make it you can join by Zoom:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8673...

IF YOU ARE NOT RECEVING EMAILS FROM THE BOARD WITH UPDATES PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO:

BOARD@FOODFRONT.COOP


Hello Food Front Community,
First, we want to thank you for all of your support, ideas, and energy as the process unfolds to develop the future of Food Front.
And now, we have some exciting news to share with you:

  • Board of Directors:
    • Voting closed on 10/25 (12pm) with an extremely high turnout. Thank you to the more than 380 folks who submitted their votes for Directors to the Food Front Board!
    • The Board of Directors includes: Mike Grivas, President; Roman Shvarts, Vice President; Tom Bussell, Secretary/Treasurer; Collin Ferguson; Defne Oztek; Sanela Ruznic; and Silas Beebe
    • If you’d like to contact the Board with questions or ideas, please email Board@FoodFront.coop
  • Financing Update:
    • We are pleased to announce that we have closed on a loan! Terms include $1M, 7.75% interest, 4.25% fees, 15 year amortization.
    • We have paid back the loan from Beneficial State Bank and will begin the process of paying past due invoices to Food Front vendors and partners.
    • With the balance remaining on this new loan, we have roughly 6 months of cash runway before foreclosure looms again. However, realistically, including time for negotiations, member voting, etc., we have more like 30-45 days to finalize a plan. This is where we need your input. Please join us at the November meeting to learn more.
  • November Board Meeting:
    • When: 6pm, 11/28
    • Where: Zoom, online only
    • What: Anticipated to have presentations from the Board, a potential real estate development partner, a potential grocery store buyer, a realtor, a grocery industry consultant, and possibly more.
    • Learn more about the challenges and opportunities of the different potential options facing the future of Food Front.
  • Member Engagement:
    • You’ve spoken, we’ve listened! You said you’d like to learn more about what opportunities the Board has considered regarding opening the store, redeveloping, etc.
    • We have set up a Frequently Asked Questions (https://foodfront.coop/about/FAQs/) page with questions regarding ideas we’ve heard from members and answers about the viability of each option.
    • We’ll be sharing more information at the November Board Meeting and you will be receiving updates via email and social media. In the meantime, if you have questions or additional ideas you’d like to share, please send them to Board@FoodFront.Coop - thank you!
  • And  finally, the GoFundMe is still up! Your generosity has helped tremendously to keep the lights on, the utilities paid, pests under control, trash hauled and more. We would not be where we are without the incredible support of the Food Front community! Thank you for your contributions and continued support. https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-food-front

Thank you for your support,
Food Front Board of Directors

VOTE FOR THE FOOD FRONT BOARD

Hello Food Front Community,

Thank you for joining us at the Food Front Annual Meeting last night. It was great to see you.
We have a few updates and requests for you:

  • It’s time to VOTE for Board members - Voting is open!
    • Voting for Board members is open from Wednesday, October 18 (12pm) through Wednesday, October 25 (12pm)
    • The voting website can be found here: Voting.Foodfront.Coop
    • Instructions on how to vote, candidate pictures and bios are on this website
    • If you have any questions or issues voting, we will be hosting “office hours”
    • "Office Hours” will be held at Food Front on Saturday 10/21, enter the parking lot on 23rd Place. 11am-3pm.
    • As a reminder, a vote may only be cast by an equity owner member, not household members
    • We need at least 200 people to vote, so please do!!
  • Annual Meeting:
    • Loan update - the Board is within 1-2 weeks to closing on a loan. The loan offers the best terms of any we have vetted. It is $1M, 7.75% interest, 4.25% fees, 15 year amortization.
    • We look forward to paying off the loan from Beneficial and especially making our vendors whole. We will let you know when the loan comes through officially, but thank you all in the meantime for your patience and support.
    • Voting update - as noted above, voting for Board members begins on 10/18 (12pm) and runs through 10/25 (12pm). There will be “office hours” at the store for anyone that needs assistance, 10/21 from 11am-3pm.
    • Many thanks to Collin, Silas, Defne, and Sanela for volunteering to run for the first time and help out! And thanks to Mike, Roman, and Tom for running as well and continuing to pass on information gathered so far to the new board members. We can’t do this work without you all - thank you!
  • Lastly, the GoFundMe is still up! Your generosity has helped tremendously to keep the lights on, the utilities paid, pests under control, trash hauled and more. We would not be where we are without the incredible support of the Food Front community! Thank you for your contributions and continued support. https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-food-front

Thank you for your support,
Food Front Board of Directors

FOOD FRONT UPDATE: 10/11

Hello Food Front Community,

We hope your week is off to a great start and you are staying dry out there!
We have a few reminders and updates for you this week:

  • LAST CALL for Board members - Interested in becoming a Board member? Applications are due by Friday, October 13 at 5pm. Applications can be found on the Food Front website, here. Send your application to Board@FoodFront.coop, Subject: Board Application
  • Annual Meeting - Food Front’s Annual Meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 17 at 6pm. It will be a Zoom ONLY meeting. Please email the Board if you would like to receive a link.
  • Loan Update - The Board has been in contact daily with a lender who has offered Food Front the most favorable terms of any potential lender so far. We are eagerly awaiting a closing date and hope to get word soon. Beneficial Bank has been informed of the potential loan and is working with us through the process.
  • Lastly, the GoFundMe is still up! Your generosity has helped tremendously to keep the lights on, the utilities paid, pests under control, trash hauled and more. We would not be where we are without the incredible support of the Food Front community! Thank you for your contributions and continued support. https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-food-front

Thank you for your continued support,
Food Front Board of Directors

FOOD FRONT UPDATE: 9/23

Hello Food Front Community,

We hope your weekend is off to a great start!
Here is the latest news of what the Board has been up to:

  • Store clean up and landscaping: ‘THANK YOU’ so much to the more than 10 volunteers who came to clean up the landscaping around the store and empty the shelves of expired food and stale bulk bin items. You made a huge difference in helping to keep the pests at bay and keep the space looking lovely and clean. Thank you again!
  • September 19 Board meeting: Another ‘thank you’ to the 30+ folks who came out to the board meeting. We had a lively discussion about how to use the space, what the process would look like for a sale (if it came to that; still exploring other options first), and thoughts about the type of grocery store folks would ideally want if Food Front were to reopen or another grocer occupies the store.
  • Consulting and Financing: The Board has met with a number of commercial realtors - note, no contracts are being signed - this is purely investigatory at this point. The Board is also very close to signing a $1M loan, likely in the next week or two, with much more favorable terms - 7.75% interest and more reasonable Broker and Lender fees than other loan offers they have received.
  • Annual Meeting - October 17, 2023: The next Annual Meeting will be where you can vote for Food Front Board members. Voting will take place online, via a link sent out in email. Only owners are eligible to vote and access will be based on your name and email address matching records in the owner database. More details to come!
  • Board Service: The current Board has been hard at work, sometimes 10 or 20 hours a week, working to keep the building out of foreclosure, secure a new loan, and detangling all of the operations, accounting, and logistics for the store. We really feel the love and appreciation from members and we want to turn that right back at you - thank you, we appreciate our members so much! You are the lifeblood of Food Front!
  • Call for Board Members! It has been a labor of love and some of our current Board members are tired. All roads do not lead to selling. However, the road to reopening is a long and uphill one, and the current Board just doesn’t have the time and energy anymore to lead that charge. If you’re passionate about the future of Food Front, particularly in the effort to reopen, then it’s time for you to step up to the plate and join the Board. Applications can be found on the Food Front website, under Board Documents. Please submit your application by October 6 to board@foodfront.coop, Subject: “2023 Board Application”.
  • Lastly, the GoFundMe is still up! Your generosity has helped tremendously to keep the lights on, the utilities paid, pests under control, trash hauled and more. We would not be where we are without the incredible support of the Food Front community! Thank you for your contributions and continued support. https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-food-front

Thank you,
Food Front Board of Directors

Group selfie from cleanup day last weekend:

FOOD FRONT UPDATE: 9/8

Hello Food Front Community,

We hope you all had a lovely Labor Day weekend and are looking forward to autumn that seems to have arrived overnight!

A few reminders:

  • Food Front is having a volunteer clean up event on Sunday, September 17 (9/17) from 10am-2pm. We will be decluttering the store, washing storage bins, and doing some light landscaping.
  • Please wear sturdy, closed toe shoes. Also, if you can, please bring your own work gloves, trash bags, yard debris bags, compost bags, and cleaning supplies (rags and sprays). See you there and many thanks in advance!
  • The next Board meeting is on Tuesday, September 19, at 6pm, in the Food Front parking lot (weather permitting). Please bring a chair.
  • We are also looking for more Board members. If you are interested in applying for the board and being on the Annual Meeting ballot, please submit your application to Board@foodfront.coop by October 6, 2023. Subject Line: “2023 Board Application” please. Applications can be found on the Food Front website, under Board Documents.

Lastly, we have some exciting news to share with you. Food Front is in the process of due diligence on a $1M loan so we can pay all of our vendors, close the loan with Beneficial, and begin the process of exploring next steps - reopening, leasing, selling, etc. We will keep you posted on progress and appreciate all of your encouragement and support throughout this journey.

Thank you for your continued support,
Food Front Board of Directors

FOOD FRONT UPDATE: 8/25

Dear Food Front Community,

Thank you for joining us at Friendly House for the August Board meeting. It was great to see many of you there and we really appreciate all of the great questions you asked! There was even an article about Food Front in Willamette Week as a result. You can read the article here.

Mark your calendars! Food Front is having a volunteer clean up event on Sunday, September 17 (9/17) from 10am-2pm. We will be decluttering the store, washing storage bins, and doing some light landscaping. Please wear sturdy, closed toe shoes. If you can, please bring your own work gloves, trash bags, yard debris bags, compost bags, and cleaning supplies (rags and sprays). See you there and many thanks in advance!

If you weren’t able to attend the Board Meeting, here is a brief summary:

  • The Board has been speaking with a number lenders, realtors, attorneys, and other grocery consulting professionals who can help us determine viable options for moving forward – reopening, leasing, selling, etc.
  • We have had positive meetings with UFCW Local 555 and are optimistic about our strengthening relationships and look forward to renegotiating the Collective Bargaining Agreement with them.
  • Some good news with the membership list is that we can verify and confirm anyone who believes they are a member. The bad news is that the list has roughly 18,000 people in it - former employees, deceased folks, duplicate members, bad addresses, bad emails, and people who canceled their membership. However, we have been in contact with the person who initially set up the database and are hopeful we will have some new clues on how to clean up the list soon.
  • We also discussed our lending needs at length. Food Front has approximately $40,000 in cash at the bank and roughly $600,000 in liabilities (loans to various institutions and outstanding payments to vendors). Ongoing expenses, such as taxes, legal fees, and utilities, means Food Front incurs nearly $20,000 per month in expenses at this time. Unfortunately, with $40k in the bank, $600k in liabilities, and $20k in monthly expenses, we cannot afford to pay our lenders and vendors without a significant loan.
  • Any option - reopening, leasing, selling the property - will require a loan to allow the financial runway to see any of those options to fruition and share all of that information with members (unless there are any generous benefactors out there who want to gift Food Front $1M!). Otherwise, the last path is bankruptcy to not incur debt, and we are not considering that an option. If there are ways to not incur debt, pay $600,000 to vendors with the $40,000 in the bank, and have time for reopening, leasing, selling, etc., while paying monthly bills - we welcome the ideas!

What the Board has been up to this week:

  • We are excited to announce that we have engaged a Corporate Governance attorney - after interviewing three firms - and are looking forward to working with them on our annual meeting and membership list.
  • We are in conversations with multiple lenders, trying to bring down fees, interest rates, and get the most favorable terms for Food Front member owners.

And the GoFundMe is still up. Thank you to those who have already contributed (some folks more than once!)! And thank you for choosing to help Food Front keep the lights on and building secure while we are closed - please contribute here: www.gofundme.com/f/save-food-front

The next Board meeting is on Tuesday, September 19, at 6pm, in the Food Front parking lot (weather permitting). Please bring a chair. And the Annual Meeting, where the Board of Directors will be voted on, is on October 17 - location TBD.

Thank you for your support,

Food Front Board

Board Meeting MOVED & Food Front Update: 8/11


Dear Food Front Community,

First, **please note** due to extreme heat anticipated next week, we are moving the August 15 (6pm) Board meeting to Friendly House (1737 NW 26th Ave). Please also note that Friendly House closes at 7pm, so to respect their generosity and community-minded mission, we will aim to wrap up by 6:50pm. Thank you for understanding and see you on Tuesday!

The agenda for the Board meeting will be:

  • Prompt start at 6:00pm
  • Welcome and housekeeping
  • Board vote on July meeting minutes
  • Financial update
  • Loan options update
  • Invitation for Board Delegates
  • Open Q&A time
  • Close by 6:50pm

As we announced last week - Roman Shvarts has been appointed to the Board - welcome Roman! And while we are grateful to Roman for stepping in as a Board member, we know that we can’t do all of this work with just a handful of people. If you are interested in helping with communications, vendor relations, or data management and being a Board Delegate, please let us know! Email us at Board@foodfront.coop

We also have some bittersweet news to share this week. Tory has decided to resign from the Food Front Board of Directors, and Patricia has stepped away as a Delegate. We appreciate the energy, ideas, creativity, and connections with lenders and business partners, and communications expertise that Tory and Patricia were able to bring to Food Front and the Board. They are leaving big shoes to fill and we can’t thank them enough for their service! Everyone should know that they put in countless hours over the last few months and it is really a team effort - we can’t do any of this without our amazing volunteers! Again, if you are interested in helping with the future of Food Front - please get in touch. Board@foodfront.coop

The Board is also in the process of engaging various experts including grocery operations and business consultants, and governance and labor attorneys. We are building out business model options to present to Members so you can make a fully informed decision and vote for how to move forward, when the time comes.

Lastly, the GoFundMe is still up. Thank you to those who have already donated (some folks more than once!)! And thank you for choosing to help Food Front keep the lights on and building secure while we are closed - please contribute here: www.gofundme.com/f/save-food-front

The Annual Meeting, where the Board of Directors will be voted on, will be on October 17 - location TBD.

Thank you for your support,
Food Front Board

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