The Horizons committee recieved an astounding response rate to their survey about local food systems. The committee collaborated with the local paper to distribute surveys regarding food systems and co-op opporunities in Morning Sun and received an amazing 126 responses! This is a critcal needs asssement tool that will allow the group to move forward and work with state officials.
MORNING SUN - Three months after the Morning Sun Market went up for sale, the store has drawn little interest from individual buyers, leaving residents concerned that the community’s only grocery store may be headed out of business.
But not if the town’s residents have anything to say about it. At a meeting hosted by the Louisa Development Group, more than 50 residents discussed the possibility of starting a grocery cooperative, or co-op, to manage the store.
Morning Sun’s Terry Crawford has owned the store, along with his wife, Julie, for the last eight years. Asked why he chose to sell, he answered simply, “Too many hours.”
Last year, the store’s supplier, Affiliated Foods Midwest, announced that it would no longer supply to stores that purchase less than $10,000 a week in groceries. As longtime member store, the Morning Sun Market had previously been exempted through a grandfather clause, Crawford said; but not any longer.
Since then, Crawford has been buying his groceries from Dave’s Foods in Mt. Pleasant, which doesn’t deliver to Morning Sun. So Crawford has to get in his truck to drive down every week, and bring the groceries back himself. “It makes Thursday a lot longer,” he said.
And it means higher costs, which have affected Crawford’s ability to keep the store’s three paid employees, to say nothing of his own profit margin.
“We don’t go hungry,” he said, “but it’s hard to cut a paycheck.”
Affiliated Foods still supplies a number of grocery stores in the area, including Dave’s and Walgren’s Market in New London. Walgren’s manager Jim Anderson said his store faces a threshold of $9,000 per week, which is sometimes a challenge to meet. “We have to watch it,” he said. “There’s times when we get real close to that.”
Kathy Vance, Louisa County director for the Iowa State University Extension office, said many smaller towns are having a hard time keeping their local stores, both due to large suppliers’ growing unwillingness to continue shipping to smaller stores and because people who work in larger cities tend to shop there.
“I’ve talked to a lot of store owners around the state, and it’s the same everywhere,” she said. “It’s not unique to Morning Sun. But we’re trying to deal with it in Morning Sun before we lose a grocery.”
The market’s troubles happened to coincide with a series of meetings between Morning Sun residents as part of the Horizons program. Sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation and Iowa State University extension, the program offers grants to bolster smaller communities. Morning Sun has received $4,000 so far, part of which has been spent on various community projects over the past year.
Angie Sanders, the Louisa Development Group’s executive director, raised the possibility of a co-op at the Jan. 9 meeting, where she was met with a positive response. A six-member steering committee was formed by concerned community members, and held its first meeting Jan.18. Members then opted to embark on a fact-finding tour across the state, to examine how other co-ops and small groceries operate. Its findings will be discussed at the committee’s upcoming meeting next week.
Horizons have clearly helped people in Morning Sun stand up and take leadership. Through the Horizons project the town held a town meeting regarding co-ops and grocery stores. The meeting was a terrific success and with more than 60 people in attendance. The community clearly took leadership of the process. A committee has stepped forward to tour co-ops, buyer partnerships, limited liability partnerships, and other small town grocery options. The committee is will also create a feasibility study to determine local grocery needs and shopping habits. Prior to the Horizons project the town might not have come together to explore the options. Horizons provided the framework for the community to come together and take action to solve their problems instead of just accepting them
Currently the Horizons group is looking to create a grocery co-op in Morning Sun. The local grocery store recently lost their distribution contract and will need to purchase supplies from another distributor that is much more expensive. Given the increase in expenses the current owner/manager will probably be forced out of business. This could create a significant hardship for Morning Sun residents who can not afford to drive to another town for their groceries. The Horizons group developed a task force to explore grocery options in other small communities and present the information at a town meeting. The meetings purpose was to inform the residents of shopping habits, transportation costs, and all costs related to or hidden when buying goods out of town. The hope is to encourage residents in Morning Sun to “buy local” and create a sense of ownership.