Spring Greetings 2011 - An Update on Our Situation

Spring Greetings!

This past winter visited many changes here at Food For Thought Books. As many of you know, the financial crisis that came to a head this past fall set us on a path that proved quite difficult. It is no small feat to attempt to run a retail business while simultaneously attempting to fundamentally transform it. We would like to take this opportunity to update you on our situation.

When entangled in a financial crisis, one looks to cut expenses. We have done this steadily over the past several months and while it has been a painful process, we have made some progress. We have been forced to cut both health insurance and payroll expenses. As a workers’ collective we don’t like the idea of not being able to offer our members health coverage, but it was one of our larger expenses (hello criminally overinflated industry) and since we have the option of state care in Massachusetts, we decided to do it. Cutting payroll was also not an easy task. This time last year we were a five person collective - now, we are three. As you might imagine, having to reduce payroll in a workers collective has its own unique challenges and it was no easy task to devise a clear course of action.

Carlos McBride (aka REC) stopped working here at the end of 2010. More recently, tk tunchez (aka Tanya) left the collective after being with us for nearly four years. Our collective is the lesser for their absence and we will miss the unique contributions they made to the store and its community. Luckily, they both remain in the area, and continue to do amazing community work. REC continues to teach and is finishing his graduate degree. You can check out what’s going on with him by visiting the always fresh & insightful Trggr Radio. As for tk, she is developing her own consulting practice focussed on capacity building services and anti-oppression work and is available for trainings and workshops! Follow her fabulous adventures on her wesbite: tk tunchez.

Compounding the loss of these two collective members was an unexpected family matter that temporarily called one of us away from the collective. Believe it or not, there have only been two of us running the store for the past couple months.

While there has been much in the way of struggle and difficulty there has also been much in the way of accomplishment and success. We were sincerely moved by the enthusiastic response we received to our volunteer program. We now have more volunteers than we can possibly schedule and the applications keep coming in. The volunteers working with us have been truly outstanding and the store has benefited in so many ways from their wonderful presence.

We also want to express our immense gratitude to the fabulous Community Programming Crew! You may not know it but many of the events that have taken place at Food For Thought Books over the past couple months have been organized and run entirely by this volunteer crew. They have hosted book readings, open mics, dances & more, and have raised quite a bit of money for the store in the process. A big thanks to tk for initiating, organizing and mentoring this amazing group!

Last, but certainly not least, there’s you: our community. Your support over these past several months has been truly wonderful. So many of you have sent us kind letters of support, organized fundraisers, donated money, invited us to table at your events, stopped by the store to express solidarity, and, perhaps most importantly, you have bought many, many books!

So, that’s where we’re at now. Not out of the woods yet but holding our ground and continuing to fight to keep our doors open. We are working with Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives and other consultants to analyze our finances and develop a business plan that will sustain us well into the future. We know that with their help, and yours, we’ll be able to do so. Stay tuned for more news as we move forward.

As always, if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We want to hear from you!

Warm regards & deep gratitude,
Food For Thought Books Collective
Javiera, Matthew, & Mitch