From Baking Your Birthday Cake to Managing Your
Money While Abroad, Cooperatives Are There to Meet
Your Needs

By Denise Pinkney

When Cheryl Saunders’ workers wanted to surprise her with a birthday cake, they knew it would be no simple feat. To meet Saunders’s dietary requirements, no eggs or dairy products could be used.

It’s not surprising they turned to Saunders’ food co-op for help. Amazing Grains came to the rescue, creating a carrot cake with tofu icing. The tasty cake was so popular that her co-workers barely saved her the last piece after a telephone call whisked her away from the gathering.

Amazing Grains, like many cooperatives, is known for meeting people’s needs. “Amazing Grains is helping my family in getting the healthy foods that we not only want but need,” says Saunders. “I know the products are of good quality and they don’t have a long shelf life.”

  Amaxing Grains Store Manager Betsy Perkins

People who wanted, but couldn’t find whole foods in local markets, formed Amazing Grains in 1973. Today, this urban food co-op offers a full-range of products from cereals and coffees and meat to dairy and vitamins and personal care items from its Grand Forks store. Likewise you can buy bread made from scratch at the bakery or enjoy soups, smoothies and sandwiches for lunch.

Store manager Betsy Perkins says the foods are all natural, without preservatives, artificial colors or artificial flavors.

Helping people is what co-ops are all about. Following the 1997 flood that devastated much of downtown Grand Forks, health food co-ops across the nation—upon learning Amazing Grain’s plight—raised $15,000 to assist with flood recovery. What Amazing Grains didn’t need was put into a fund to help other co-ops recovering from natural disasters.

While Amazing Grains provides food selections for Grand Fork’s population of 50,000, Regent Consumers Co-op Store serves Regent’s 250 residents in southwestern North Dakota. Organized in the late 1930s by local farmers who wanted to share in the profits, this grocery co-op remains while stores in neighboring communities have closed their doors.

“Regent has a large population of retirees,” says board member Lance Jacobs. “The co-op serves as the primary grocery store for many of its people who are retired. For the rest of us, it’s a first resort or a last resort—depending on your attitude.”Adam Oberlander, 93, buys “prit near” all of his groceries at the co-op his parents helped start. The co-op is a boon to Oberlander and his wife, Clara, as it’s a 15-mile drive to Mott, a 25-mile drive to New England and about a 45-mile drive to Dickinson. On occasion, the Regent Consumers Co-op Store has even delivered groceries to the Oberlanders.Jacobs credits store manager Brenda Wiseman with the store’s success, despite the town and county’s declining population. Wiseman increased sales through wholesale business to the local bed and breakfast operations, a nearby restaurant and the Knights of Columbus.

Giving credit where credit is due
Not all cooperatives, however, are open to the public as are the Regent Consumers Co-op Store and Amazing Grains. G E M Federal Credit Union in Minot is an example of a “closed” cooperative.

Minot City employees and Ward County employees formed this co-op in 1940, then known as the City and County Municipal Credit Union. It has expanded to include school employees from seven counties, SRT telecommunications co-op employees, and state and federal employees. This closed charter co-op serves 2,071 city, county, state and federal employees.

“Our members are very progressive,” says Cassia Dahl, G E M Federal Credit Union’s president. “They keep up with technology and to stay competitive it forces us to keep up as well.”

It’s that technological edge that allowed Minot city employee Darrell Francis’s son to stay with the credit union during his three-year stint in the U.S. Air Force. Jeremy Francis sent his paycheck to G E M through automatic deposit and monitored the account from Kuwait, Italy, Texas and California via the Internet. 

Yet it’s the personal touch that Darrell Francis appreciates most. “Everyone from the president to the tellers to the loan officers knows you on a first-name basis,” he says.

Dahl agrees. “We are small enough to know everyone on a first-name basis. Our members are not just a number, but literally part of the family,” he says.

G E M Federal Credit Union offers well-rounded financial service products, including savings, checking, and home equity and consumer loans. Like Jeremy Francis, members can access their accounts via the Internet. Those without computer access can use their telephones to access information through audio response.

Serving members for 75 years

Another example of a co-op meeting needs of its members is the Jamestown Farmers Union Oil Co-op. The traditional co-op provides seed, feed, petroleum products, chemicals, fertilizer and a host of agricultural services including soil testing, spraying, spreading and consulting. “It’s a handful,” says Robert Moser, general manager.