News About Your 2022 Patronage Dividend

Greetings Shareholders!

We are paying out Patronage. You will receive a letter in the mail and/or an email.  If we don’t have a valid email or mailing address, the letter will be held at the Customer Service desk.

As a cooperative, we exist to serve our member shareholders and the community. Patronage dividends are a traditional way for co-ops to share profits with their members. We are proud to report that thanks to the loyalty and support of our shareholders we experienced strong financial performance for the fiscal year 2022 (June 2021-June 2022). As a result, we are able to distribute patronage to all eligible shareholders for the second year in a row. A paperless patronage dividend will await you at our Co-op’s cash registers, where a cashier will prompt you to redeem it in a one-time transaction.

Patronage dividends allow the Co-op to share a portion of our profits with you, recirculating important capital back into our community. We determine your dividend based on the amount you purchased during a given fiscal year. Therefore, the more you have shopped, the larger your dividend.

56.43% of our sales came from purchases made by shareholders in FY 2022. Based on the year-end financials and the Co-op’s tax liability, the Board has declared a patronage dividend of $475,000, 20% of which ($95,000) will be distributed to shareholders in proportion to their spending (patronage) at the Co-op during FY22.

The remaining 80% is retained and reinvested in our business to pay down debt and improve the long-term health of our business. Our retained patronage demonstrates that we are in this together for the long haul, as we will all share in the expected future benefits derived from managing our resources responsibly. The retained patronage becomes part of what we own together as an investment in community ownership.

You may redeem your dividend for purchases in our store or in the form of cash, or you may choose to donate it to the Groundworks Collaborative.

Thank you for your continued support—it made this patronage dividend possible!

In cooperation,

Jerelyn Wilson, President, Board of Directors
On behalf of our Board of Directors: Calvin Dame, Judy Fink, Denise Glover, John Hatton, Anneka Kindler, Michele Meulendyk, Vanessa Vadim, Jerelyn Wilson, Johanna Zalneraitis

HOW TO REDEEM YOUR REFUND

When you visit our Co-op before May 1, your cashier will prompt you to redeem your patronage refund in a one-time transaction. At this time, you can choose to apply it to your purchase, transfer it to a gift card, redeem it for cash, donate it to Groundworks Collaborative, or any combination of the above.

PLEASE NOTE: Only the voting Shareholder or your designated household member may redeem your patronage refund at the register.

DEADLINE: If you do not redeem your patronage refund by May 1, 2023, it will be considered a donation to the Groundworks Collaborative.

If you cannot visit our Co-op before May 1, 2023, please call 802-246-2823 or email: Dividend@bfc.coop.

Notice: The patronage refund attached to your Shareholder number can only be redeemed once. It is your responsibility to communicate to any household members associated with your membership how the patronage refund should be redeemed.