While many consumers are enjoying the increased popularity of farmers’ markets and a heightened appreciation for locally-grown or produced goods, the Willimantic Food Co-op in Willimantic is a mainstay for Eastern CT consumers for almost 30 years.
The Willimantic Food Co-op began as the Willimantic Buyers Club in the early 1970’s. Members met in the basement of a local church to order food in bulk and divide it amongst themselves at a significant savings. The Willimantic Buyers Club merged with the buying club from Storrs in 1980 and opened a retail store on Main Street in Willimantic. When the Co-op outgrew the Main Street location in 1991, members and friends formed a human chain, and transferred the store’s stock to yet another location. The store finally settled at their current location on Valley Street in 2005.
The store features fresh vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and conventional foods. Popular products include fresh organic and local produce, free roaming, free range, and organic eggs, local honey and maple syrup, regional artisan cheeses, ethnic foods, and many other items.
The Co-op’s members are passionate about running a store that supports local farmers, producers, and craftspeople. Examples include baked goods from popular local bakeries, soda from local bottling favorite Hosmer Mountain Soda, milk and other dairy products from Mountain Dairy, Mansfield, and cheese from Beltane Farm, Lebanon. The store also sells fair trade products, spices and grains in bulk, environmentally-friendly cleaning supplies, and herbal supplements. The Co-op also features pottery, clothing, soaps, beeswax candles, cards, books, and much more.
Since its inception, the Co-op is guided by the Rochedale Principles, a set of eight standards that launched the modern cooperative movement. They include: dedication to honest business principles, open, voluntary membership, cooperation between cooperatives, education, and democratic control. The store is managed and run by a crew of paid staff with the help of volunteer workers.
Bruce Oscar, Assistant Manager, said, “The store is owned by local people. In fact, we have 5,000 people invested in the Co-op both financially and emotionally. Every dollar invested locally rolls over many times, creating a strong, vibrant community and tends to generate more local economic growth.”
The Co-op also features a laid-back dining area and sponsors numerous events during the year including the Downtown Country Fair, Third Thursday and Boom Box Parade on the Fourth of July.
The store is open to members and non-members alike. Every adult over 18 years pays a one-time processing fee of $1 to join the Co-op and then invests $120 worth of equity. Members pay the posted shelf price and have the option of working at the store to receive an additional discount. Non-members pay 10 percent above shelf price.
Hours for the Co-op are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can contact the store at 860.456.3611 or visit their website at www.willimanticfood.coop.
The stress-relieving welcome home party planned for the 150 members of the Groton-based 1109th AVCRAD who are now serving overseas should be all the more fun-filled and memorable thanks to a $1,000 donation from Mystic VFW Post 3263.
“We wanted to give this money to the people who could use it the most,” said longtime Post 3263 member Bill Lewis, Mystic, during a check presentation ceremony held on the afternoon of February 21 at the New London-Groton Airport. This National Guard unit calls the airport home, a place where Bill himself had served for more than three decades.
“We wish it could be more,” he said. But rear detachment commander Lt. Col. Scott Panagrosso said the $1,000 check given to the Family Readiness Group (FRG) was quite a sizable gift.
Lt. Col. Scott says, “This is big, (especially) because the FRG is limited by federal regulations as to what they can and cannot do to help their family members, (concerning fund raisers for soldiers) because [they don’t want it] to look like the government is not doing enough to support the troops.”
One of the restrictions involves advertising for a fund raiser by the FRG but that barrier could be hurdled if an organization were to sponsor an event for which the group’s members could help out behind the scenes.
Mystic VFW Commander John Hartley offered the women free use of the club for a future fund raiser.
“We want residents of the area to know that the Mystic VFW supports our local units,” Bill said.
The group consists of relatives of members of the unit who band together to help each other while their loved ones are deployed on mission and the group also does what it can to help those on active duty overseas.
“We’re all just speechless for all the Mystic VFW has done for us,” said Nicole Garofolo speaking on behalf of the FRG. She was accompanied at the ceremony by three fellow members, Jacquelyn Deschamps and Karen Royce, secretary, FRG, both of Groton, and Julie Hinson of Waterford.
Karen said the VFW contribution would defray the costs of a dinner party planned for a few weeks after the troops return in May. Presently 150 of this 310-member National Guard unit are stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait and, according to Lt. Col. Scott, they should all be back home in May after a year’s deployment.
Joshua A. McClure is the Senior Pastor of the Pleasant Street Baptist Church, Westerly, since 1986. He’s also the author of two highly acclaimed books: 2006’s “Can These Bones Live? ” and 2008’s “Almost Persuaded, Now to Believe.” In the works is “From the Pleasant Street Pulpit, “a book of sermons. Also, Pastor McClure intends to pen a children’s book because “my granddaughter has been after me to do it.”
There’s more: Pastor McClure said the “Almost Persuaded Workbook” is “a companion to the book and will aid and enhance one’s understanding of the Christian faith.” The “Almost Persuaded Teaching Guide” presents “a new dynamic teaching method designed to transform and restore God’s creations back to Himself.” He and Leslie McClure-A’Vant have written “Almost Persuaded, Now To Believe, Church School Studies,” a two year Bible-based curriculum (kindergarten through adult), while “Foundations of Faith Bible Study” is, Pastor McClure pointed out, “a comprehensive Bible-based curriculum… developed for church Bible studies, home-school, and family Bible study.”
Certainly, today times are tough. Times are cruel. People struggle. “So where do we stand?” I asked Pastor McClure. “I mean, are we near the end of the line? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Is there any hope?” Without missing a beat, he replied: “Yes, things are pretty bad. But they’re definitely going to get better. I believe things are going to really turn around because I see people starting to come together. I see people starting to help each other out. In these tough times, I see people really beginning to care about other people. It’s like we’re almost in the same boat and the only way we’re going to get out of it is if we work together. I see positive things beginning to happen.”
Pastor McClure continued: “I see a different spirit in people, too, even though things are bad. [Hope] is important and I see people having hope. My job has always been, since the day I began to minister people, to help bring hope to them. That’s what I have to do – bring hope into people’s lives.”
You only have to read Pastor McClure’s books, or listen to his sermons, to know he’s a biblical scholar and a man of humility, compassion and far-ranging vision. His writings and sermons are understandable without ever being condescending. That he loves his work is proved when he said, “I really can’t say anything I do is difficult. It’s something that I enjoy and love doing and, you know, I can’t do anything else. So it’s not difficult. But I guess if there was any one thing that’s hard, it’s not being able to do more for people. I sure wish I could do a lot more.”
“Dying in the Twilight of Summer” spins the fascinating tale of Great Pines. It is a story about lost innocence and the challenges of growing up in a small town. Great Pines could easily be any number of the small towns that continue to vanish in what remains of the once rugged American West. The story is told through the eyes of four young men growing up in a town losing its culture and everything that makes it unique. The boys find themselves waging a losing battle against the hands of time that only seem to continually bring more hardship and crush their dreams.
“Dying in the Twilight of Summer” offers something to readers of all ages. The themes of friendship and ambition are entirely American, and the difficulties in coming of age and defining of one’s self are timeless reflections that every free spirit has faced and typically never solved. First time author, Seth O’Connell, bursts onto the scene with a raw first hand account of contemporary American youth. Seth’s writing gives readers a glimpse into the obscure and uncomfortable time between youthful idealism and adult realism and exposes emotional self-conflicts with straight-forward, poignant prose.
Seth is a native of Montana. Born and raised in the tiny map dot of Marysville, he attended college in California’s Bay Area from 2003-2008, where he played baseball for one of California’s premiere junior colleges and went on to earn his degree in Biology from San Francisco State University. He also had two short stories recognized as finalists for the school’s Young Writers Fellowship Award. Seth returned to Montana after college, where he works as a journalist and is currently writing his second novel.
“Dying in the Twilight of Summer” is available for order at Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon, or through Seth’s website, www.OConnellbooks.com.
