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Ends policies

March 2011

This is an excerpt from Management's report to the board on its interpretation of and compliance with one of our Ends policies based on 2010 activity.

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An excerpt from management's interpretation

ENDS POLICY D:

PCC members and patrons are well educated in matters of healthful foods, healthy sustainable living, and the cooperative business model.

Interpretation
Management interprets Ends Policy D to mean that PCC is to conduct outreach efforts to educate its members and patrons on issues that relate to food and other products offered by PCC, the cooperative business model and governance activities. Educational efforts will often occur one-to-one between well-educated staff and members of our shopping public but may also take the form of classes and lectures directed at staff and consumers, electronic and printed communications, and PCC sponsored events.

Report

Staff education
Throughout last year our employees were offered opportunities to learn more about our products and to improve their skills. Our human resources department provided training at a total cost of $152,000 that included:

• New staff orientations: Required classes that include information about the cooperative business model, our governance structure and governance activities. In addition, all new staff members are required to attend at least one in-store class to begin orienting them to PCC’s product lines and product standards.
• Computer training classes
• Health & safety training

Our staff also attended a variety of vendor training sessions.

Consumer education
Education of our shoppers takes many forms ranging from formal classes to our advertising programs. We are always looking for more ways to tell our story and to promote healthful living in our community. Examples include:

PCC Cooks Program: Throughout 2010 the 27-year old PCC Cooks program offered classes featuring hands-on practical advice about preparing and cooking healthful foods. The program emphasizes expert instruction, local and seasonal ingredients, kitchen skills and tested recipes – all in a fun, relaxed environment. Major categories of instruction include:

• Walk-Talk & Taste: Staff experts guide shoppers through the aisles of PCC providing food facts, recipes and products to sample. The 90-minute tour, led last year by PCC’s nutrition educators, offers easy recipes with nutritional information, 3-minute menu plans and a valuable shopping coupon. Special classes are offered for shopper interested in PCC’s many gluten-free options.
• Global Gourmet: Recipes from around the world.
• The Main Course: Cooking “outside the cookbook” intended to demystify cooking and give students freedom, knowledge and confidence in the kitchen.
• One of a Kind: A variety of subject areas not usually addressed by cooking schools.
• Holiday inspirations: Instruction in local holiday recipes and meals and gift-worthy creations from the kitchen.
• Guest Chefs: Instruction from local experts.
• The Basics of Cooking: Tips, techniques and recipes for beginning cooks.
• Dinner Events with Wine or Beer: Informal, informative dinners that explore food and drink, matching wine or beer with a dish and alternately creating a dish to complement the beverage.
• PCC Kids Cook: Kids of ages 2 to 15 make their own meals in hands-on classes while working together to learn kitchen skills and techniques appropriate to their age.

PCC Cooks offered 1,089 individual classes last year, including Walk, Talk and Taste tours, which were attended by 16,262 people. The number of classes increased 12.3% from the previous year; total students increased 23.9%.

The program also offered classes and camp programs for kids, making sure even the very young in our community have opportunities to learn about healthy foods. There were options for every age, from “I Can Cook, Too!” (2-3 years old), to five-day camps for older kids (8 to 15 years). PCC Cooks’ winter and summer camp program provided a more extended hands-on experience, with camps geared to the age, skill level and interest of a range of youngsters. In 2010, the program offered 135 camp days for kids, an increase of 12.5% over 2009.

Store tours and product demonstrations: Tours of our stores are requested by schools and community groups, visiting industry professionals (primarily from Japan) and the media. Tours are scheduled on an individual basis and led by store and/or office personnel, depending on the group. Last year several groups specifically requested tours of our Fremont, Redmond and Edmonds stores to learn first-hand about the many green building features of those locations.

PCC advertising programs: PCC uses a wide range of external media to educate consumers about our products and alert them to special promotions. Examples included local newspapers (The Enterprise, Redmond Reporter, Seattle Weekly, Edmonds Journal), television and radios stations (KING 5 TV, KUOW, KPLU), websites (KEXP, KNDD) and transit. The vast majority of these messages are created and executed by our graphics department, as are the many point-of-sale messages (register screens, posters, shelf tags, etc.) in our stores.

PCC website, electronic newsletters and social networking: Substantial progress was made in educating consumers in 2010 through enhancements to our online offerings, especially our new website. New website areas encourage visitors to Shop, Cook, Learn, Participate and Join Us.

Customers now have five searchable data bases (Gluten-free, PCC Kid Picks approved, Non-GMO products, Bulk products and Recipes) to help them prepare their shopping lists, and a variety of new podcasts and videos to learn how to prepare PCC products and become more familiar with PCC producers. Many videos are produced in-house; others have content provided by – or are linked to – partners, such as the popular “Gardening with Ciscoe” cooking segments featuring PCC chef Lynne Vea.

“ “Thank you! I went to the site today specifically looking for this. I always forgot to write down the directions and want the nutrition facts, too.” ” — Bulk products database user, posted on PCC’s Facebook site in 2010

PCC Fresh, our monthly electronic enewsletter – filled with seasonal recipes, product spotlights, upcoming events and ideas on living more sustainably – was launched in June 2008 and had more than 10,321 subscribers at the end of 2010. We also send product recall and food safety alerts to our newsletter subscribers, who choose from the following options:

• PCC Cooks – New classes each offered each quarter and special events and offers.
• PCC Advocates – Timely information about food and agriculture public policy issues.
• PCC Wine – Information about new wines and tasting events.

“ “I subscribe to your online news service, PCC Advocates, and am writing to thank you for making me aware of the FDA’s agenda to approve genetically-engineered (GE) salmon.” ” — PCC Advocates subscriber, November 2010

Our social media options and Stir-fry – our behind-the-scenes blog – keep our shoppers up-to-date about the latest in product and event information and invite feedback. All of these online features are accessible via the “Follow us” section at the bottom of our website’s home page.

PCC printed communications: The monthly Sound Consumer continues to be the primary printed communication piece for our co-op. It offers a variety of articles written by food, farming and nutritional experts aimed at helping readers make healthy food and lifestyle choices. It also provides timely information about our co-op and how we’re governed, including board meeting reports and annual election announcements. 2010 cover stories addressed several timely topics of interest to our members and included:

• “Choosing to be a vegetarian; 2 views” (December)
• “The truth about fats” (October)
  “Thank you for the excellent article about fats and for putting it on the cover of the Sound Consumer.”
• “Organics can feed the world” (September)
• “Protein – how much is enough … or too much?”(May)
• “Green cleaning” (April)
  “Thank you for the refreshing Green cleaning article. Those of us who are sensitive to chemicals always are delighted to know that more people are using nontoxic ways to clean. We appreciate any effort that others, including PCC, make to help us live in a less toxic world.”
• “Concentration in agriculture. Squeezing out family farmers?”(March)
• “Let food be your green medicine” (February)
• “Social responsibility at PCC Natural Markets” (January)

“ “I love getting my issue of the Sound Consumer every month and can’t begin to tell you folks how it grounds me.” ” — Letters to editor, October 2010

In 2010, two new educational brochures were developed for customers to take home from our stores: All natural beef and Custom order cakes. Our Gluten-free, PCC Kid Picks, Tofu, Beans and Cooking Oils brochures were all updated. These helpful guides, together with all of PCC’s informational brochures, can also be viewed on and downloaded from our website.

Store and community events: PCC’s community relations department contributes to educational outreach through programs such as PCC Kid Picks, organization of store events – the largest being the annual Healthy Living Fairs at Issaquah and Edmonds – and participation in community events. Through these efforts consumers come face-to-face with the benefits and variety of healthful products offered through our stores.

The PCC Kid Picks Program, which has invited children age 12 and younger to sample and vote on PCC products since March 2004, hosted 69 events throughout King and Snohomish Counties in 2010. Kid judges in our market area have been introduced to 4,410 products since the program began. Of those products tested, 1832 products have been approved and are still offered in our stores.

PCC continued efforts to educate the public-at-large about issues related to creating healthy, sustainable food and agriculture systems. PCC’s nutrition education and public affairs staff offered several learning opportunities for PCC members and area consumers at public schools, community centers and other venues.

Press coverage of issues related to healthy, sustainable products
PCC attracted significant local and national press coverage last year. 102 substantive press mentions in 39 print, broadcast and online media were recorded furthering PCC’s growing reputation as a trusted source of information concerning food safety and nutrition, organic agriculture, product standards and sustainable business practices.

Management reports compliance on Ends D.

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More about: board of trustees, Policy Governance