Sample+Letter+to+Co-ops+at+Schools

Dear X,

We are a group of students at Western Washington University who are trying to get a student run food co-op on our campus. We have run into several barriers that have stopped our plans from following through. The main barriers we face are insuring food safety and liability. The university wants us to work with our food service provider, Sodexo, instead of being an autonomous business. Also, in order to get outside food in our campus markets, the businesses must have 5 million dollars worth of insurance. We were hoping you could answer a few questions and give us some insight as to how you went about starting up your co- op. Could you tell us how your school handles food liability issues ( i.e. who would be held liable if someone were to get sick?)? How did you go about addressing food liability concerns with the university? Do you require your suppliers to follow HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) protocol and/or carry insurance? Can you receive food directly from the farm or must you go through a food distributor? Who is your food service provider? Are you self operated? What is your management hierarchy? What is your operational structure/model? If you are student run, how do you ensure consistency of service with high student turnover? How did you start up your co-op? Did you encounter barriers as you went about forming your co-op? If so, what were they and how did you go about overcoming them? //__Do you have a memorandum of understanding with your university? If so, could we get a copy?__// In the first few years, did you make a profit? If not, how did you get funding? We could use all the input and advice you could give. We appreciate the time you took to help us out by answering our questions, and we look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, The Co-op Team