A Word from the Board of Directors

Happy Holidays to all who celebrate. We, at the Board, are looking forward to longer days and a hopeful 2026. For our last newsletter of the year, we’d like to introduce one of our newest Board members, Mollie Hari!

1. What motivated you to join the board of Common Ground, and what do you hope to contribute to its mission?

I am passionate about the community being able to connect with local producers. Serving on the board allows me to engage with my community in a space that supports local producers. 

I hope to contribute my experiences from outside the co-op/grocery space and learn more about others' experiences and expertise by serving on the board.

 2. How do you see the role of the co-op in supporting local farmers, sustainable practices, and the community?

Local food chains offer lower-cost options for stable and environmentally sound food practices that benefit both producers and consumers. More contact within these groups allows for better education so that food choices are informed by more than pretty marketing, but human relationships based on the realities of food production.

The co-op offers a familiar format for the community to interact with their local farmers that is available on a more frequent basis than a farmer’s market or farm store.

3. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the co-op today, and how should we address them?

The biggest challenge the co-op faces is affordable and accessible food. This challenge is multi-faceted and begins with partnerships with our local producers including aspiring ones via education and promotion, countering the idea of the co-op as a high-end consumer option, and building systems that add more options for vendors who are in alignment with the Co-op’s Ends.

4. How do you approach decision-making in a cooperative setting where multiple stakeholders have different priorities?

While the needs of the business weigh heavily in this setting, there is no business without owners/customers or the employees who support them, it is important to ensure that decisions made by the board support the business as well as individual external and internal contributors.

5. What skills or experiences do you bring to the board that help strengthen Common Ground’s leadership and operations?

My experiences working with a diverse multigenerational team to support diverse multigenerational customers across the globe will help strengthen Common Ground’s leadership and operations as well as my more limited background to support a company who provided food safety audits.