Good Morning Everyone,

You are all aware that we have been working with a group of community leaders in the Gottingen St area in Halifax to start a small co-op grocery store. This is an inspiring group of people (low income, healthcare workers, lawyers, members of the black community, disabled, business people) who have all come together to build their neighborhood (an area that has been historically neglected).

In late the Fall of 2012 we applied to a national fund called Aviva Community Fund – which had a competition to give $1,000,000 to ideas that would promote positive change in Canadian communities. In addition to the submission, you only made it to the top through on-line voting (meaning others had to be inspired by your idea).

Needless to say we marshaled our forces for on-line voting, every day, several times a day, for weeks on end. It was a mammoth effort on behave of the Carrot committee and their supporters.

I am delighted to announce that this morning we learned that the Community Carrot Co-op was awarded one of the top prizes – $115,000 to proceed with the development of a Co-op food store on Gottingen St.

The work will now continue to complete the business plan, negotiate a lease for a building, firm up the co-op membership/ ownership structure, and continue to build and leverage partners.

There are days when the importance of our work is very real and visible. This is one such day!

Regards,

Dianne