Champagne, champagne, love, love,
Work, work, bush dance, bush dance
Leaflets, handouts, stalls
Better community and world

It's a very exciting time, and we hope you've all been in to have a look, shop and help.

To say the least, we are in a learning phase at the moment about how to operate a shop of this kind! From accounting, cleaning, computing, ordering, managing, unpacking, to till tallying at the end of the day - the details are many - and it will only be through your continued support and help that we'll get through and grow. So keep your smiling and patient faces coming in.

Currently we are averaging about $160 a day in product sales. Considering our running costs and the fact that we're operating on loans at the moment, this is simply not enough. Costs include a rent of $916 per month, tlelphone, electricity, insurance, etc. We have to double our turnover within the next two weeks in order to make ends meet. Besides covering our costs, a higher turnover will also enable us to have a wider variety of items and will ehlp to make stock keeping easier.

We all need to put in whatever we can to make the food co-op flourish, either in the shop, at home, encouraging friends and family to shop here, putting pamphlets on noticeboards, etc., and making every effort to make the Co-op your first stop in shopping. We will survive because there are too many of us who are determined it will.

Systems are also coming together which will make it easier for volunteers to run the shop, and of course meetings are still happening every Thursday night at 7.30 pm - all welcome. For instance, a living question which has arisen since opening the Co-op is whether we will take home-made produce for sale in the Co-op and, if so, what are the rules.

Let us know if there's any product you would like us to get in. The product list is growing each week (as well as our product information file). Have you ever wondered what to do with Wakame? Many of our members can share their experience with you. And we've already got the everyday essentials... rice, flour, dried fruit, nuts, muesli, cereals, tea, coffee, pasta, eggs, milks, yoghurt, oils, honey, peanut butter, shampoo, toothpaste, detergent, drinks and nibbles, to name a few. All organic or biodynamic and Australian grown wherever possible.

So come, again and again, and don't forget, bring your containers (and any ideas, suggestions and feedback). We buy in bulk and you buy as much or as little as you want - the savings are big - and we help create a cleaner, healthier and more caring community and world.

FRUIT & VEGIES
From now on you will be able to buy fruit and vegies through the food co-op. As we have limited space and cooling facilities we have established an order system which allows our members and customers to buy a wide range of certified organic fruit and vegies. This is how it works:

Come to the next meeting and help others to have a break now and then.

Daily:   10.00am - 6.00pm
Thursday:   11.00am - 7.30pm
Sunday:   10.00am - 4.00pm

Let us know what you think.

We want to thank the following people for their support:

Alex and Regina, Livos Paints for donating paints; Leanne, Hebel for the donation of blocks for the wall; Greg Amber Tiles for the supply of affordable tiles; Tower International P/L in Frenchs Forest for the free scaffolding hire; Dwayne for plumbingp; Chuck for electrical works; Roger for rendering the wall; Anthony for giving priceless advice, his tools and practical help; P. Sellers Hardware for giving us generous discounts on paint and hardware; Henry for taking floor boards and putting them back twice; Candy's staff for being our answering services & switch board and supplying endless cups of coffee and patience. Special thanks as well to the Manly Environment Center for letting us use their space so generously during our renovations.

From now on we will send the newsletter to our paid members only. All other interested people are invited to pick up a newsletter at the shop. We would however be grateful if members who are able to pick up their newsletter from the shop would let us know and do so. This helps to keep our administration costs down. RULES FOR SHOPPING We are setting up some rules which are in accordance with health regulations and the principles of the food co-op. We kindly ask all our members and customers to familiarise themselves with the adhere to the following rules for shopping: Please bring your own reusable containers for shopping, try to avoid the use of palstic bags (use calico or string bags instead). Please wash your hands before handling food. To fill your containers please use the scoops provided in the shop. Please do not take free samples or graze.

The shop will always have sufficient glass containers and bags for sale if you have forgotten to bring containers or bags. If you wish to donate clean glass containers please call the shop beforehand to make sure we don't get more than we can store. Please note that the food co-op strongly discourages the use of plastic bags (even re-used ones) for environmental reasons. Therefore, please do not donate any spare plastic bags. We welcome any feedback, suggestions, comments, gripes you may have about the food co-op, its operation, its service and other things that concern you. To make sure your feedback is being dealt with effectively (and confidentially if necessary), could you please forward your feedback by: dropping a note into the feedback box in the shop or talking to the shop co-ordinator or contacting Volker on 9438 1144 (bh) This is it for this newsletter... Hope you found out what you wanted to know and certainly hope to see you very soon in the shop.