A message from DGC Board President Seth McOmber:
A warm hello to our neighbors here in Delridge, across the West Seattle peninsula, and beyond!
Since its beginnings in 2009, the Delridge Grocery Co-op’s mission has been to grow community by providing whole foods at affordable prices to the residents of the Delridge area in West Seattle.
In recent years, we’ve molded that community-owned grocery idea into brick-and-mortar form, opening a grocery store in the North Delridge neighborhood that’s cooperatively owned by nearly 800 of our neighbors. If you’ve visited our store, thank you for your patronage! If you haven’t, membership is not required. I invite you to stop in and see what dedicated volunteers can build.
Volunteers are the backbone of our Co-op operations. While future plans include paid staff, right now everyone involved is a volunteer – whether running the register in the store (you’ll often see me there on Mondays), packing weekly boxes with organic produce (and delivering them around West Seattle), ordering items to line our shelves, coordinating our gifted produce box program, and more. The DGC could not exist without this generous gift of time and effort from folks like Lara, Agen, Jeff, Diane, Frances, Liz, Kevin, Suzanne, Amy, Nolan, and many others.
However, our small current volunteer pool is overstretched and the balance is not sustainable with the task load. And that’s why we’re asking our Co-op community to make a bold step and embrace our mission as your mission by giving your time as a volunteer at the DGC.
The good news is that we don’t require much to set the balance right. Our primary need right now is responsible adults willing to run the register and cover in-person shifts at the shop — just three hours, once a month. That’s like a Marvel movie these days!
Our friendly core group is ready to provide extensive training to ensure you are comfortable in the role, and no long-term commitment is required (but you might find yourself coming back for more).
For your time, we offer our volunteers a 10% store-wide discount on the day of their shift. Volunteering at the Co-op is also a great way to meet and network with community-minded neighbors, and it’s a great resume builder for young adults looking for retail and community service experience.
Ready to help? You can sign up for retail training shift right now. If in-person time won’t work for you, we have more ways to help! Please see our volunteer details page for other opportunities including marketing, grant-writing, and volunteer coordination.
For more info, you can contact us at delridgegroceryvolunteer@gmail.com, or come see us in person at Ounces this summer. We’ll be hanging out on Thursday, July 20 and Wednesday August 23 at Ounces (from 5-8pm on each day) to answer questions about volunteer needs, becoming a Co-op owner, and more.
I understand time is precious and do not lightly ask for yours, but many hands make light work… and we need more hands to make the DGC work for our community. With your help, we can ensure continued growth and stability for our shared oasis in the Delridge food desert.
In cooperation,
Seth McOmber
President, DGC Board of Directors
