Elaborately festooned horses, humorously decorated tractors, flipping and tumbling children – they’re all part of the annual Yelm Prairie Days Parade that kicks off the three day Prairie Days celebration. Now in its third year, the Yelm Co-op’s Beer & Brats event offers spectators a chance to enjoy the procession with bratwurst in hand while sampling local beers and carefully selected wines. It  will run from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.at the Yelm Co-op on Thursday, June 25th, with the parade starting at 7:00 p.m.

“We’re really excited about it,” says event manager Jenn Harshfield. “Unlike last year, it’s supposed to be 83 degrees and clear. We’re looking forward to serving a lot of folks.”

Beer & Brats is one of the Co-op’s largest annual events, with proceeds after cost going to support programs and priorities such as upgraded equipment. Volunteers have been meeting on a weekly basis to prepare. “The team is amazing,” says Harshfield. “Many of them have participated before, but some are new.” Harshfield, an advertising consultant with The Nisqually Valley News, became involved after board member Marilyn Reardon approached her last year. “I told Marilyn I’d be honored,” she says.

If Harshfield has her way, Beer & Brats will become as much a part of Prairie Days as flags and floats. “It’s just about having a good time,” she says. “We want everyone who visits us to come again next year.”

If you’ve ever wanted to play Santa in the summer, now’s your chance. It’s not Christmas yet, but the Yelm Food Co-op has a wishlist of items that will advance our ability to best serve our customers. We’re looking to upgrade and/or add equipment and features that will make shopping more convenient while adding new options (fresh ground almond butter, anyone?). All donations are tax deductible. Any amount will help!

Here’s how it works:

When you shop, you’ll have two ways to donate.

1. Contribute a specific amount of your choosing toward a specific item.
2. ‘Round up’ your purchases to the nearest dollar.

The Wishlist

Item: New Deli Scale. This is used to pre-weigh bulk items that are repacked, like dried mangos, raisins, frozen meat and fish from local vendors. etc. The scale tells the customer exactly what the item weighs, the cost per pound, and the exact cost of the item.  It will also tell the customer the ingredients of the item like Euphoria Chocolates.
Purpose: We hope to be able to sell sandwiches made in-house next year, which will require an ingredients list.
Cost: Approximately $1,200.

Item: 2 New Freezers, each 2-door:
Purpose: We want to expand our frozen offerings to include frozen desserts and prepared meals, including frozen pizzas.  With this expansion we hope to offer frozen peas and corn in bulk as well
Cost: $10,000

Item: Bulk Department Upgrades
Purpose: We want to replace old worn out bulk bins, expand our selection and include bulk liquids, nut grinders, etc.
Cost:   $4,000

Item: 2 touch screen monitors for the Point of Sale (POS) upgrade.
Purpose: 2 computers with Win 7 Prof were donated and we need to upgrade the POS registers.  To finish this out we need 2 touch screen monitors of approximately 12″.
Cost: Approximately $600 each.

Item: Store Signs
Purpose:
Cost: $2000-$6000

Item: Aisle Signs
Purpose:
Cost:  Approximately $700
Item: Finish the Wine Cellar wood shelving.
Purpose: Finishing the wood build out for the displays in the Wine Cellar.
Cost: $8,000
A bid for this will be in the Aug/Sept newsletter.

All donations will be specific to each item unless you’d like to make a general contribution, which will be applied to one of the items on this list. The best way to support this effort is financially. Please do not purchase an item and drop it off unless it is specific to our needs and has been pre-approved by staff.

Starting with the Aug/Sept newsletter updates on these items and the money collected to date will be posted. Thank you for your support!