Good Peoples: WE DID IT!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

original fundraising text below---

We write to you with serious and sobering news. Despite all our efforts it has come to pass that we no longer have sufficient finances to keep Food For Thought Books open. Without a drastic change in circumstance and situation, we will be closing by the end of the year 2013. 

How can this be? 

Our events are frequent, usually unique, and well-attended. We've had people join our membership program - even had a few choose the lifetime option. We have local groups and organizations reaching out to us for collaborations. We have media groups requesting interviews with us to talk about worker collectives. We have had donations of money and supplies. We know people still value the work we do. We hear and receive that support every day. 

The main problem is the financial debt incurred by the massive drop in textbook sales over the past couple years - a legacy we are still trying to leave behind. 

Were it not for this debt, we would be doing fine - the same Food For Thought Books you've always known. But with it, we are bled dry every month. You've all probably noticed it - hard not to. Our shelves have dwindled and thinned, poster and card racks too. This is because we have not had money to invest in new stock. Except for special orders, customers ordering specific titles (money we knew we could quickly recoup), it has all gone to the debt. As a result, the store is becoming a ghost of itself. 

So, here we are: at the end of our rope. 

Maybe it is time to call it a day. We've been around for a good run: 37 years is no small thing. 

But really, we're not going to go down without one last effort, one last try. 

We think Food For Thought Books is worth it. And we think that the Valley still needs Food For Thought Books. There is no other place like it, and no other place that offers what it offers. Where is there another community space like ours in the Valley? Another public queer space? Another feminist space? Another radical space? 

Here's the thing: There is a possibility for Food For Thought Books to make it to and through its 38th year. 

It will require a lot of work and a lot of support but it can be done, with your help. We have spoken to our landlord who has agreed to help us reduce our store space by half. In the long run, we feel confident that Food For Thought Books could sustain itself with this new size and rental cost. Many of you remember when we were half our size years ago and that we still did many events, so that can all continue. 

The problem is in getting there. 

To reduce the store, we'll need to wait until after the holiday season. And then the store will need to be closed for anywhere from 3-4 weeks while reconstruction takes place. During this time we will still need to be paying all our regular expenses. With where we are at right now, there is no way we can do this, no way we can keep going for that long without any income to support us. 

So, what we need is support. 

What we need is support for the years we have been here and for the year to come. We are trying to raise $38,000 by the end of the year - a thousand for every year we've been open and a thousand for the year to come. If we can do so, we will be able to get to a more sustainable space for the future. 

Each Year a Grand Year = $38K

Why $38,000 ?? Good question. When we faced the prospect of closing we just couldn't accept it. So we asked ourselves: How much money would we need to reduce the store by half (back to what we used to be), cover our expenses while doing so, and land in a place where the debt from textbooks isn't bleeding us dry every month. When we constructed a number of financial scenarios it became clear we needed something like $37-40K. So, as we are entering our 38th year since opening we decided $38,000 was the number to shoot for.

Here's the thing: Food For Thought Books has always been a not-for-profit business. What does this mean? To be a "not-for-profit" business means we take whatever profits we make over & above basic expenses (e.g., rent, utilities, payroll) and we funnel that back to our community through donating money & resources to local non-profit organizations. None of the workers here receive anything like dividends or end-of-the-year distributions of profit. Food For Thought Books does not profit off the community/communities that gives it life - this is one of our fundamental precepts.

Over the years, Food For Thought Books has donated thousands of dollars to local, progressive/radical groups such as these: Youth Action Coalition, the Prison Birth Project, MotherWoman, Pioneer Valley Local First, Food Not Bombs, the Stonewall Center at UMass, the Prison Book Project, and many others.

What will this money go toward? 

• It will help cover rent while we are closed and transitioning to a new and smaller space.
  
• It will help cover pay for the workers who will do the work of moving and reconstructing the store.
  
• It will pay for the necessary materials needed to make the transition and reconstruction. 
  
• It will help bring new & awesome books/media into the store.
  
• It will help secure a line of credit that we are negotiating with Cooperative Fund of New England.
  
• And it will keep at bay the debt payments that need to be made while we have no income while being closed. 

We believe that if we can make this transition then Food For Thought Books can continue to serve the Amherst community and the greater Pioneer Valley as it always has - as a bookstore full of books you can't find anywhere else, as a community center for all manner of social justice and progressive communities, and as a safe space for those for who much of the world is still not a safe space. 

We need to raise $5K by the end of November, and the remaining $33K by the end of December, so time is of the essence! Please give now and spread the word to your family and friends. 

Can we do it? We want to believe we can!

Food For Thought Books Collective is an independent, not-for-profit, workers' collective project dedicated to the dissemination of radical & progressive media in all its various forms. We stand in solidarity with all struggles for justice, peace and equality and allies itself with all peoples resisting violence and oppression. We believe in media as a means toward the realization of social justice and liberation. We seek to provide a space where voices, people and ideas silenced and ignored by the mainstream media are given room to be heard, to be seen, to be supported and to be realized. We see ourselves as a hub for radical and progressive exchange and aim to provide a physical space in the community that is grounded in liberation for all.