Your chance to learn how a food cooperative can benefit your family comes April 17 during a public meeting organized by the volunteer group spearheading efforts to open the Bay City Cooperative Market in downtown Bay City.

Sarah Christensen, general manager and chief executive grocer at GreenTree Cooperative Grocery in Mt. Pleasant, will be present to explain how co-ops bolster the local economy and support the community. She’ll talk about co-ops and lead a Facebook Live tour of the Mt. Pleasant co-op.

“Cooperation among cooperatives is one of the cooperative principles, so it’s part of what we do,” Christensen said. “Co-ops are good for the economy; they help money stay local and they support the community. Any chance we get to collaborate and support the cooperative economic model we take, plus we always learn something too.”

That collaborative approach was evident in March when the Bay City Cooperative Market won a $1,500 grant to attend the 2018 annual Up and Coming Food Co-Op Conference, after receiving a $500 scholarship for board members to attend this year’s conference. Forty established co-ops from across the nation donated money to provide seven grants for newer co-ops to attend the 2018 conference.

You can learn more about cooperatives during the public meeting on April 17 at 6:15 p.m. at the Alice and Jack Wirt Public Library, 500 Center Ave. in downtown Bay City. After the meeting, board members will be in the private room at Tavern 101, just down the street at 101 Center, to answer questions. Tavern 101 donated the use of the room after 8 p.m.

To learn more about the Bay City Cooperative Market public meeting, please visit the group’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BayCityFoodCoOp/