Happy New Year, Austin Dieters! It’s not my place to tell you what your resolutions should be, but since the whole concept behind Diet Austin is interrogating what place means in Northwest Arkansas, I will do so anyways–instead of resolving to “eat healthier” (whatever that means), you should aim to get really into regional micropolitics, maybe while also trying to eat more local foods. Speaking of micropolitics and local food!
It’s been a hot minute since we last talked about our (favorite? And only!) grocery cooperative, Ozark Natural Foods. Since our last piece, there has been:
A special meeting that became heated and contentious, largely over employee treatment, but also over less material things, like the general vibe of the store
Many board meetings
Even more emails (if you’re not on my listserv for ONF updates, you’re a fake friend and should email me ASAP to fix that)
The resignation of now-former GM, Mike Anzalone1
The Annual Members’ Meeting and new board elections
Peppermint mochas came into season. Happy New Year, fuck my digestive system.
March’s Special Meeting
File under: Unpleasant Evenings I’d Rather Not Repeat
It’s a sacred category, and there are few per year. This evening matched (or dare I say eclipsed!) the Great Disappointment of 2022: an Evening with Fran Lebowitz. This is a fair comparison as there is great overlap between the attendees of these two events. Just as we speculated ahead of March’s member-petitioned Special Meeting,2 workers felt underpaid, undervalued, and underappreciated. As a reminder, the 4 main points the meeting was called over were:
Treatment of Employees
Relationships with vendors/producers
In general, the spirit of ONF, and
ONF’s direction in the future.
We talked about the wage issue earlier–namely, the precious GM’s refusal to acknowledge $15.75 as a living wage. Aside from that whack situation, the grievance policy was the biggest red flag in the meeting that night. Board members were unable to articulate an existing grievance policy and suggested employees could bring concerns to the board during meetings, which would happen off the clock. I asked if that would constitute wage theft, and the conversation shifted to “we’ll check on the policies and get back to y’all.”
Since then, the Policy committee of the board recommended a new, clearer grievance policy system (which doesn’t seem to be finalized by legal yet, but should be available at some point.) Dennis also said that he plans on putting the employee handbook out with red pens for staff to make edits, so TBD if the policy shifts after the handbook revisions.
The petitioners requested a response within 60 days. While the board didn’t issue anything like a formal written response, Randy–the President of the board–made a statement during the May 23rd board meeting. The full response is in my notes (starting on page 6, ending on page 8) from the meeting.3 The board did not commit to higher wages or employee board representation. They did clarify the grievance policy, and they did agree communication has been a significant issue. They did not, however, outline specific steps forward–communication has been a persistent problem since then.4
Since the special meeting, I’ve attended (or, on one occasion, watched via Zoom) all but one5 board meeting. I’ve taken monthly notes that border on obsessive and met with board members, owners, former employees, and Mike. Sign Up Here !!
Annual Members Meeting and Board Election
The Annual Members Meeting (AMM) was September 17th. This is the meeting where the Board presents yearly financials, gives a broader report on the general status of the Co-Op than what we hear at board meetings, and opens board member elections. There were three board member seats available this year, including one seat held by an incumbent (Dr. Ben Ozanne) who ran for another term.
Spoiler alert: The winning candidates were Cannon McNair, Jacob Sheatsley, and Nick Carson. Dr. Ben didn’t win re-election, which might be indicative of some of the ongoing unrest among ONF membership and the increasing competition in the field. You can read the candidate statements here, but it’s worth noting that Nick was the only candidate to explicitly mention wanting higher wages during his time at the meeting.
This was, God willing, the last virtual AMM. The Board is tired of virtual, the staff is tired of virtual. The general population invested enough in ONF to go to the AMM is–respectfully–at a specific cross section of “elderly” and “hippie.” A fact not conducive to using the amount of technology required to participate in a virtual AMM. During the candidate Q+A, my own Zoom crashed and I wasn’t able to rejoin the meeting.6
A few weeks before the meeting, then-General Manager Mike Anzalone resigned, and NCG brought in Dennis.
Dennis is, in a literal sense, the interim General Manager. His position is explicitly interim while the board conducts a national search, and he specializes in food retail turnarounds. In a less literal, but much more visceral sense, Dennis is a personified and caffeinated motivational quote. Dennis refers to staff as a “team.” Dennis runs four miles every morning. Dennis is here to help, but even more so, here to hype you up.7 In his own words, he never gets sleepy—I believe him.8
Ozark Natural Foods works with Columinate, a “national consulting cooperative serving mission-driven organizations, including food co-ops, electric co-ops, healthcare organizations, credit unions, schools, and nonprofits.” References to Columinate pop up in basically every board meeting; they train the Board, make policy, legal, and business recommendations, and even employ one of the Board members (though he does not work on the ONF account and keeps his Board position separated from his Columinate work.) Dennis is one of Columinate’s Managers on Contract, specializing in “management transition coupled with an operational tune-up or turnaround.”
What does that mean for ONF? Let’s take a look at Dennis’s first GM report to the board, which was October 3rd–also his 12th day on the job.9 You can read my full notes from the meeting (and encounter10 a lot11 of Dennis12-isms13), but for the quick and dirty, here’s the grocery gospel according to Dennis:
“I’m all about the vibe. I don’t care about anything else, give me the vibe.”
What is the vibe, you might ask? If you would like to ascertain the vibe yourself, all you have to do is attend one of Dennis’s 9:00 am14 all-team “huddles.” They’re hard to miss because 1) he will announce it over the loudspeaker, shortly after playing the song of the day, which has been Pharrell William’s “Happy” all week, and 2) they happen in the smack-dab middle of the produce department. Members are welcome, and if you walk into the store during one of the meetings, you will likely be welcomed by the whole staff. Dennis declared it a “wedding processional” for one couple lucky enough to walk through the gauntlet. I arrived to the October 4th huddle early15 but would recommend arriving a couple minutes late for the full-effect. Vibe, I mean.
Staff compensation and retention
During the Oct. 3rd board meeting, I used the member comment time to–per usual–bring up wages.16 Specifically, I reminded the newly-elected board and our fresh GM that MIT puts Washington County’s living wage at $15.75 an hour, and our Policy Governance requires the GM to work towards a living wage from a reliable source, like MIT. I’m going to fixate on wages more than other aspects of ONF’s operation, because wage increases are going to have the most material impact on the employees–but y’all already know that. The Board can’t commit to higher wages–they leave that to the GM–but they are responsible for holding the GM to aforementioned Policy Governance standards, which didn’t happen with the last manager.
One standout moment of the March Special Meeting was a conversation about wages, which included the former GM justifying ~$12/hr as what he deemed the living wage. That number was based on notions that staff members may have roommates and not backed by any relevant economic sources. Obviously, this guesstimate is not what Policy Governance requires, nor particularly helpful for staff members who may want to do things like pay rent and eat.
So there’s where the last GM was on a living wage. During Dennis’s report at the Oct. 3rd meeting, he declared himself to be “a living wage guy,” and he brought up the wage conversation at the huddle the next morning. It’s not time to celebrate yet. He also said sales aren’t at a point where ONF can handle $15/hr, and that wages will have to follow an increase in sales. This is allegedly something he’s sympathetic to and something we’ll definitely keep close watch on over the coming months. He’s also repeated that he won’t change policy (that’s on the board) but he’ll make recommendations.
He’s also recruiting new staff, including some who left in the twilight months of the Anzalone managerial era and, in his words, “I will get them, and I won’t pay them $11/hour.”17 He also threw out some interesting numbers on turnover, which has visibly gotten worse at ONF in recent months. At the June board meeting, a front end manager who had just put in notice of their resignation commented that they couldn’t even count how many front end staffers had recently left because of wages and policy changes. Around that time, approximately 12 people quit in the span of 2 weeks. If you were shopping in the store this summer, you probably noticed that the registers were running half a skeleton crew. Dennis cited current ONF turnover at 150%, compared to 148% at Kroger, 192% at Walmart, and… 9% at his last assignment.18
There were more staff members than usual at the Oct. 3rd board meeting. Historically, staff members have not been compensated for attending board meetings, despite those meetings being a main conduit for staff members to complain about management when HR systems were unhelpful. Word from the inside is that Dennis pulled aside the staff members who attended on the 3rd and promised to pay them for their time. Now that’s the vibe.
Staff involvement in meetings has generally decreased since October 3rd, and, as of mid-January, wages have not been increased to $16/hour yet. That’s not necessarily unexpected–Dennis and the Board have been adamant that ONF needs to increase sales before wage increases can happen. How exactly they increase sales is something to keep an eye on–expanded conventional (see: not organic, but potentially certified naturally grown, a more rigorous but less expensive certification than organic) produce and bakery items made from bulk-purchased pre-made mixes are on the table.
This is something you can expect to be a big conversation point in upcoming board meetings. I’m personally quite skeptical that ONF’s die-hard clientele will be cool with exporting a good chunk of bakery goods to mixes that aren’t made in house. The organic issue has been a recurring theme in board meetings already. For a deep dive into the current lack of local and organic fruit offerings, check out the member comment section of January’s meeting notes.
Food systems are the vital signs for whatever this stage of development is.
As Austin Dietiers, we know Northwest Arkansas is changing, daily, into something increasingly unrecognizable. Down in Fayetteville, we admittedly hold a certain complex, a sense that we’re more authentic than our allegedly cool and sterilized neighbors to the north.19 Of course, this sense is loaded by the -ism of your choosing; classism, university elitism, Texanism. While Bentonville’s self-proclaimed authenticity is an obvious veneer, Fayetteville’s is supported (at least on the surface) by our landmark institutions that mark us as unique; the je ne sais quois of being a college town,20 vintage shops, profoundly quirky street art, and the only grocery cooperative in Arkansas. S/O Hugo’s and Maxine’s for pulling more than their weight for 40+ years!
Us skeptics of our capitalist overlords are desperately grasping for a sense of control, and for many, ONF is the conduit. People are interested in alternative food systems because the conventional systems separate consumer, producer, produce, and land. We want to feel more in control of our health, our bodies, and our environment, so we buy food we can trace. We get to know our farmers. Maybe we start farming, or gardening, or join the local Weston A. Price chapter and start proselytizing for raw milk.
For 52 years, Ozark Natural Foods has been a mechanism for controlling and relating to the way we nourish ourselves and our families. What other outlets do we have? The legislature is an obvious non-starter. The quorum court is the fourth stop on the river, a psychological hell unimaginable by Satan himself.21 But the Co-Op? That feels doable. We know Ozark Natural Foods, and the community built it together, free of Walmart Foundation grants.22
All this to say
When we’re talking about ONF changing into something unrecognizable, we are also talking about ourselves. This puts extreme pressure on ONF. I don’t say this to absolve ONF’s management or the board of any responsibility. Obviously, we want the pressure to be positive and to result in change that strengthens our community. No matter what the excuses, staff is underpaid. But I do think it is important to contextualize some of our regional anxiety and name it when it appears in meeting rooms. This anxiety builds into hostility against each other. Remember the enemy; the systems that necessitate us to even form grocery cooperatives, the corporate greed and hubris that views workers and ecosystems as disposable.
When I’ve talked with the people whose blood runs through ONF, the old-time owners and farmers, these conversations have happened over public library Arsaga’s, in farmer’s market stalls, on blankets in South Fayetteville backyards over homemade biscuits and pesto. The brown paper bags are right. Good food brings us together! In a place like ONF, you’re going to find every side of the political spectrum united under a common passion for local food and a general skepticism of the government’s role in our agricultural systems. It is honest-to-God beautiful, and we deserve many more years of it without having to compromise our values of equity for all. Yes, this time of broader regional transition is terrifying. But when it comes to ONF, we can, and will, do better with the right amount of pressure, mutual respect, and empathy. Come to Board meetings. Tip at the Taproom. Check in on our friends and comrades in the store, and never forget why we’re here: “to enhance the quality of our lives, and the quality of life in our community” through the food we grow and eat.
Written by Julia Nall
Edited by Clio Grace Rom
We won’t do too much of a postmortem of ONF management following the special meeting–onwards and upwards, y’all. But I will mention that Mike’s resignation letter was not contentious–he plans to “watch a bunch of sunrises and sunsets and think about [his’ future” and says we “will always be able to find [him] shopping at The Coop.”
Not to toot my own horn, but, y’know.
If you open it in Google Docs, you can also use the Doc navigation on the left.
For example, the Oct. 3rd meeting was actually the September board meeting, which would have normally been held on the 4th Tuesday of the month–in this case, Sept. 26th. It was postponed, but they didn’t announce that postponement anywhere, and at least one member tried to attend the meeting on the 26th because of the lack of communication. It’s true that “communication” is a broad term and a hard job title–when you’re something like a Communications Director, your work is public and open to critique in a way nobody else’s is. Empathy is important, but so is making sure people have the info they need to participate in their cooperative, since that’s kind of the whole point.
COVID knocked me out for August. Stay safe out there!
Actually, my laptop battery died, because I am also just elderly and hippie enough to be inattentive to my technology.
And—crucially—make the Co-Op profitable.
I swear to God I’m not stalking this man, but I was at the Taproom bar when he ordered his coffee the other day, which was a lidless Americano–presumably for faster drinking. After getting said Americano, he proclaimed to the Taproom: “THIS IS THE BEST COFFEE IN THE WORLD.” I’m not sure if people within his personality type really need two shots of espresso at 8:45 am, but power to him.
And Kevin McCarthy’s last. Irrelevant to ONF, but funny nonetheless. Maybe Dennis can help out the Speaker’s chamber with their next “management transition?”
“Just so you know, I’ve been on the roof three times. I’m looking at all of it.”
“I do look like Kevin Bacon. My eyes are better.”
“Job description: F-U-N.” In various forms, multiple times.
And “we’re going to have mums–$7.98. Want to know why? They’re $7.99 at Whole Foods.” Get this man a confessional cam. Jenna Lyons has nothing on the “D” chain he wears daily.
Not on-the-dot, but sometime around then, if you’re trying to catch one in person.
So that I could get an almond milk dirty chai, which I did, and which was fine. The day ONF starts carrying hemp milk is the day my vibe really and truly elevates.
And the fact that the Board meetings were essentially inaccessible via Zoom because of the microphone. Towards the end of that meeting, they talked about getting new speakers “so Julia never has to bring it up again.” The new speakers have been great so far!
ONF’s starting wage, confirmed at the March Special Meeting.
Based on the Columinate feature, it looks like his last store was Gem City Market in Dayton, Ohio. I called out of curiosity about their starting wages–the person on the other end of the line wasn’t sure of an exact number, but guessed $12/hr for entry level.
Not you, Springdale. You’re better than all of us.
This je ne sais quois is definitely a very sais quois coctail of chlamydia, speeding Land Rovers, and really stupid restaurant chains (looking at you, Cheba Hut). But also fun things to do at night! I’m trying to be more positive about Fayetteville. Cheba Hut et al isn’t helping.
I have a good amount of patience, obviously, get a sick pleasure out of engaging with things I disagree with. But I have to draw the line at quorum court meetings for my mental health. If you’re one of the brave advocates for good in the QC meetings, thank you, and I respectfully fear you. And you should run for JP! You should all run for JP!
For now–the idea was floated in May.