A Year Powered by Community

Click the image to view our 2025 Annual Report and explore the people, progress, and community impact that shaped the past year at Grain Train—made possible by owners and shoppers like you. Inside, you’ll find highlights from the year, key financial insights, and the collective efforts that continue to move our co-op forward. You’ll also see how your participation supports local producers, sustainability efforts, and community partnerships. We’re proud to share this work with you and grateful for your continued support. As we look ahead, your support continues to guide and inspire what comes next. We’re grateful to be growing alongside you.

Get Involved!

Attend the Grain Train Board of Directors meetings. Join us the third Tuesday of each month, 5:30-7:30 PM. Board meetings are held at the Grain Train’s administrative offices, 316½ East Mitchell St,. with the option of joining remotely via Zoom. Please join the meeting at
https://zoom.us/j/91283382662

Approximately 5 minutes is allocated at the beginning of each meeting for Open Owner Forum, during which owner input is welcomed. We ask that visitors remain silent for the remainder of the meeting.

Governance: The Co-op Difference

Cooperative governance is democracy in action. Elected democratically from the ownership, the Board of Directors guides the vision of the co-op, enabling all owners to have a say in how the co-op is run. The Grain Train’s Board consists of five to nine directors who each serve three-year terms. The Board is responsible for protecting owners’ assets by ensuring that the co-op is fiscally sound and viable. They establish and monitor the co-op’s governance policies, and hire, monitor, and evaluate the General Manager. Interested in serving on the Board in the future?

Please read the Prospective Directors’ Handbook for more information about eligibility, the application process, and what it means to serve on the Grain Train’s Board.

Policy Governance

The Grain Train Board operates using the Policy Governance model, which was developed to allow Boards to maintain accountability for organizational performance while focusing on providing visionary leadership around our ‘big-picture’ mission. With this model, there are four different categories of board policies, and all board policies must fall into one of these categories:

Ends (the intended results for the customers): Ends policies all deal with ends, while all other categories of board policies deal with means.
Executive Limitations (the limitations put on the General Manager): Executive limitations policies all deal with means, but they are written in the negative, telling what means the General Manager shall not use, instead of what means the General Manager shall use to accomplish the organizational goals (this avoids the two extremes of “micro-managing” and “rubber-stamping”).
Board-Staff Relationships (how the board will interact with the General Manager): Board-Staff relationship policies all deal with means that the Board will use to interact with the Staff through the General Manager.
Governance Process (how the board will govern itself): Governance Process policies all deal with means that the Board will use to govern and monitor itself throughout the year.

Download the full Policy Register adopted by the Grain Train’s Board.

Bylaws

The Grain Train’s owners delegate authority to the Board of Directors with a set of Bylaws, which explain the fundamental rights and responsibilities of both the owners and the board. Download a copy of our Bylaws.