Celebrate your local cooperative this October

Each October, the Kansas Cooperative Council celebrates National Co-op Month. More than just a prairie skyscraper, these member-owned, member-controlled businesses are a pillar of Kansas communities that continuously invest in new services, resources and infrastructure to help their farmer member-owners. 

“As we travel the state this year, it’s important to meet people in their space and recognize the important role cooperatives play in their communities,” said Brandi Miller, president/CEO of the Kansas Cooperative Council, the organization that has represented the cooperative business model in the Sunflower State since 1944. “This year is our organization’s 80th birthday, and we are excited to celebrate. It is also encouraging to see a more successful harvest after several years of drought."

By definition, a cooperative works for the mutual benefit of its members, who own and control the business. Agricultural cooperatives have existed nearly as long as farmers have been farming as producers learned how to pool resources and expertise to support each other’s operations. The local co-op is where farmers deliver and store their grain, market their crops, obtain field recommendations and purchase inputs. Agricultural cooperatives also return earnings to their members, known as patronage.

In Kansas, cooperatives continue to invest in the grain industry, including building to meet the demand for increased grain storage capacity, improved efficiency in weighing and dumping time and more crop input warehouse space. Cooperatives are also meeting needs for replacing aging infrastructure with newer, updated facilities. 

Outside of this now-standard set of services, cooperatives provide credit, insurance, electric service, health care, housing, telephone services and even childcare. Cooperatives also support the health of local economies by creating jobs, paying property taxes and income taxes and giving to charity. 

This year’s theme for National Co-op Month is “The Future is Cooperative.” Miller said this reflects the work that Kansas cooperatives are doing to be more innovative, create efficiencies, become nimbler and better serve larger operations and younger farmers. 

In Kansas, cooperatives have more than 116,00 members with more than 5,000 people employed at more than 575 locations.  The Kansas Cooperative Council is engaging in several activities throughout the month to thank members and help raise the profile of cooperatives in Kansas, including bringing lunches to cooperatives across the council’s membership districts, signing an official proclamation of October as Co-op Month with Kansas Governor Laura Kelly and organizing a photo contest. 

Now in its third year, the council’s annual photo contest is open for entries on Facebook at facebook.com/KansasCooperativeCouncil/. The contest is open to all ages and skill levels, and individuals may submit up to five total photos from now until October 25, 2024. Categories include:

• Life Around the Co-op
• Faces of Agriculture
• Amber Waves of Grain
• Show Us Your Co-op Principles
• Farm Life Unfiltered

Winners will be selected from voting on the Facebook page from October 28-31, 2024, with winners and prizes announced on November 1, 2024. 

Enter the contest or follow along during National Co-op Month with the Kansas Cooperative Council at https://www.facebook.com/KansasCooperativeCouncil. 

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Written by Julia Debes for Kansas Wheat