Dear cooperators and friends,

The startup food co-op movement is evolving and our national conference for startup food co-ops is evolving with it: as we announced in March, the Up & Coming Conference is on pause for 2026 for a collective reimagining to meet this moment of evolution and will re-emerge in 2027 in its new form to serve the 4th wave of startup food co-op organizing. 

We’ve got several important updates for you on how our community will revision the gathering together, how we’ll keep that amazing “U&C” startup organizing energy burning in 2026, and about our host co-op that will welcome us for our 2027 revisioned gathering! 

ReVisioning

Our goal: that the revisioning of the national gathering of startup food co-ops reflects the voices of all startup food co-op organizing communities, and of the organizations and experts across the US that dedicate their work to them, through a startup-community-wide process. 

Step one in achieving this: The creation of our ReVisioning Team that will work with Food Co-op Initiative (FCI) to design a community-wide input process that will start in July 2026.

We are honored to introduce our conference ReVis Team, who will gather for the first time this week to design the revisioning input process: 

• Juliette Banerjee, Rural Co-op Developer
• Dr. Jasmine Jackson, Co-Executive Director, the National Black Food and Justice Alliance
• Allanah Hines, Community Food Strategist, the Development Co+operative
• Nicole Klimek, Store Planner + Designer, seven roots
• Gabrielle Davis, Co+op Community Steward, Equitable Consultants
• Tamah Yisrael, Co-op Governance and Financial Systems Strategist, THM Solutions Hub

Learn more about these cooperative leaders 

Look for announcements in June from our “ReVis” Team about how the community revisioning process is taking shape, and information on how to contribute your valuable perspective through the process!

Save the date for the 6th Annual Black-Led Day this fall!

While the Up & Coming Conference is on pause until 2027, Black-Led Day is on for 2026! 

On Thursday, September 17, National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA) hopes that all Black food cooperators will gather with them at the Detroit Food Commons and Detroit People’s Food Co-op for a day rooted in connection, shared vision, and collective momentum. 

From NBFJA: “Even as the Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference restructures this year, Black-Led Day ain’t going nowhere! This gathering continues, and we cannot wait to be together again. Go ahead and mark your calendar, and keep an eye out for registration details coming soon.”

FCI is thrilled that NBFJA is not only going forward with organizing a 2026 Black-Led Startup Food Co-op Day, but that FCI will be present as conference support staff to contribute to the day’s success. We’ll share updates from NBFJA as they are available and make sure to join their email list to get updates directly from NBFJA! 

Detroit in 2027

We’ve heard two kinds of feedback most since we announced the 2026 conference pause and revisioning: 1) strong support and excitement for the revisioning process and 2) as one cooperator wrote, “but Detroit and the Detroit People’s Food Co-op (DPFC) are the future, they are everything! Please tell me we’ll be there in 2027! Promise me!” 

Thank you for all of the support and we don’t just promise, we pinky-swear, when we gather together in 2027 to celebrate the evolution of our national gathering, we will be in Detroit with DPFC. 

2027’s gathering could not be anywhere else, honestly. We'd like to share with you a bit about why: 

• Food Democracy = Detroit: DPFC is one powerful piece of an entire community-led food movement. Democratizing the local food system is not only a decades-long movement of successful organizing with many interconnected projects in Detroit, DPFC was born from it and is part of its beating heart. Detroit is an unmatched “learning laboratory” at the intersection of local organizing and democratizing food systems - which is what the cooperative grocery movement is all about. 
• Our History and Our Future: DPFC is not the first Black-led co-op in the 4th wave of food co-op organizing, but it has a truly historic place within it having been a leader in its formation. And it is still shaping the 4th wave’s future, having combined the visionary leadership and organizing unique to the 4th wave, with partnering with the extensive expertise and support system built by 2nd wave food co-ops to open and operate stores. Their leadership continues to lift up the entire 4th wave of food co-op organizing. 

As we continue to update you throughout 2026 about the revisioning process and the 2027 plans for the national startup conference as it takes shape, we will share more with you about DPFC’s story and what you can look forward to in Detroit.  

In Cooperation, 
Food Co-op Initiative

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