Friends of Brookton's Market
Friends of Brookton's Market
A Small Country Store with a Really Big Heart...
which might soon become a member-owned cooperative!
Hello Brooktondale community -- and those in the Tompkins county community with a heart for our little hamlet.
As you probably know, Brooktondale is very lucky to have its own little store and community gathering spot. Brookton’s Market is a unique and charming family-owned business with groceries, a café, draft beer on tap, a great espresso bar, indoor and outdoor seating, live music, and community events like a very popular trivia night.
Sadly, the owners of Brookton's Market (www.brooktonsmarket.com) have decided that they don't want to be in the business of owning a community store anymore, and they are selling the business. But happily, they are willing to work with a group of local community members, the "Friends of Brookton's Market," to see whether the Market could be converted into a cooperative.
In the space of a few weeks, we have gathered 85 interested people, held two general meetings, heard from experts in cooperatives, set up a steering committee (which has met 4 times), agreed to work with an organization called Keystone Development Center, and on Friday we will submit a grant application to the USDA to fund a planning project called: "From Grocery Store to Food Coop: Saving Brookton's Market, the Heart of Our Community."
Our application would definitely benefit from letters from the community!
We need two kinds of letters -- "letters of commitment" from anyone who would like to have a financial relationship with the future Co-op, i.e. vendors and donors and investors, and "letters of support" from community members, customers, fans of cooperatives, etc. Because this is a USDA grant, it would be helpful to have letters that mention locally grown food and showing support for farmers and food processors (although it is fine to talk about how much you enjoy trivia night, too).
I will be putting all the letters together Thursday night, for uploading to the grant website on Friday.
In the meantime, I'll be posting more details on this impromptu webpage: (see any addenda below...) I believe that the letters of commitment need to appear on a certain template and follow a certain format, but I want to send this email first and then go figure out the details. The letters of support can take any format you wish, and be as long or as short as you wish.
Many thanks in advance!
Emily Adams, steering committee member of Friends of Brookton's Market
p.s. if you would like to be added to the Friends of Brookton's mailing list, let me know... (emilyfinnadams@gmail.com, 607-708-0342)
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addendum 1: Here is an example of a letter of commitment that folks can use as a model. The letter should be on your company letterhead, if you are a company with letterhead. It should be addressed to:
Jonathan Bates, Project Director, Brookton’s Market
c/o Meryl Phipps, Executive Director
Village at Ithaca
401 W Seneca St
Ithaca, NY 14850
The text should mention the name of the project "From Grocery Store to Food Co-op: Saving Brookton's Market, the Heart of Our Community" and the grant period, which is 10/1/2025 to 9/30/2027. And then any relevant details of what you are committing to, which might be "I commit to donating $500 to a capital fundraising effort if the feasibility study concludes with a promising report" or, "I commit to signing a distribution agreement with regular deliveries of my products to the market, once the cooperative is established."
addendum 2: regarding letters of support... some ideas you can think about as your write your narrative... (try to work in farms and local produce, meat, prepared foods...)
Who are you? (Any info you want to share: age, family size, children?, length of time lived in area, artist/student/retiree/farmer, etc...)
Why is the B Market important to you and your community?
What is your relationship to the market?
What do you love about the Market and want to preserve?
How would a co-op model enhance the existing market and even better serve the community?
What needs of the community could a co-op market serve?
How might this project strengthen our community?
addendum 3: a sentence that would be helpful for letters of commitment: I/we support this Agricultural Marketing Service, Local Food Promotion Program planning grant application to conduct a feasibility study and business plan development for cooperative ownership of Brookton’s Market.