La Osa, is a Food Coop Market that has been created with the aim of transforming the existing consumption model here in Madrid, Spain, allowing members to participate actively through cooperation and teamwork while building an alternative to commercial profit-oriented business.
To make this transformation happens, we need your help. We need some initial funds, that added to the contribution made by our members, will help us to ensure a mortgage already negotiated with the Ethical bank. This mortgage it´s fundamental to complete successfully our project.
This is the reason why we´re reaching to you via this campaign asking for your help. We want to make sure that we´re open in mid-2020 to serve our growing community.
La Osa is nonprofit and proposes a business model that strives to reduce our impact in the world supporting sustainable production & distribution. We´re engage in building a community where we act as buying agents and where social and environmental principles are shared with in and by our members. We´re committed to diversity and equality. We strive to make La OSA welcoming and accessible to all.
Member participations is a key factor that differentiate La OSA from other market models, allowing to reduce operative cost and increase benefits for members. La OSA will reduce commercial margins to provide coop members with good quality product at lowers prices.
Main features and goals of the crowdfunding campaign
We have a mission to become a supermarket owned, managed and operated democratically by our members. Members are our customers, but also people with different skills and backgrounds that will help to fill and drive the different positions that will be need it to run our organization.
We want to be a successful model that other communities could take as a reference and transform the food sector.
These are the 5 values we share in our organization.
• Compromise: A firm compromise with people and society. We offer the opportunity to provide an active and responsible role for consumers a community members. We´re committed to help low income families to get access to good quality produces at a fair
• Transparency: Our transparency policy, provides every member or forecasting member all information needed to know about our project.
• Cooperation: We are an organization based on cooperation, and we´re aiming to share our knowledge and tools to all people and projects that share our principles and values.
• Creativity: We´re a community where curiosity and critical thinking make us work together. Our goal is to reach a consumption model that will be continuously improving, focusing on benefits that we could provide to our community.
• Inclusion: We are committed to diversity and equality. We oppose discrimination in any form. We strive to make the Coop welcoming and accessible to all and to respect the opinions, needs and concerns of every member.
Why this is important
La OSA is aim to people who think that food could help to drive social change and economic e equity, believing that is necessary to have a change on the existing model on commercial food distribution. Thus, any person of any age, gender, social or cultural background, could be part our project. We are committed to diversity and equality.
Team and experience
2decologico (2D) is an organic food store located in Malasaña (Madrid) that has been providing seasonal, sustainable and locals products since 2016 to the neighborhood.
MARES, was a program runned by the city of Madrid that focused on social equity and urban transformation. Taking Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, New York, as a model , started mobilizing people in the community that will be interested in the creation of the first Food Coop in Madrid.
MARES provided 2D with resources, advice and help to build a team of volunteers and professionals that shaped the future supermarket. After several months of hard work and planning, 2D became La OSA.
La OSA has now a dedicated team of 6 employees that, with the help of other Coop members, is leading all the efforts to ensure the completion of the project by mid 2020s.