The difficulty of letting go: where do you draw the line of “getting too involved” in a project? The story of EK?P

Last September we celebrated a very important moment. As a project team (and de facto CEO), we handed over the project of the EK?P Cooperative, its business, its community, its kitchen, to the Kü?ük?ekmece municipality, which is now going to drive it through their presence in the management and supervisory board.

It felt strange; I guess it is like selling your own startup or seeing your children leave the nest and not needing you anymore (my case in a couple of months). Our “paid” commitment to the project is done, but our heart and soul will stay with the cooperative and all its members, awesome Syrian and Turkish women (and some yabanc?).?

With this post, I would like to go back to some of the steps that made it successful, and thank everyone who made it possible. Along the way, we met wonderful people with their hearts in the right place. Through all the challenges it felt really good to know that all of them were by our side, believing and supporting the project. It is a little bit long but for sure a good read! (the pictures are mainly from Olga and me to avoid any privacy issues).

It all started in March 2018 when myself and Olga were selected to participate in the Civil Society Exchange Program (thank you to Yoruk, Laden and Sener). It gave us the opportunity to team up with Miquel Mu?oz, social economy expert, and a Spanish organisation, Fundación CIEES (Andrés Martínez Medina), to exchange ideas for a project and work further on the concepts we had.

In June 2018 Miquel joined us at the meeting in Ankara where we presented our ideas to the World Bank (thank you to Levent, Arzu initially and later Alina for your trust and patience).

This planted the seeds of the project and we were invited to submit a proposal as co-applicants with another Spanish organisation also introduced to us by Miquel, Tangente, a cooperative of cooperatives with professionals experienced in supporting female social entrepreneurship (Ariadna de la Rubia).

In December 2018, Olga and I were in Gaziantep for an EBRD project when we heard the news. We had been selected by the World Bank to lead this EU funded project!! We could not believe it.?

We quickly had to consolidate the partnerships we had included in our project proposal and build a team. We thought about who we wanted with us, what expertise, which shared values. In addition to Tangente, we decided to partner with Bilgi University (Ne?enur Alt?ni?ne?Ekici, PhD), Hayata Destek (Mustafa???lek? and Asl? Arslan), Impact Lab (Do?.Dr.?Ay?egül Kayao?lu and Umut Kuruüzüm, PhD) and Türkiye Aile Sa?l??? ve Planlamas? Vakf? TAPV (Nurcan Müftüo?lu and Zeynep?Asuman Dener). Throughout the 2.5 years of the project, TAPV really helped us to focus on why we were doing it, supporting women and doing it the right way. I am so thankful for their support.?

From the beginning, it was super important for us to determine the impact we wanted to have and to measure it. We did not want to say: “our project was awesome” if we could not prove it. Thank you to Ay?egül and Umut for our long brainstorming and discussions on the topic and for having published the impact report now at the end of the project (let me know if you want a copy!)

Emine Kaya was added to the team as project coordinator with her extensive NGO background. It has been a real pleasure working with her and combining our civil society and business experience together to set up a cooperative like EK?P is now. Special thanks also to Presica Chaar, Zayneb Al Asadi and Shima who also supported us during this whole period.?

In January 2019 we kicked off the project with all the partners brainstorming about business ideas, with ideation support from companies like Unilever, Coca Cola and moderated by Berna Okcu. After three intensive days we found a potential innovative idea: let’s provide office people with healthy alternatives during their lunch. Let's go for it!?

At this time we met Mustafa and Baris from Pek Reklam. They designed our logos and we loved their work so much that we stayed with them until the end. They really understood our values and what we wanted to build. It is great to have partners like that!

Then a sort of double life started: on the one hand we were building a business and the other hand building a community of Turkish and Syrian women, while providing them with business basics, keeping them motivated by the project and involving them in the business decisions. I know the quote “if you want to go fast go alone and if you want to go far go together”, but sometimes it has proved to be really challenging… Decisions that could have been made relatively quickly sometimes took up to 6 weeks to finalise before everything was understood and agreed by everyone. But hey, this is what we signed for, this is the project we wanted! A real member-driven cooperative.?

On the business operations side, we faced similar challenges, as we worked to have our members progressively develop their skills so that they could be up to all the tasks that the business required…one step at a time…

During 2019, besides training and some field and company visits (thank you Puratos and sifakoyu farm led by Merve Tüfek?i, we focused on the legal setup of the cooperative.

This was the start of a partnership with Can Sozer, Sanem Elif Erkut, Zeynep Ad?yaman. For 2.5 years, they were by our side, helping us at every stage, making us feel stronger and motivated. We were so blessed to have this support. Thank you to all of you.?

We wanted a qualified and professional board with people with expertise we could potentially need. We asked Ali Ercan ?zgür, PhD, Filiz H?süko?lu, Musa Akgül, PhD and they gladly accepted.?

The support of ?irin Tabanl? Yan?k from the beginning was tremendous. She helped us so many long hours with all the legal and admin requirements, drafting the article of associations, reviewing the contracts, helping organising the General Assembly and taking the leading role in the supervisory Board.

After market research supported by Huma Calin Har, we also started developing our products. We wanted them to be perfect, not just another salad or soup. Healthy, seasonal and delicious! We got the support of Shirley Kaston and Zeki Kili?. They spent so much time designing and testing our products, making sure they were balanced and just perfect for our potential clients. Shirley has also been a source of inspiration and always found the time, in addition to running her own business , to train all the members, support us in the development of our products, brainstorm on the kitchen needed, etc. Awesome!

By the end of 2019 we started tasting sessions with the support of a lot of corporate firms (Garanti, Denizbank, Unilever, CFA Institute, Engie, Groupama, Tom Tom Garden, LSE community,? etc). We had our first salads tested by more than 300 people who provided their feedback so that we could tweak our products for success. It was important to us to check the feasibility and desirability of our offer. By January 2020 we were ready to launch and legally sell, producing out of Maide Mutfak .?

In order to ensure the sustainability of the cooperative beyond the project phase, we wanted to have a strong partner that could support it in the long run. We had no experience dealing with municipalities but we decided to make a safe bet for the sake of the cooperative. Through a formal introduction by Musa we started discussions with the Kü?ük?ekmece municipality and we signed a protocol just before covid came. We were glad to have a strong partner like this signing on continuing leading the cooperative as a member driven one!

At the same time, Müge ?atal joined us to develop a very professional business social media plan, and all the members started getting Marie Caroline Longin’s expertise on how to run a project using agile methodology. This was the perfect timing…a couple of weeks later, the covid pandemic was declared and it was time to put the theory into practice.?

We switched immediately to online-only activities, we all adapted, the project team, members, translators, etc…it actually went quite smoothly. We had to stop producing and selling our salads during the first lockdown so we sold them in advance through crowdfunding…By mid June 2020 we were back in the kitchen getting ready for the summer salads, and by July we were producing and delivering to clients. We learnt a lot from Marie Caroline on how to pivot rapidly when faced with circumstances beyond our control.?Thank you for this incredible experience and learning.

I would like also to thank all the amazing clients (you know who you are) who supported us regularly through this journey, dreaming along with us and making it a reality thanks to their regular purchases. It would not have been possible without you!

During the testing phase we had been delivering in person but in pandemic times we had to switch to a delivery company; this had been the hardest thing ever, it is really a challenge, and an expensive one. A big thank you to Ingenico for their support with our payment method.?

We also had the chance to be featured by renowned Journalist and Filmmaker Didem Tali, who won various awards with the short movie featuring EK?P. Nevra Topcu, a renowned storyteller helped us also make short movies to explain the impact of the project through the members.

Community development, check; product fitting market demand, check; logistics soyle boyle, check; client base expanding and positive, check…Now it was time to expand and invest in the business. Banu Aslan joined us to lead the cooperative and EK?P hired the very first chef on payroll. It was September…were covid times behind us? Could we start delivering again to offices or should we pivot to another model…EK?P kept moving!

Then started the ..let's call a spade a spade …the nightmare of having to “design” and build a kitchen when your background is in finance :-). The municipality secured a facility and through them Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GIZ agreed to fund the kitchen equipment (thank you Melanie Vieker for your infinite patience, flexibility and support).

After the first phase of finding a suitable place, we had first to discuss construction and then equipment. We really wanted a state-of-the-art kitchen to enable EK?P to process all the meals planned and be able to deliver them B2B, which requires high standards.?

Plans were easy but when it came to meeting the budget, it was an impossible mission. After 4 months of walking in the dark, we met Ali Agan and Deniz from the company Nar -S?ST Architecture who agreed to support us with the construction and made it happen in 2021. Thank you also to Adis Kürkapici and all its valuable propositions.?

Now the equipment! I could not have done without Francesca Rosa’s help, with a background in business and reconverted as diplomatic chef. Together with Shirley and through long (very long) sessions late at night, we identified what we needed for the kitchen, what could fit in our budget and where to place everything….During this close to 6-month process in 2021, I really got a lot of grey hair from it… but I learn a lot and got an awesome friend :-) If you need any advice to build a kitchen, let us know!

As of August 2021, the EK?P cooperative is now up and running:

• it has a regular and every day increasing number of clients
• a state of the art kitchen equipped to process meals and salads at industrial level.
• Most of the members are fully trained and well equipped to handle the responsibilities of the cooperative being in contact with clients, updating websites, applying for funds, supporting the accountant in finance, presenting the cooperative in formal or informal meetings,? etc. It is really really nice to see.
• The first General Assembly was held and the new board of directors and supervisory board were elected, mainly with representatives from the municipality. It is now in their hands to make it grow further.??

We are still founding members of course but it is no longer up to us to drive this cooperative.?

I would like to finish by thanking all the women who have believed in the project, who have followed us, sometimes in the dark and through all the challenges. It does require a lot of? courage to take the step to start something totally different and invest in it, so

Rawah, Gusun, Ruba, Fatema, Helez, Amira, Canda, Falak, Joudy, Lama, Roz, Siham, Sohir and the ones I am maybe forgetting: Thanks to all of you for trusting us and we hope to see you again at the cooperative or through other passions you might pursue. Thank you for your courage and willingness!

Thank you also to you, Olga, for showing me how we can approach things in a very different way, argue about them and still find a solution, and then understand each other's way of working and build awesome things with our combined visions. Thank you for making me stronger than before!

I am sure I forgot many people in this thank you post; don't take it personally, just let me know and I will edit the post.?

What is next now? That would be the topic of another post! Stay tuned.