Don’t Disenfranchise Me
Greetings:
Now that we know nearly two-thirds of member voters want remote access to the general meetings, and that we are free to have hybrid meetings without a change to the bylaws (legal advice received by senior staff after the referendum was happening), can we please reopen meeting access? Since it’s not a boycott or a bylaw change, all we need is a simple majority to approve, if we even need a vote.
For reasons of work/childcare/medical/mobility and room capacity, we can’t all participate otherwise.
Sincerely,
Lisa Guido
Democracy, Generally Coordinated
Greetings:
As recently noted by outgoing General Manager Joe Holtz, Coop members have the right under New York State law to participate in our democratic processes virtually. But our bid to enshrine that right into our bylaws has failed, winning 66.45% of a vote that required 66.67%. That slim margin is a testament to how critical the General Coordinators’ fearmongering was in defeating a commonsense proposal rooted in a desire to expand access and maximize participation at the Coop.
The GCs will tout the PSFC’s commitment to democracy and member input. They’ll invite you to General Meetings where you can “have your voice heard.” But after a year and a half of obstruction, obfuscation and the blatant misuse of their bully pulpit, I speak from experience when I say they’ll only let you participate if they think they’ll still be in control at the end of the day.
Sincerely,
Morgan Võ
Looking Forward With Optimism
Fellow Members,
This summer I will turn 70 and will have been a member of this Coop for more than two-thirds of my life.
As I move into the next decade, our Coop moves into a new phase of its life, with Joe Szladek in the role of General Manager. Welcome and congratulations, Joe.
As a clear-eyed optimist, I imagine the possibilities and work as hard as I can to achieve it. At this moment, I have great hope for what our Coop can achieve under the leadership of a forward-looking General Manager.
Like all Coop leaders, a GM needs to be even-handed and open, fair in their treatment of every Coop member and constituency. They can help us become a truly democratic organization that uses all available tools, so that 17,000 members have the best possible chance to engage in policy- and decision-making. At a moment when a literal majority of Coop members want the opportunity to attend General Meetings online (while the still undecided Hybrid Referendum leaves that up in the air), they can help us transition to hybrid, fully virtual or asynchronous decision-making.
This means leaving behind an overly nostalgic and often unhelpful “we’ve always done it this way” perspective, choosing instead a more analytical stance. It’s time to review how well things actually worked before and consider what needs to change to meet the current moment.
During my 30-plus years working in NYC public education, I learned from and with every child I taught, every teacher and principal I coached and every parent who trusted their child with me. As Joe Szladek assumes his important new role, I look forward to his willingness to learn from and with all members and his commitment to our mission: food, social and environmental justice.
In solidarity,
Alyce Barr
The Coop Has Changed—Except for the Leadership
Dear Coop members:
“The city has changed,” said NY-7 Rep Nydia Velázquez on Democratic Primary night. “Zohran knew it. The other candidates didn’t see it. And that is why we are here celebrating this beautiful moment.”
The Coop has changed. Everyone knows it, especially younger people, disabled people, members targeted by racism and Islamophobia, shift workers, supporters of Park Slope Food Coop for Palestine and so on. The Coop leadership doesn’t see it. And that is why it’s not hard to imagine the Coop’s eventual fade.
Kerry Carnahan
More Democracy at the Coop: Onward!
How disheartening to read that the referendum for hybrid meetings failed to pass. The odds were stacked against it though and I believe that the majority of members do care about greater access to the decision-making process. So…let’s forge ahead!
My co-worker Jason Weiner drafted a robust proposal last year. Member Yejia Chen also came up with a solid plan this Spring. The original hybrid meeting proposal, from CJ Glackin & Morgan Võ, has good recommendations too.
I hope that the General Manager, the Agenda Committee, the General Coordinators and the Membership at large will agree to quickly usher these forward. There is always a lot to do, we are all pulled left and right, but this is urgent. With proper planning we can come up with proposals to vote on in the not so distant future. We have to be agile and steadfast about this. We also have to be transparent, accountable and stop the on-going back-stabbing, slandering and other shenanigans.
The above proposals and ideas could be fully discussed at the next GM; small committees of members and/or staff can be organized to generate ideas and research feasibility with regular reporting, clear timelines and deadlines. The Coop can perhaps postpone other projects to focus on this issue. This is not rocket science. It’s a business decision related to priorities and allocation of resources.
I encourage all members to push for this in the coming months, and not let it be buried under other priorities or by institutional inertia, nay-sayers and pushback. If we don’t stand behind reforming the system to allow greater participation, the Coop will only pay lip service to a core principle: “Democratic Member Control.” And skeptical members will have a point: The Coop is just another “glorified buyers club” with performative democratic values.
In solidarity,
Delphine Selles-Alvarez
Membership Coordinator at the Coop
New Democracy 2.0
Dear Coop members:
We best serve the democratic process when we allow everyone to come to the table. Regardless of technology enhancements, our biggest accessibility limitation will always be time. If we continue to only allow members to participate in discussion and voting on Tuesdays at 7 p.m., we disenfranchise anyone unavailable then. Whether it’s the inability to travel, log on or simply focus due to other constraints like family, location or just life, those members can’t participate.
We need a system that won’t require someone who lost the affordable connectivity program to be pressured by personal cost to participate. We need to give parents and people who work nights time to digest information and not be forced to divide their attention. We need ways that give members with different learning styles and accessibility needs the same info as those at the GM.
I believe it’s important to recognize that nowhere in the principles of cooperation does it say that members must agree with each other. Cooperation is finding common ground. The Coop is not meant to be a cookie cutter of anyone’s beliefs. That’s what makes it beautiful, messy and home to us all. Conflict is inherent in this space. Discourse is a necessity to allow these different opinions a voice. Our current system does not give time or ability to receive, process and respond. It limits participation, it limits engagement, it limits understanding and most importantly it limits factual information and transparent communication.
It keeps us from properly hearing each other. It makes us react and not engage in the best ways. It keeps us from making as much progress as we could.
It’s time for a new Coop democracy. Please attend the July General Meeting to discuss my agenda item.
Sincerely,
Jason Weiner
Membership Coordinator at the Coop
Special Privileges for Holtz?
Dear Coop members:
In his June 6 email, Joe Holz says that “I’m speaking today only for myself and not on behalf of the staff or General Coordinator team.”
If Holtz is speaking only for himself, as one member equal among many thousands of other PFSC members, how is it that he was authorized to send his email to all members on the PFSC email database? Are all members, speaking only for themselves, able to send emails to the entire PFSC email list when they wish?
Sincerely,
Erich Hahn
Joe Holtz’s abuse of authority
Dear member owners,
Joe Holtz’s abuse of authority in using the Coop’s mailing list to send a message to each of us about how to vote in the upcoming election is outrageous. I’ve been an active member of our beloved Coop for more than two decades, so I have heard Joe’s opinion on many things over all these years. But this is next level, to use our member directory to send a personal message about how to vote.
Joe Holtz’s intervention is straight up election interference and an egregious abuse of his power and privilege. Not only is it outrageous that Joe did this himself, I would like to understand which General Coordinators allowed him this access and which General Coordinators knew about this email before it went out and didn’t have the judgment to see this as an inflammatory smear campaign against our own members? Please explain.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Sullivan
Is The Coop Losing Its Progressive Spirit?
Folks,
I’d firstly like to congratulate and welcome Joe Szladek to his new role. It’s tough taking on a leadership role from a set of founders, as I know from my experience advising many startups and nonprofits around the world.
I joined the Coop because good food is good politics—if not, why buy organic or biodynamic? But the recent developments at the Coop have left me feeling insulted, condescended to, and frankly, unwelcome. The spate of missives from the GCs was bad enough, but Joe Holtz’s email decrying board candidates was the height of paternalistic hypocrisy. If the candidates aren’t allowed a similar platform to rebut any smears against them, is this really a democracy?
The contrast with Brooklyn, and the rest of the city—in light of the mayoral primary—couldn’t be more stark. The recent elections have proven that the electorate has uplifted candidates such as Mamdani, Hanif, Lander and others who have espoused justice for Palestinians and a variety of progressive causes. This begs the question: Has the Coop become a conservative institution with a set of ossified principles and bound by inertia? What happened to the kind of spirit that led to Chilean products being boycotted (under Pinochet)? Are we going to be so out of step with the community around us?
Maybe I should give up expecting better and go somewhere else.
I was honestly expecting Joe Holtz to email us all urging us to vote for Cuomo. Perhaps he still will?
Regards,
Jayanth Eranki
Seeking Answers About All-Member Email
Dear Editors:
I’m confused—how and why was an overly political and biased email on the Board elections from Joe Holtz sent to all members using the Coop’s official ‘no-reply’ mailing list? I do not consent to my email being used by the Coop in this manner for any political and/or campaign message, and have never received one until now.
Additionally, was Holtz’s letter meant to coerce, convince and/or rationalize in some way that Coop members need to agree to carry even one single product, let alone several, from a country openly and defiantly committing genocide in front of the entire globe with full U.S. support of funding, intelligence and weapons? Again, confused and would like an explanation.
Sincerely,
A.L. Steiner
Mourning Friend’s Family, Calling for Boycott
To my fellow members,
I have a good friend who is Palestinian and grew up as a farmer in a village called Khuza’a, southern Gaza. I mentioned him in a letter early last year (a letter that was originally refused for publication by the Gazette).
In the last month, I learned from him that his entire village was completely erased by Israel (there is no other word for it). Over 50 of his relatives were killed. The fate of the rest of the over 15,000 residents is by and large unknown, a tragedy in itself.
Khuza’a’s population was not that far off from the size of the Coop’s membership.
Among false narratives from the General Coordinators that a mere boycott of Israeli goods would destroy the Coop—narratives then used to prevent discussion and demonize members—I make the same appeal as in my previous letter: Let’s keep our focus on the real destruction happening in Palestine.
In cooperation and solidarity,
Abdi-Hakin Dirie
From Taipei to Park Slope: In Support of the Coop’s Values
To the Editor:
I’ve been a proud member of the Park Slope Food Coop for 15 years and have always valued its spirit of cooperation and commitment to providing high-quality, sustainable food to our community.
However, since the attacks in October 2023, I’ve been troubled by what feels like a shift in the Coop’s atmosphere. A vocal minority has pushed rhetoric that feels out of step with the inclusive and cooperative spirit that has long defined this community.
As someone who grew up in Taiwan—a place where democracy and civil liberties were hard-won—I’m deeply unsettled by the selective moral outrage directed at Israel. Though imperfect like any democracy, Israel stands alone in the region in offering meaningful protections for women, minorities and LGBTQ individuals. Yet it is often the sole target of intense condemnation, while regimes like China, Russia and Egypt—whose human rights abuses are well-documented—escape similar scrutiny. Criticizing a government’s policies is one thing; singling out an entire nation and its people as uniquely immoral is something else entirely.
Regardless of where one stands on this complex and emotional issue, it is crucial to preserve the Coop’s core values: cooperation, inclusivity and a focus on good food and community. I greatly appreciate the dedication of our General Coordinators, whose hard work reassures me that the Coop’s spirit can continue to thrive. I want to thank Joe Holtz for his decades of service to the Coop and for his recent letter—a voice of reason and moral clarity from someone who has long embodied the values of the Coop. As Joe steps back from his role, I believe his words serve as a timely reminder of what this community stands for: cooperation, respect and a shared commitment to the Coop’s founding principles.
Sincerely,
Linda Wong