New Hampshire Co-ops: Cooperation Among Cooperatives for 2022

by David J. Thompson

Three food co-ops in New Hampshire are leading the way in transformative actions that carry out Principle 6 of the International Cooperative Alliance. This sixth principle, “Cooperation among Cooperatives,” encourages cooperatives to work together to strengthen each other.

The Cooperative Community Fund (CCF) program of the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation (TPCF) is generously supported by three New Hampshire cooperatives—the Hanover Co-op, Littleton Co-op, and Monadnock Co-op. The members and boards of these co-ops have built their CCF funds into endowments that grow every year and now total more than $600,000.

You will be amazed at what this act of cooperation has achieved for tens of thousands of people in New Hampshire.

TPCF’s policy is to fund cooperative development in the regions proportionate to where the CCF funds come from.

TPCF has no dollars invested in the stock market but millions of dollars invested in co-op markets and other types of co-ops.

For example, the CCF has invested more than $1 million in the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund—a program that’s helping residents of mobile home parks to form cooperatives and buy the parks they rent in. As of December 31st, 2021, the Community Loan Fund has helped homeowner cooperatives purchase more than 140 mobile home parks in New Hampshire.

By assisting those residents, the Community Loan Fund has helped almost 8,500 New Hampshire families to own not only their own homes, but cooperatively, the land beneath their homes.

The Community Loan Fund has transformed 20,000 residents of New Hampshire from being permanent renters to being owners.

So think about that dollar you can give at the checkout stand of the Hanover, Littleton, and Monadnock co-ops as part of a round-up program, or the patronage refund you can give back to your local CCF. Think about how each dollar given to a CCF immediately leverages ten dollars for the development of cooperatives locally. How’s that for cooperation?

Help us fund more parks going co-op in 2022. Please “give where you live” at your local food co-op. To learn more visit: https://communityloanfund.org and http://community.coop.

David J. Thompson is President of the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation, the largest single co-op equity investor in cooperative development organizations in the USA.

Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation/Cooperative Community Fund is a long-term investor and the largest single co-op investor in the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. Contact David at dthompcoop@aol.com.

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