Sixteen owners attended the July 18, 2026 Owners Gathering and Meeting. We began by enjoying delicious food from Caked Up Ent Catering of Louisville. Board member Judy S opened the business meeting by inviting veteran owners to talk about LCG co-op organizing and what has worked in the past. Owners shared the following positive experiences from past years:

• commitment, discipline, consistency among board members and owners
• a sense of community, a sense of shared purpose in working together to open a cooperatively owned grocery store
• specific ways to enter the work

Next, those present offered the following areas that need improvement now:

• need to set strategic goals for engaging current owners over the next year
• need more informal fellowship times to build community and trust
• need to implement the onboarding process developed by the Ownership & Outreach Committee for owners to become involved
• need tangible ways for owners to contribute time as organizers and as “worker bees”
• need a database to collect owner information and a dedicated volunteer to keep it updated
• need a way for prospective owners to join and if technology is a hurdle then consider simpler ways (i.e. cash or check)
• we may need to reconsider the role of owners – not just as investors, but active members

Judy then summarized the options MK Lindsey of Winter Wheat presented at the February Owners Meeting regarding the case studies she researched and LCG’s possible way forward:

1. closure & dissolving assets for the benefit of a like-minded project; 
2. partnering with a like-minded project or partner; 
3. re-organizing better.

For the next hour we had a panel discussion with Barry Z., owner and former member of a food buying club, and Birch Bragg, owner of LOCALS in Louisville and Frankfort.

Barry talked about his experience as a buying club member in the 1970s at another co-op. He shared about the various jobs the co-op members would do as part of the buying club, such as contacting farmers to find out what they had for the coming week, picking up produce from the farmers and bringing it to the distribution site, bagging the grocery items for the buying club members to pick up, managing the orders and handling the money. Barry noted that courts closed many co-ops in the late 70s due to not paying members for their work which became a violation of the new employment tax laws. This raises awareness for us about our business model as we consider opening a buying club as a Limited Cooperative Association (LCA) in Kentucky.

Birch discussed his business endeavors beginning with forming a Bowling Green community supported agriculture (CSA) to get farmers’ food in people’s hands. He has since expanded to a grocery store model with a restaurant component. He noted that the restaurant stabilizes the grocery business. Birch offered to share information and resources when LCG is ready to discuss. He suggested contacting Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s cabinet for grants and answers to business questions.

After a stretch break, we agreed that LCG would need to have at least 15 owners commit to joining a buying club working group for the project to continue to be developed. We will spend the next few weeks sounding a call for owners to step up. If we do not get 15 owners to commit, we will let the buying club project go.

We continued to discuss what a food buying club working group would be tasked to do:

• First priority is to learn the legality of owners volunteering to run the buying club for the LCA; if this is not possible, how many employees would be needed?
• Starting from scratch. We need to make a timeline for the buying club. 
• Finances. We need to make a business plan; initial capital for equipment, funding for supplies
• Product. We have a buying club survey with over 50 responses indicating top priorities for owners interested in joining a food buying club.
• Location. The Kling Center has offered space and refrigeration.
• Operations. Staffing – employees and volunteers

There was some concern around a food buying club being for “subscribers” only vs. open to the public. Does this line up with our purpose? Will this turn people away from LCG if they cannot become regular subscribers to a buying club? A hybrid version with subscribers and walk-up sales was suggested as well.

Action: Lead Team (Abby L, Judy S, Carrie V, Barry Z, and Carlos N.) will commit to the buying club working group. We need 10 more owners to join these leaders. A poll will go out in our e-news and voice messages asking for owners to choose a meeting time in August for the first organizational meeting. These dates are August 5, 19, 26, and 27 at 6:30 – 8:00 PM.