About 25 years ago Waving Grains Bakery began serving up delicious breads, rolls, cookies and fudgy oat bars that have become a staple for many of us here in Northeast Iowa. Using primarily organic and whole grain ingredients, the bakery maintained a commitment to both healthy food and safer agriculture. Now, after two and half decades of building this community asset, Jo Iverson has exited the business in order to do something different (she recently became a grandmother for the first time) and give her wrists some rest.
In the absence of a willing buyer, it appeared the bakery might have to be closed and the equipment auctioned off – piece by piece. This would have meant no more sourdough bread or cornmeal lime cookies in our household. The prospect of having no Waving Grains Bakery in Decorah got several 
of us thinking. How could we purchase the business to keep it going, and enable Jo to retire without losing all that has been invested in the bakery over the years?
One workable answer to that question was to transition the bakery into a consumer cooperative using the same business model and structure as the Oneota Co-op. After several months of investigating and bouncing the idea off many people in the Decorah area, we decided to do just that. Papers were filed with the State of Iowa in early August to incorporate Waving Grains Cooperative Bakery and the new cooperative was in place by the end of September.
But the work is not over yet. This is where the community comes in. We need to capitalize this new co-op to officially buy the bakery and pay for needed capital improvements that will secure its future. The Board of Directors of the new cooperative bakery has set the common stock share price at $250 and our goal is to raise $100,000 in share income over the next few months. This is an ambitious target, but we think we can do it. Are you in? If you would like to learn more or want to purchase a share, please contact Steve McCargar at 382-2451 or stevemccargar@gmail.com.
Thanks for helping Decorah’s newest co-op launch!
For the Board of Directors
Steve McCargar
