Washington, DC – Advisors of the Cooperative Development Foundation’s Bowers Fund recently approved nearly $6000 in grants to support training for directors and staff of six food cooperatives. The grants were awarded to:

• Local First Grocer Cooperative, Manitou Springs, CO, for training of a board member and the general manager in finance and board development;

• Market Street Co-op, Fort Kent, ME, for the general manager to spend two days at another Maine co-op for hands-on learning;

• Monadnock Food Co-op, Keene, NH, for customer service training;

• The Portland Food Co-op, Portland, ME, for board training for working with a new general manager;

• South Philly Food Co-op, Philadelphia, PA, for board and committee member training and start-up support;

• and Taos Food Co-op, Taos, NM, to travel to another NM food co-ops for hands-on training and financial training for staff.

The Bowers Fund supports the food co-op sector through grants for the training and education of food co-op staff, board members, and managers. Most of the contributions to the Fund are raised during two annual fundraising events — the Consumer Cooperative Management Association’s (CCMA) Annual Conference Event in June and Howard Bowers Day in October. The Bowers Fund has given out over $338,000 in grants to date.

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The Cooperative Development Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation headquartered in Washington, DC. CDF’s mission is to promote community, economic and social development through cooperative enterprises. (www.cdf.coop).