Cooperative Development Institute: Northeast Center for Cooperative Business

The Portland Press Herald had an article yesterday by Avery Yale Kamila on Local Sprouts, the worker cooperative community supported kitchen and catering business that has now just opened a cafe. Dedicated patrons can become members of the cafe by paying for a subscription in advance and will benefit from a 10% discount on the breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu featuring organic, Maine-sourced food.

Cooperative Development Institute has been working with the 12 organic dairy farmers who are launching Maine Organic Milling in Auburn, ME, a farmer-owned cooperative to mill and mix organic feed for their livestock. Read "Maine organic farmers launch grain mill" by Lindsay Tice in a recent issue of the Sun Journal. The farmers are members of Organic Valley Family of Farms cooperative, which helped the group with inventory, technical support and logistics. This partnering is a perfect example of co-ops helping to form new co-ops and grow the cooperative economy (see our recent presentation at the NCBA Annual Conference on "Growing the Cooperative Economy: Co-ops Seeding Co-ops").

CDI Cooperative Development Specialist Lynda Brushett is teaming up with the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance to work with a number of Community-Supported Fishery (CSF) projects underway in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine. Several of these were detailed in a pair of Boston Globe articles by G. Jeffrey MacDonald on January 24, 2010:

The Cooperative Fund of New England is seeking a Part time Regional Loan Outreach Officer for Boston Area, Rhode Island, and Maine.

Responsibilities include marketing and underwriting CFNE loans, visiting potential and existing borrowers, providing technical assistance or identifying technical assistance needs.

A group of organic dairy farmers who suddenly lost their contracts with Hood last year have banded together to find a cooperative solution. An agreement among the farmers, private investors, Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook, Oakhurst Dairy in Portland, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, the Maine Farm Bureau and the Maine Department of Agriculture, has helped launch a new company: MOOMilkCo., short for Maine’s Own Organic Milk Co. CDI worked with this group in winter and spring last year.

The Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE) has launched the Cooperative Capital Fund (CCF), a new source of patient capital (including equity and equity-like loans) for co-op expansions, conversions and start-ups. They are proud to announce that CCF has reached its minimum level of investment and has begun accepting applications.

Everybody celebrates Co-op Month differently. Watch a fun 3-minute YouTube video made by the members of the Faire Band a' Part Housing Co-op of Lewiston, Maine, on why they want to live and invest in Lewiston and how the co-op helps them do that.

The Kennebec Journal reports on the members of the KV Federal Credit Union's decision not to merge with the Kennebec Savings Bank last month. The Maine Credit Union League supported those members who campaigned against the merger.