In December, the Shared Harvest board got together for a potluck and celebrated the holidays. Those who were able to attend reflected on the work and many community engagement events in 2023:
- Spring Potluck Picnic with tours of McQueen Station Farm.
- Friday’s at the Downtown Elgin Farmers Market with Allison’s Wonderland Farm, and our DIY Farm to Table Meal Kits – fresh salsa and pizza with farm fresh ingredients.
- Several board members had the opportunity in September to attend this year’s Up and Coming Food Co-op Conference in St Paul, Minnesota to learn about co-op trends and network with co-ops in various stages of development from across the country.
- With support from many volunteers, we again hosted a wonderful fall Farm to Table Dinner in September in partnership with The Centre of Elgin and Elgin Symphony Orchestra. This year’s dinner featured a wide variety of local, farm-fresh vegan and meat dishes provided by Chef Greg Shannon of the Elgin Public House.
- In November we held a successful Annual Shareholders’ Meeting both on Zoom and in person, at the Gail Borden Public Library where we reaffirmed our goals and commitment to Elgin
The board continues to build community relationships through meeting and communicating with staff of Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Senator Dick Durbin, State Representative Anna Moeller and State Senator Cristina Castro. These relationships continue to build awareness of the cooperative as a community business model and seek to investigate funding opportunities. Finally, the board continues to make inquiries into a number of possible locations for the cooperative in and around downtown Elgin. Our top three priorities for 2024 are: 1) locking in a site, 2) expanding shareholder and community relationships, and 3) growing number of shareholders.
On behalf of all our owner/members, we all look forward to working with all of you to move our cooperative dream forward in 2024.
