I love infographics and wish I had to the talent to do some really good ones. For now, I just satisfy myself with sharing a couple from Take Part, a pretty slick advocacy website. Consider how a food co-op (our food co-op) can help fix this craziness.
Via: TakePart.com
Via: TakePart.com And forgive me if you've seen all this before, but it's worth seeing again.

Things are a little busy around here!  I'm in the process of buying a house (fingers crossed!!) but in the meantime my old lease was up so I moved into a sublet for the summer.  I've moved but my plants are in two different places (what, you thought I wouldn't move my plants?  Another bonus of container gardening!):  about a quarter of my plants are at my sublet and the rest are on my boyfriend's porch.  If all goes well with the house I'll start moving plants over there after closing at the end of this month.  But just because my plants are being carted around the city doesn't mean they aren't growing.  Oh, they are.  I was going through all the pictures I've taken so far this year and I thought it would be fun to see how the plants have grown.  I thought the arugula was a particularly nice example: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="March 11th"][/caption] Above, in mid-March they were freshly planted. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="March 18th"][/caption] A week later they sprouted! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="March 22nd"][/caption] They grow fast!  Four days later I started thinning them out (because apparently I am incapable of sowing seeds evenly...) [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="April 16th"][/caption] By mid-April they were starting to look like real arugula (and tasted great, too.) [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="April 22nd"][/caption] The front pot is spinach and behind it is the monstrous arugula. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="May 3rd"][/caption] I tried to eat as much as I could to thin them out some more.  When I say "thin out" I don't mean pulling the plants out of the ground - I just pick the leaves so new ones can grow back.  Because... [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="May 18th, arugula on the right"][/caption] They will! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="May 18th again"][/caption] After I thinned out what I could eat for dinner, I moved some plants to a bigger space so I wouldn't have to thin out as frequently and they'd be able to grow a little bigger - although I tend to prefer baby greens for their tenderness, I love the nutty flavor of adult arugula because it's more pronounced.  Also I wanted the leaves to look more arugula-ish. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="May 24th"][/caption] I stuck the little arugulas in wherever possible (like with my chard and kale from last winter that were basically just bird food by now) but they grew big with lots of space. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="May 24th again, blurrily"][/caption] The ones I left in the original pot grew lots too. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="May 28th"][/caption] Four days later they were enjoying their new home and steadier photography! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="May 31st"][/caption] And I was eating as much arugula as possible.  Don't knock arugula and cream cheese on a bagel until you've tried it. This might be the last harvest since tender greens like these don't like it really hot (I've already gotten rid of the spinach and lettuce.)  And I've eaten enough arugula to satisfy my springtime arugula craving, but I'll probably plant more in the fall when it cools down. As for the rest of the garden ("garden"), I'm getting lots of these: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="nice to see you"][/caption] which is always exciting!  But more on that next time.

We are all about what the City has been doing through the Office of Sustainability and its Greenworks Initiative. Afterall, enhancing local business and regional food security is one of the biggest things our Co-op will bring to this part of the city. So we're always willing to lend a hand in promoting their events:

Please join Mayor Michael Nutter and the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability to launch the Greenworks Update and 2012 Progress Report on June 18th at 2:00 p.m. We’ll be at Sister Cities Park (18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway) celebrating our shared efforts to make Greenworks a success, sipping lemonade and eating cookies from Milk&Honey, and checking out vehicles that are helping Philadelphia’s transportation sector go green. We’ll also be making an exciting announcement about Philly Car Share’s new electric vehicle fleet additions! Thank you for your continued support. We hope to see you on the 18th!

Hmmm... where did I just see something about PhillyCarShare? Oh, of course, on our Shop South Philly page, where PhillyCarShare is one of the 20 or so local businesses that give discounts or specials to Co-op members. And now they're adding electric cars?!?! Uh... awesome!

Guerrilla Gardening Workshop This week the Co-op will be hosting a make-your-own seed bomb and seedling starter workshop - great events for the kids! Seed bombs are a fun way to throw a little splash of color in a vacant lot or that neglected container or raised bed in your patio. We'll also be starting herb seedlings using recycled materials as containers.  If you have any egg cartons, empty paper towel or toilet paper rolls in your recycle bin, please bring for the workshop - they make great seedling containers. If not, we'll have some extras you can have plus we'll provide the seeds, soil, and other supplies. The Guerrilla Gardening Workshop will take place twice this week: Gold Star Park Summer Music Series Thu, June 14, 6pm – 8pm Where: Gold Star Park (6th and Wharton) Music: Fisher & Maher (www.fishermaher.com) (UPDATE: Any member-owners who had paid off their entire $200 equity by May 1 can pick up their ownership share certificate on Thursday!) West Passyunk Summer Festival Sat, June 16, 12pm – 4pm Where: Girard Elementary (18th and Snyder) We still need a few volunteers at these events, so please email volunteer@southphillyfoodcoop.org with your offer to help out.

If the promise of local and sustainable food, community building, and meeting your neighbors wasn't already enough to get you to join the Co-op and become one of our first 400 members, then we're sweetening the pot for the rest of the week. All member-owners who have joined before June 15, 2012 (new and old alike) will automatically be entered to win two tickets to see Dave Matthews Band at the Susquehanna Bank Center on June 26th or 27th (your pick). Join now! Not a DMB fan? Well you'll still have taken the most concrete step you can to bring a community owned grocery store to South Philly. And don't worry, we can help you find someone to take those tickets off your hands.

We passed along some info a few days ago from our friends at the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA). PACA also passed along information about some city policy that they are lobbying for. Though the South Philly Food Co-op isn't taking any official position on the legislation referenced below, we pass along this info from PACA for your information.

PACA Public Policy - Call to Action! Historic Land Bank Legislation Needs Your Support PACA has joined the Take Back Vacant Land Coalition to support passage of Philaelphia City Council legislation that will transfer ownership of the 40,000+ city-owned vacant properties to a land bank. The land bank will oversee the sale and distribution of these properties, and PACA along with the Take Back Vacant Land Coalition wants to ensure that community members have a say in this process. We want to ensure that some of the 40,000 properties benefit our communities, so that green spaces, cooperative businesses, affordable housing, and community centers can receive land too. Take a second to write a letter to the Legislation's sponsor, Councilwoman Sanchez. Feel free to use the template below, and personalize it as you see fit. Contact [email protected] if you have any questions. María Quiñones Sánchez 7th District Councilwoman Room 592, City Hall Philadelphia, PA 19107 Dear Councilwoman Sánchez: I am happy you have sponsored Bill #120052 to create a Philadelphia “Landbank”. I am pleased that Take Back Vacant Land’s priorities around (a) community representation on the board of directors, (b) public reporting on land sales and transfers and (c) consolidation of vacant land currently held by different city agencies are included. I am also pleased that our coalition is working with you and your staff to make sure that land is used for things most important to me: cooperative businesses that create good-paying jobs and provide essential services to the community, affordable, accessible housing, farming and gardening as well as open space, and that groups accountable to communities and our vision have priority for receiving land.

Let's call today Advocacy Friday because we have a couple of issues that we want to share with you. The first is below and has to do with a piece of federal legislation. We'll post the second - about an issue before Philadelphia City Council - later today. We are often made aware of legislation pending before Congress that would either help or hurt various parts of the cooperative movement. Recently, we received a communication about The Small Business Lending Enhancement Act which would raise an arbitrary cap on the amount that credit unions (which are kind of like but not exactly like cooperatively owned banks) can lend to small businesses. We pass this along without much comment since we're not experts on banking - just yet - but eventually we'll be looking for financing for this Co-op and a credit union may just be one of our options. So let's help 'em out!

Credit Union Lending Cap Increase Needs Your Support The National Cooperative Business Association is asking members and all friends of cooperatives to demonstrate their support of S. 2231, which will enable credit unions to support economic growth through increased small business lending. The bill is in the US Senate, and critical action on this bill could come in the next few weeks. It’s important that members of the Senate hear from the cooperative community about the importance of voting in favor of this legislation. What does S. 2231 do? S. 2231 would raise the credit union member business lending cap from 12.25 percent of assets to 27.5 percent for eligible credit unions and task the National Credit Union Administration with writing safety and soundness regulations to implement the added authority. To be eligible, a credit union would have to be at or near its current cap, have at least five years’ experience in member business lending and be in a strong capital position. In addition, the credit union would not be allowed to grow its MBL portfolio more than 30 percent a year. Why it’s important. Credit unions have been subject to an arbitrary cap on lending since the passage of the Credit Union Membership Access Act of 1998. The Small Business Lending Enhancement Act would significantly increase the amount of money credit unions are allowed to invest in small businesses. The Credit Union National Association estimates that passing this legislation could provide up to $13 billion to small businesses in the first year alone and create over 140,000 new jobs at no cost to taxpayers. NCBA asks its members to call and email their senators in support of S. 2231. You may send an email to your senators by using this action alert tool, created by CUNA: http://capwiz.com/cuna/issues/alert/?alertid=60924641&PROCESS=Take+Action To call your senators’ offices, dial the US Capital switchboard at 202-224-3121. When speaking with your senator, please relate the following message: "I am contacting you to ask for your support on S.2231, The Small Business Lending Enhancement Act. America’s small businesses are the driving force of employment and economic improvement. In a recent survey, 90 percent of small businesses reported the availability of credit for small businesses is a problem. In fact, 61 percent of these same small businesses said it’s harder to get loans today than it was a few years ago. One of the easiest ways to help these small businesses gain access to the credit they need and start hiring is to lift the credit union member business lending cap." By allowing credit unions to make more business loans, we’ll be putting more Americans to work and improving our economy. In fact, it’s estimated that 140,000 jobs would be created by lifting the cap. Please help America’s small business owners and American workers by supporting S. 2231, the credit union small business jobs bill. Thank you for your support of cooperatives. Sincerely, Liz Bailey Interim President and Chief Executive Officer

(The following message went out in our June newsletter yesterday, which if you don't get you should sign up for by clicking here.) Before I say anything else, I first want to thank everyone who came out and voted for the Board of Directors at our general membership meeting on May 22nd. It’s truly inspiring to see so many members put the time aside to fully participate in the governance of the Co-op. I speak for the rest of the board and committee members when I say that it’s a real privilege to be “in” this with all of you. And thank you for being "in" it with us. Phew. 259. So we’re done, right? Not quite. While it was great to celebrate the accomplishment of passing our first goal at the membership meeting, we quickly turned to our next goal of 400 member-owners. Two-fifty got us to the point where we can form a real estate committee (anyone interested?) to start looking for potential locations. At 400, we “take it to the bank” by which I literally mean walk into a lending institution and start talking to them about getting some of the financing to open our doors. So if you are one of our member-owners already, your job is to get just one more household to join in the next six months. That’s it. You do that and we’re there. I also urge you to check out the volunteer opportunities below or ask me about joining one of our committees. I recently had an email forwarded to me that was written by a new member of our Marketing and Communications committee. When changing his plans so that he could attend the monthly meeting on May 24 he wrote: “I have decided this is more important to me than my other commitment.” (True story… I’ll forward it to you if you ask!) That’s what it’s going to take to get this done, folks! And – yes – we can do it. Sincerely, Alison L. Fritz President, Board of Directors South Philly Food Co-op

Presented by Farm to City, East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District and Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corporation. Fountain Farmers' Market Day: Every Wednesday Hours: 3 pm to 7 pm Location: East Passyunk Ave, at 11th and Tasker Streets FARMS/VENDORS: BERRY PATCH Baked Goods, Beets, Berries, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Chard, Eggs, Kale, Herbs, Lettuce, Peas, Radish, Rhubarb, Spinach, Spring Onions, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Zucchini FRUITWOOD ORCHARD Asparagus, Beets, Chard, Cherries, Collards, Honey, Kale, Fruit butter, Lettuce, Turnips, Strawberries, Sugar Snaps GREEN AISLE GROCERY Breads from Wild Flour Bakery, Breads and English muffins from Ric's Breads, Cheese - Goat/cow milk from local dairies, Coffee - locally roasted ReAnimator, Cold drinks - Boylon Sodas!, Meats - local and sustainable, Pasta - fresh from Severino, Pesto and preserves - house made blends NEIL'S SHARPENING SERVICE Sharpens knives, house tools, garden tools, etc. on the spot! PHILLY COW SHARE A Philadelphia CowShare is a way for individual customers to buy high quality, local, grass-fed beef in bulk by splitting the purchase of a cow with other people...Choose from 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, or full CowShares.

Special thanks to Co-op Marketing and Communications Committee member Mary Rizzo (who also puts together that awesome newsletter with the ever growing member-owner number on it) for passing along this clip from recent episode of Jane Velez-Mitchell's HLN show in which the apparently very enthusiastic Velez-Mitchell visited a food co-op in California and caught on pretty quickly to what this is all about. (If you don't see the clip, try refreshing the page.) The big question is... did she become a member?