We are writing to let you know that on January 1, 2017, Three Stone Hearth changed its legal entity. When we first incorporated in the summer of 2006, we did so as a "Cooperative Corporation" in the State of California. Over the past 10-plus years, we have grown the membership of the cooperative from five founding worker-owners to nineteen. All worker-owners share in the profits of the company through a system called "patronage." All worker-owners also have a say in how we

All worker-owners have a say in how we manage the company.... We will continue to operate as a worker cooperative.

manage the company, in wage determinations, in the distribution of authority, and in deliberations over any major decision affecting the future of the company.

In December, the worker-owners of Three Stone Hearth voted unanimously to change from a Cooperative Corporation to a Limited Liability Company (LLC) beginning January 1. This choice was driven primarily by a law that passed in California in 2016 (AB 2883), which made it no longer possible for the worker-owners of Three Stone Hearth to be exempt from workers compensation insurance. Because of the way we are classified as a workplace, our workers compensation insurance premiums are extremely high (almost 12% of payroll).

There are a number of reasons why Three Stone Hearth's worker-owners prefer to waive workers compensation insurance for themselves:

TSH worker-owners last year, around the corner from our kitchen, in Ohlone Park.  Yes, we always carry mason jars with us! (Raty Syka, bot. right, left the cooperative in 2016.)

We have always paid for workers compensation insurance for all non-owner employees, and will continue to do so.

With the new law, the workers compensation exemption for owners is not available to us as a Cooperative Corporation, but is available as an LLC. There will be a legislative campaign to "fix AB 2883 for cooperatives," coordinated by the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), based here in the East Bay. We encourage everyone to support this campaign (the law simply didn't consider the differences between cooperatives and other kinds of corporations). There are very few financial advantages to being a worker-cooperative, and this was one of them. In this economy and in these troubled times, worker cooperatives deserve all the support they can get!

In unanimously approving the LLC, the worker-owners also signed an operating agreement that mirrors our previous bylaws, and ensures that there will be no operational changes as a result of the entity change. We will continue to operate as a worker cooperative under the LLC legal entity.

We're very proud of the cooperative business model of a Community Supported Kitchen we have created, which has grown and served so many people over the last 10-plus years! Those of us who get to see you, our customers, each week, know how deeply we are valued and appreciated. In the coming year, we are going to create new opportunities for you to engage with our staff, so we can all feel the love, and you can get to know the hands that feed you.  We really are all here for each other!