Amy Robertson / Board Chair
Happy New Year from the Board of Directors! We ended 2022 with a celebration dinner with the staff in December, enjoying delicious food prepared by Sujon and laughter, gifts and games. Thanks to everyone that helped with organizing, set up, clean up, and to Linnaea Farm for providing a nice room for us to gather ‘off site’.
Over the next few months, the board is determined to improve the aging infrastructure of the Coop’s heating and cooling systems. We have freezers that run on banned substances that broke down in the heat of last summer, which is also the time we see the most customers. This resulted in a loss of sales, and required staff hours to move the inventory to another location for storage while we waited for costly repairs. Our compressors are located under the building, and are difficult to access and don’t have substantial air circulation for optimal performance.
With rising temperatures and heat domes in the summer, we need to upgrade not only these refrigeration systems, but the cooling system for the entire building. On days when the air temperatures rose above 30 degrees C, we were not able to run our ovens, resulting in loss of sales for both the deli and the bakery, while staff lost wages. When the store itself gets too warm, produce doesn’t hold up, and it puts a strain on the coolers and freezers, while making it an uncomfortable place to work and shop.
We are working with the Campbell River company, Aerotherm, and have gotten an estimate on the necessary upgrades to ensure we can maintain our cold and frozen inventory, and heat and cool the building for both comfort and safety. This project is no small undertaking, but we have a window in the next few months to get the work done before we find ourselves in the busy season and vulnerable to the rising temperatures.
CNFC is a member coop, and we count on our community to support us. So, if you are able to contribute to these important capital improvements, please contact me via email (amyrobertson@telus.net) or Mary Lavelle (mary@cortescoop.ca) and we will send you the complete package.
All the best for a fantastic 2023.
Amy Robertson, on behalf of the CNFC Directors
