by Colleen Gundlach

A year ago, the Mad River Market project was in full swing, growing its membership by 50 percent in 2019. In 2020, they recruited only 28 new owner/members and have had little or no social media contact. It was a difficult year for most small businesses, and especially for struggling start-up companies.

Back in 2016, when the Super Saver grocery store in Winsted announced its closing, Philip Allen, who was then the chairman of Winsted’s Economic Development Commission, jumped into action. With the help of Community Lawyer Charlene Lavoie and Bob Geiger, who was then Winsted’s town manager, a board of directors was formed with the hope of opening a community-supported grocery store immediately when Super Saver closed. The timing proved to be too tight for a turnkey project, so the group developed an expanded strategy, which became the Mad River Market project.

Over the next three years, the project grew, with a rural seed grant from the Food Co-Op Initiative to start, and expanding through the sale of shares to individuals and businesses who wanted to invest in a local alternative to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. A goal of the Mad River Market project has been not only to have a local, healthy grocery store but also to minimize food waste by routing any unused or unsold food to the Open Door Soup Kitchen and the local Salvation Army.

The key to being able to accomplish this goal is to increase the number of member/owners. Each person who wishes to join the Mad River Co-op as a member/owner contributes a one-time share purchase of $200. Every member pays the same and has one owner vote. To date, there are 356 member/owners in the group. Allen estimates that the project will need 1,200 members to begin planning the opening of a co-op store.

The group was very active until 2020, when the Covid pandemic hit. “It became impossible to do the successful kind of outreach we had been doing to recruit new members,” says Allen. In addition, of the eight members of the board of directors, “two have been out with health problems, one of whom has long-term effects of Covid.” 

Working closely with the Cooperative Fund of New England, the Mad River Market group has been trying to obtain some fiscal sponsorship to move the project ahead. Allen says, “It has become clear to us that it takes a very long time to pull a co-op together. The average is seven to 10 years. We have been working on it for four years, but we can’t count 2020. It was a lost year.” The board of directors is planning a virtual annual meeting for the member/owners in the near future.

Allen stresses that the Mad River Market has come out of 2020 with a strong plan for future growth. They will be redoubling their recruitment efforts at farmers markets planned in Winsted over the next few months and through direct contact with potential members. According to Allen, “Our current members are very important in terms of growth. Member/owners need to talk to their neighbors, friends and coworkers about this opportunity not only for a local food store but also for local agriculture.”