A description of the structure and the processes of a community of projects in the Food System. We explored the creation of a co-working space to house some of the projects.

1. Feb. 1, 2016
Food Ekosystem Dinner

2. CoFood
A local food ekosystem

3. A ‘Community of Projects’:
an ekosystem
A community of projects sharing:
An overarching goal, vision or story
Shared space (physical or virtual)
Common Infrastructure and Processes
 Technology platform
 Events, gatherings
Work towards collective resourcing
An organization… a Community… a Movement!

4. Why form ekosystems?
Systemic Issues Need System-Level Solutions … you
can’t do it alone!
Minimize Redundancies, duplicated efforts and
wasted resources
Build community and make friends
Increase Collective Impact
Shifting Consciousness Towards the Collective
Change the Resource Allocation Paradigm
 Solve the Early Stage Social Impact Funding
Bottleneck
 Shift from culture of competition to
cooperation

5. Ekosystems are diverse…

6. Ekosystem Structure: food
system lens

7. Ekosystem Structure: finance lens
Finance the
Entire
Ekosystem

8. Wider community
Ekosystems: the space (the Hub)
is the focus
In Same
Co-Location
Space
Unification and
Convergence are
served by being in
the same physical
location
The Water
cooler effect!
Ekosystem
extends into
the wider
community

9. Exploring Ekosystem
Technology Platform…

10. The ‘Food Ekosystem’
What we are up to!

11. Our Ekosystem (currently)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Project 4/Out of
the Box
Urban Farming/Community Food
Hub
.commUNITY Ekosystem growers
Food Connection Food community/education
Urban Stream Innovator in urban composting
Victory Gardens Help people grow food
Vania Ling Food events and blog
You?

12. Multi-stakeholder
Cooperative
A potential structure for coFood

13. What is a Co-Operative?
Purpose of Co-Operative: owned and operated by members to
serve the members.
Co-Operative: one member … one vote at AGM
Examples: producer and consumer co-operatives
Financial Investors: don’t have control
Investment Shares: non – voting
Board of Directors (primary operational responsibility): no more
than 20% investors
Rights and Obligations: of membership need to be defined

14. What is a Multi-Stakeholder
Co-Operative?
Purpose: to contain a number of different stakeholders
that are a part of an entire System
Different Membership Classes: Farmers, distributors,
grocers/retail, restaurants, composters, urban
agriculture/technology etc
Challenges: balancing the range of different interests
Opportunity: create a structure that establishes a
framework that supports the economic and social
interests of constituents in the system to support their
effort to work in service of the greater good!

15. Evolving the Multi Stakeholder
Co-Operative Model…
 Traditional Co-Operatives, including multi-stakeholder
co-operatives are created by members to serve the
members
 The evolution of the co-operative model will be created
by members to serve the members as well as the
Commons!
This structure when formalized will be christened an
ekosystem!
So you can understand an ekosystem as an evolution in
organizational structure…. Corporations, societies, co-
operatives…. And now ekosystems!

16. Potential Membership Classes:
financial classification
 Late Stage: Mature, financially profitable
organizations that are financeable alone
 Mid Stage: Revenue generating, post proof of concept,
still evolving business model and therefore having
difficulties sourcing profit motivated investment capital
 Germination Stage: Pre Proof of concept, early stage
projects, some of which have modest (or no) long term
objectives of making money

17. Potential Membership
Classes: food system
 Farmers/Growers
 Urban Farmers
 Wholesalers and Distributors
 Transport and logistics
 Retail (restaurants, grocers etc)
 Composting

18. Determining Membership
Classes
 Keep it simple
 What tensions are inherent in the system?
A simple example… two membership classes
 Producers
 Consumers
 Germination Stage Projects

19. The coFood Value Proposition
 Access to Food Hub and Convergence Space
 Deepened relationships with other food projects
 Discounted access to events, workshops etc
 Access to Technology Platform
 Discounted access to aggregated services
 information management, such as accounting and payroll
 insurance, such as extended health and liability insurance
 Staff recruitment and other human resources support
 legal assistance
 advocacy
 professional development and training
 bulk purchasing discounts

20. coFood Business Model
 Memberships
 Financial Benefits from Tech Supply/Demand
Aggregation platform

21. Investing in Co-Ops
 Investment shares are non-voting
 Financial profit is paid on a patronage basis… based on
business done within the co-op
 Equity generally redeemable at par value, so no
significant capital appreciation
 Debt financing possible

22. Next Steps
 Develop phase I strategic plan and budget that speaks
to Vancity’s three priorities
 Co-operative principles and practices
 Environmental sustainability
 Social justice and financial inclusion
 Explore Vancouver Foundation Field of Interest Grant