BELFAST — The Belfast Community Co-op and the Belfast Museum announce the completion of The Belfast Co-op History Project. Three Co-op board member alumnae, Kate Hanson, Debbi Lasky and Bindy Pendleton, partnered with museum curator Megan Pinette in creating a comprehensive archival history.

This has been a multi-year effort to collate, categorize and safely store Board of Directors materials spanning from the mid-1970s to 2017. The goal was to safely preserve the many sides of diversity and passion of the members of the Belfast Co-op. There are now three cataloged archival boxes containing board governance documents which will be placed in long-term storage in the Belfast Museum and made available to any wishing to view them.

“The history project volunteers thank all the Owners, Directors and Employees who have committed to the food cooperative to keep it going over many years,” said Megan Pinette, of the Belfast Historical Society & Museum, in a news release.

The Belfast Co-op is the oldest continually operating cooperative food store in Maine. It first opened as a storefront on upper Main Street in 1976 and incorporated in 1979. As the organization looks toward the future with an extensive expansion project underway, it became important for these records to find a suitable home in the Belfast Museum.