Harnessing the Power of Equity
As we move through Black History Month, welcome the new lunar Year of the Fire Horse, and step into Phase II of our Capital Campaign, one word keeps surfacing in our co-op community:
Equity.
It’s a layered word — and right now, it’s an active one. Not just something to define, but something to practice.
Let’s explore three ways this word comes alive — and how each one points us toward the opportunity in front of us.
1. Equity as Justice
The roots of the word “equity” stretch back to the 14th century: “that which is equally right or just to all concerned.”
Last Sunday at St. George’s Episcopal Church before a pancake breakfast and presentation by Electric City Community Grocery leaders, congregants sang Psalm 99, praising a God who is a “lover of justice” and who “established equity.” The ancient prayer echoes forward into our own time.
We live in what economists call a “K-shaped” economy—where affluent Americans are rapidly getting ahead, others left falling further behind. Wall Street rebounds. Main Streets struggle.
As we emphasized in our 2021 ARPA proposal, “Building Back Better, Together”, cooperative enterprise offers a different pattern. Instead of wealth flowing upward and outward, co-ops circulate dollars locally. Instead of distant shareholders extracting profit, member-owners build shared prosperity.
When we invest in a cooperative grocery store, we’re doing more than opening a retail space. We’re strengthening local health, local jobs, and local ownership.
That’s equity in its oldest sense: fairness rooted in shared flourishing.
2. Equity as Belonging and Right-Sized Solutions
There’s another meaning of equity that feels especially alive in a cooperative:
Sometimes fairness requires different treatment to achieve just outcomes.
Equity asks: What does this community need? Not what worked somewhere else. Not what maximizes shareholder return. But what serves the people who are actually here.
One of the great strengths of a cooperative is that it is shaped by its members. We are not waiting for approval from a corporate headquarters in another state. We govern ourselves. We adapt. We respond.
Yesterday, Betsy Sandberg (MO#905) asked filmmaker John Sayles what ingredients he believes are necessary to make a community thrive. His answer pointed toward something we know well: communities succeed when they can learn and adapt together.
That’s what a co-op does.
We are autonomous. We are locally governed. We are accountable to one another.
Our store will look the way we choose it to look. It will be right-sized because we right-size it. It will be inclusive because we insist on inclusion. It will evolve because we evolve.
Equity, here, means participation. Belonging. Shared authorship.
3. Equity as Member-Owner Investment
And then there is the most tangible meaning for us right now:
Member-Owner Equity.
When you invest Member-Owner Equity, you are:
Keeping capital circulating locally rather than paying interest to distant lenders.
Exercising democratic control over how our store operates.
Aligning your dollars with your values.
This is not charity.
This is ownership.
This is cooperative economics in action.
The third cooperative principle is “Member Economic Participation.” Members contribute equitably to—and democratically control—the capital of their cooperative.
And here’s what’s most powerful - when you invest in MO Equity, you activate all three meanings of equity at once:
You support fairness.
You shape a locally responsive enterprise.
You build shared ownership.
Standing in a Larger Tradition
As Board Member Angela Williams (MO#813) reminded us at the Beloved Community Pie Social, when we participate as Member-Owners in the Electric City Community Grocery, we are participating in a larger tradition of cooperative economics that has long been part of movements for freedom and self-determination.
Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer helped establish the Freedom Farm Cooperative so Black families could secure land, food, and economic independence. She understood that political rights without economic power leave communities vulnerable.
And in his final speech, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of having “been to the mountaintop.” From that vantage point, he envisioned a beloved community rooted not only in civil rights, but in economic dignity.
Cooperation is one way communities move toward that vision — by pooling resources, expanding ownership, and building institutions that reflect shared values.
When we invest together, we practice solidarity instead of exclusion.
We choose reciprocity over extraction.
We create food security that cannot be outsourced.
This Is a Choose-and-Build Moment
Thanks to extraordinary public support from city, county, state, and federal partners, we have secured $6.25 million toward our project.
To complete our capital stack and begin construction, our community-sourced capital campaign goal is $1.35 million.
Phase 1 was completed in 2025, and raised the first $184K, which helped to unlock reimbursable grant funding and allowed us to sign our lease. We’re launching Phase 2 this month, which will run through April 1, 2026. During this phase we will raise the remaining $1.17 million, through a combination of Member-Owner Equity, Corporate Sponsorships, and Charitable Contributions. Although all capital contributions are valuable, Member-Owner Equity is the most powerful, as The Beet reflected upon last week.
This isn’t a “do or die” moment.
It’s a choose and build moment.
The Year of the Fire Horse symbolizes energy and forward motion. Black History Month reminds us that when ordinary people pool their courage and resources, they reshape what’s possible. And as local filmmaker Prince Sprauve emphasized yesterday, passion draws people, and hustle makes things happen.
If you’ve already contributed MO Equity in our capital campaign — thank you. You are already generating MO-mentum!
If you’ve been considering it, this is a powerful time to step forward.
Because when we harness the power of equity — justice-rooted equity, community-shaped equity, and member-owned equity —we don’t just open a grocery store.
We open doors to shared prosperity.
We root health and wealth in our community.
We expand ownership.
We build something that belongs to all of us.
This is our store.
This is our community.
This is our equity.
Let’s finish what we’ve started — together.
If you are interested in increasing your equity or exploring opportunities to “Tier Up,” please reach out to eatlocal@electriccityfood.coop with the subject “Let’s Talk Equity” and a member of our Capital Campaign team will follow up with you!