Co-op celebrates 60 years with free BBQ
A milestone and the people who made it possible were celebrated on Friday.
South Country Co-op celebrated 60 years since Medicine Hat Co-op was founded with a free barbecue inside the 13th Avenue grocery store, thanking the community for its support .
“It’s great,” said Norman Rubbelke, board chair of South Country Co-op. “We’re a strong organization, we’ve been able to return a lot to our community and our members. It’s an organization to be proud of.”
According to South Country Co-op’s website, Medicine Hat Co-op was first incorporated on April 13, 1956, with 300 members paying $50 each to form the organization.
Medicine Hat Co-op merged in 2015 with South Country Co-op, which operates in Vauxhall, Taber, Brooks, Lethbridge and other communities across southern Alberta. Today, South Country Co-op has more than 62,000 members and gave back more than $13 million to its members and the community last year.
“We’ve gone from a pretty small organization to a $430million a year organization,” said Rubbelke on the biggest changes over the past 60 years.
But, it is the members which have kept Co-op thriving for six decades, says Rubbelke.
“It’s the dedication to the Co-op, and that sense of ownership,” he said. “Everyone, potentially, at our annual general meeting, has a say in things that are happening.
During the barbecue, Coop also collected donations for the Medicine Hat Food Bank.