Do you remember why you chose membership with your local cooperative? It may be among many reasons shared by 130 million people who have also chosen cooperatives, but it most likely has something to do with the common philosophy of people helping people.
Cooperatives have a rich and diverse history in the United States and around the world. Ben Franklin is credited with bringing the cooperative enterprise to America in 1752 when he and fellow Philadelphians founded the first mutual insurance company in the country.
Cooperatives operate across all sectors and include agriculture, food distribution and retailing, childcare, credit unions, purchasing, worker-owned, housing, health care, energy and telecommunications cooperatives.
Despite their diversity, co-ops are guided by shared values and principles including democracy, self-help and social responsibility. They exist to serve their members, and that level of service remains high even during even the toughest times. Instead of issuing stock or paying dividends to outside shareholders, co-ops provide value to their members through their level of customer service and membership checks at the end of each year.
According to the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), there are nearly 30,000 co-ops in the U.S., serving more than one in every four Americans. Around the world, an estimated 1 billion people are members of co-ops.
"Every day, MKC works to demonstrate cooperative enterprises build a better world," states Dave Christiansen, MKC’s President and CEO. "Not only do we provide product and services to help our members succeed, but we believe we are helping to strengthen our communities through our people, jobs, services and community involvement."
As part of the month-long celebration, MKC hosted a coloring contest for kindergarten through 4th grade students. Fifty-six schools received a packet from MKC containing a supply of coloring sheets and information on the cooperative system to use as education tools in their classrooms .
Prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in each age group. Winning entries will be posted on www.mkcoop.com and featured on MKC's social media sites throughout the month.
By Kerry Watson, Director of Communications
Great things happen when people collaborate. Sharing ideas,resources and capital, helps individuals accomplish more together than they can on their own. Cooperatives are member-owned and -controlled businesses based on collaboration - people working together.
When people join together to form a cooperative, the business is founded on their values and needs: democratic principles; community commitment and interaction; cooperative buying power and economic advantage; people helping people. Communication—aimed at keeping members informed, educated and involved—is a key component of thriving cooperative businesses.
While investor-owned businesses have a structure that pushes them to deliver profits to shareholders, cooperatives have a structure that pushes them to meet their customers’ needs. Cooperatives put people ahead of profits. Cooperative earnings are returned to members through improved services, lower prices or refunds.
In the United States, there are 29,000 cooperatives with more than100 million members. Cooperatives operate in every industry including agriculture, energy, financial services, food retailing and distribution, health care, child care, insurance, housing, purchasing and shared services, telecommunications and others.
Cooperatives work to the benefit of their members and their communities, so join forces! Join a cooperative.
Collaborate. Communicate. Cooperate. October is Co-op Month!
By Kerry Watson, Director of Communications
Each October, cooperatives throughout the country and the world take time to celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of cooperative businesses. Cooperatives are unique because they are not-for-profit, democratically controlled, member-owned enterprises.
Members of cooperatives pool their assets to meet the needs of their community in the form of food, financial services or purchasing power for family owned businesses. The cooperative spirit has been embraced by 100 million members, who are served by 29,000 cooperatives across our nation, working together to achieve community and economic advancement.
Locally owned and controlled, cooperatives play a vital role in the economic development and stability of the communities they serve, helping people improve their lives through an increase in jobs and access to goods and services that would otherwise be more expensive, lower in quality, or simply unavailable.
This year’s Co-op Month theme,"Collaborate, Communicate, Cooperate," emphasizes how great things happen when people join forces and collaborate and how cooperatives are businesses built on collaboration. That’s as true here at MKC as it is in cooperatives across the United States. A philosophy of people helping people lies at the core of all cooperatives, and it’s an advantage that has distinguished co-ops for more than 150 years. Socially responsible business is not a fad with cooperatives; it’s just how co-ops work.
This Co-op Month, we hope everyone will join us in celebrating the cooperative difference, our proud cooperative heritage and the wonderful opportunities cooperative membership will offer in central Kansas for many years to come. Let’s collaborate, communicate and cooperate!
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