2025 Annual Meeting Summary

Lost River Market & Deli
May 1
9 min read

Lost River Co-op & Cafe hosted our 2025 Annual Meeting on Sunday, April 27. It was a great time with lunch boxes and important conversations. Here is a summary of our meeting:

Food Access Programs

2024 was a year of reinvigoration and that is continuing into this year. Lost River Co-op & Cafe supports food access programs throughout Orange and neighboring counties. Much of this programming occurs in the community and back room of the co-op, so customers may not notice that work being done “behind the scenes”. Here is a look at the food access programs:

Bag of Basics

This program was started during the pandemic when people needed food right away. It provides $25 of groceries or cafe food to those in need, who receive a voucher either from staff, referral from SICHC or from Team OC. This effort is completely funded by donations - either through tips on the register or direct donations.

In 2024, $6,596 of vouchers were redeemed and so far this year, it’s $1,862.09. That number will continue to grow as we continue receiving donations.

Recovery Center Vouchers

New in 2025, Lost River Co-op is partnering with Safe Haven and Grace Haven (two recovery centers) to offer $10 food vouchers for those who need hot meals, cafe food or groceries to cook with.

Food as Medicine Meal Kit Program

The co-op has been involved in Food as Medicine programs for 5 years. These programs aim to provide nutritious, locally-sourced meal kits to community members with the goal of supporting health and wellness through food access. In 2025 this program was transferred to the non-profit Orange County Food Trust, but the co-op still sells produce and employee time to the food trust. Partners like Purdue Extension and Hoosier Uplands support this program through grants.

In 2024 we delivered roughly 900 meal kits and so far this year, we processed and delivered over 300 meal kits! Thank you to all of our volunteers for packaging, delivering and so much more!

Produce for Health Bags

Partnered with Hoosier Uplands, this program delivers 28 oz of vegetables, 28 oz of fruit, and recipes to 55 people each week (right now that is seniors at senior centers in Lawrence County).

We would love to offer this program to Orange County Seniors by finding a funding source or grant to make this happen - please get in touch if you can help!

Farms to Friends Farm Stand

Orange County Food Trust will operate a mobile farm stand which will provide local produce and prepared food to Orange County, Lawrence County and Crawford County (and that list could grow). Starting in June, the mobile farm stand will be stationed near each of the SICHC clinics, food pantries, Paoli Farmers Market and other events. The co-op will sell the produce to the Food Trust at a wholesale rate, so that the Food Trust (as a non-profit) will be able to set prices on a sliding sale to best serve the community. The Food Trust will not need to generate a profit from the farm stand.

This is all funded by Patronicity crowdfunding that is still ongoing! During the annual meeting we received a $1,000 donation which helps us surpass our goal of $6k. Thank you to our donors! Because we matched the goal amount, Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, will provide a $6,000 match. We are still accepting donations until May 10 - every dollar will go into the operation of the mobile farm stand.

Also big thank you to a generous member who purchased the trailer, the Farm Stand is currently being built by Lost River Cooperative Trade School. The farm stand will have signage for the Food Trust, Lost River Co-op & Cafe, SICHC and possibly others.

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

During the pandemic Lost River began food aggregation and distribution activities. For the CSA program, we aggregate a variety of produce from 8-15 farmers, to support a season long CSA box. Those who sign up get a box of produce (either weekly or biweekly) and can add-on eggs and specialty items like jams and cafe products.

The most customers we’ve had was 54 during the pandemic. So far in 2025 we have 48 CSA customers! And registration is still open, so you can still sign up to receive a regular produce box filled with locally grown veggies and fruits.

Thank you to our volunteers!

For all of these programs, our volunteers which include members, customers, Grace Haven volunteers and more - are crucial to the success of those programs. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to bring local produce to as many people as we do. If you’re interested in volunteering, join our email list and follow us on FB.

Food Aggregation & Distribution

Lost River Co-op has been partnering with a variety of organizations to get food to the community. We have access to an abundance of local food. Bob Turner, Amanda Young and Pat Hall have created relationships with the farmers (many Amish) that have made this possible.

We then take that local food and create products (like sandwiches, soups, hot foods) or packages (like CSAs, meal kits, produce for health bags) and distribute those to the community, either at the co-op or through the food access programs.

We are realizing our role in the community as a food aggregator. We’re able to take in a bunch of produce, do something with it, and then get it out to the community. This is something that we enjoy doing, we’re good at it and it is also profitable for the co-op!

Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Grant

Lost River Co-op & Cafe has been awarded $96k through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure grant by the US Dept of Agriculture. This grant will help provide equipment that we’ll use for the processing and distribution of local food. It would pay for a commercial dehydrator, vacuum sealer, food tray sealer, and a refrigerated van that would be used to pull the farm stand and gather produce. This would help the co-op expand our processing efforts, create new value-added products like frozen vegetables and fruit, dehydrated fruit, reheatable dinners and will help us get more local produce to our community.

Note: We are being cautious, just in case the funds don’t make it to the bank. We’ve heard updates from USDA, so we’re hopeful that it’ll go through but we aren’t purchasing anything yet. But we are thrilled and grateful for this grant, so stay tuned!

Finances

In order to continue to support all these great programs and continue being the food aggregator for our area, it’s crucial that the co-op is financially sustainable. This is something that has been top of mind this year. The board of directors and co-managers have been taking a critical look at our 2025 budget and analyzing where we can make adjustments to ensure that we are operating efficiently.

For our initial 2025 budget, we had projected a deficit of $74,921. That means that the co-op is running on a deficit. The amount generated in sales does not cover all of the costs that go into operating the co-op.

This is far from ideal. As a result of this gap, the co-op continues to struggle to stay current with debt obligations like the mortgage, utility bills, taxes etc. The management team does an excellent job of juggling these priorities each month but the reality is that we do not have enough revenue to cover costs and debts, so the risk of getting further behind is real.

In previous years, this is where we would have asked generous donors for help covering this deficit through donations. But that is not something that we want to keep doing. It is not a sustainable solution. We want to be open for another 17 years and we don’t see how we can do that, only relying on donations. The only solution is to increase our sales while keeping expenses to an absolute minimum.

Over this first quarter, we have made some strides on decreasing the projected deficit, so I want to share what we’re doing to close the gap of $74k and where we could use some help.

New Partnerships

We have confirmed new partnerships which will increase our revenue for 2024. That includes:

SICHC meal kits
Kimball Jasper CSA program
Additional participants in Hoosier Uplands meal kits and produce bags
Projected farm stand revenue
Additional CSA revenue

Adjusting prices

Gabe Plimpton has analyzed the pricing for all cafe items to ensure that the price covers the costs to make that item. This resulted in some price increases to sandwiches and cafe items.

Catering

We will be promoting catering. This is an area where there is potential for growth. The goal is to get 2-3 more catering sales per month. The menu is now online and we ask that you share with your friends, family and colleagues! On the catering menu will be lunch boxes - great for a kids outing, business meeting, luncheon etc. And sandwich trays, fruit and veggie trays, charcuterie trays or cups, deli salads and hot foods like chicken nachos, alfredo, etc.

Food Truck

We will be testing a food truck as a way to bring cafe foods and prepared foods straight to the customer. We have an event on May 10 to test a food pop-up concept and we plan to test the food truck (using the mobile farm stand) at a couple events this summer.

Community Room Rentals

The community room is available to rent for meetings, small parties, etc. This is another avenue for generating more income. We’ll be promoting packages that include rent for the space and catering platters that would be perfect for business meetings, planning meetings, birthday parties, bridal showers, etc.

With those additions and changes, we now predict our revenue for 2025 at $440,276.

From that projected revenue, there are various operating costs that need to be subtracted.

Costs of Goods Sold (COGS)

Since the co-op uses high quality ingredients, this category is the largest portion of our costs. Gabe and Amanda have made strides to decrease the costs of ingredients by finding new distributors who offer the same products for cheaper and who do not have order minimums. So far this year, our COGS has not been as high as anticipated. But we will still be keeping a close eye on these costs.

Payroll

This is also an area that will be closely monitored. The management team, Gabe and Amanda, have worked on scheduling and hiring to ensure that there is no overtime and that we retain employees. Both of which will help stay on the target of $149k for payroll. We have 7 employees - Gabe, Amanda, Leann, Caitlyn, Dawn, Ava, and April.

Other action items

The board is currently looking into a new point-of-sale system that could help save on credit card fees. We've also discussed implementing a cash discount to incentivize customers to cash payments (so we don’t pay processing fees).
Saving on repair costs through a partnership with Dwayne Stroud

With the increases in revenue from new business, the revised projected deficit for 2025 is $52,421. This is still undesirable and not something that the co-op can not sustain long-term. The bottom line: we need to increase sales and revenue while holding the line on payroll expenses.

What you can do to help

Follow us on social media, like and comment on posts
Leave a google review - this helps new people and travelers find us
Continue to shop at the store and eat at the cafe
Tell your friends about our catering offerings and middle room rental
Invite friends who have never eaten at the cafe to join you for lunch
Mention the co-op for any food aggregation programs
1. If you are part of an organization like a church or volunteer group and you want to provide meal kits or produce to your group, we’d love to supply the food
Volunteer
1. We can always help prepping produce, packaging bags, or help during events. Join our email list to hear about upcoming volunteer opportunities
Host an event at the co-op
1. Whether it’s a music event, crafting event or something else - host your event at the co-op! Events like that help get people in the door and it shows people what we have to offer. Email us to coordinate.
And let us know your ideas!
1. Especially on how to increase our reach in the French Lick/West Baden area. This has been a challenge for us and we’d love new ideas on how to get those visitors and residents to shop and eat at the co-op.

Board Election Results

Janet Kennedy is elected for another term to the board of directors. And we’ll be welcoming Ashley Frank to the board of directors! The current board members are Rebeka Alvarez-Heck, Janet Kennedy, Bob Turner, Rhonda Orr, Debbie Turner, Sherry Schmidt, Larry Hollan, and now Ashley Frank. Thank you to all the board members for donating your time to represent members in board decisions. And a special thank you to Katarina Koch who has served on the board for 7 years before moving to Bloomington and working for the Lotus Foundation.

Since we are a cooperative organization, we don’t have one owner or a CEO who runs the co-op and cafe and makes all the decisions. Instead the co-op is owned by the community. Members of the co-op are also owners in the business and have a stake in its future. If you or anyone you know is interested in participating, reach out to anyone on the board!

Upcoming Events

Upcoming events can be found on our website. We’re especially excited to host Jordana Greenberg on May 10 for the String Quartet Jukebox (limited tickets!).

Ideas From The Annual Meeting

During the Annual Meeting, we asked attendees to share their thoughts or suggestions for the co-op. Here are those ideas:

Bring the food truck to local businesses or downtown areas for lunch (e.g. Hoosier Uplands, Hospitals, county fairs, etc.),
Advertise the certified kitchen and rental availability
Recruit more local, healthy suppliers and artisan consignments
Place more visible signage in town
Implement a "Meals on wheels" type delivery to homebound, aged, or disabled
Host "meet & greets" for newcomers to the area
Resume Farm to Table community meals
Recruit and highlight new members
Chocolate almond croissants offered as a special afternoon item
Dine to donate, dinner to benefit OCCPS

Thank you for joining!

Thank you for attending and/or reading the summary of our Annual Meeting. If you have any questions, please reach out to email.lostrivercoop@gmail.com.