The Co-op's existing member-owners are by far the most important and effective salespeople for attracting new members and helping us get to our short-term goal of 250 Founding members. The success of the venture will depend on your efforts to bring in new members. And sometimes all we need is a little help with what to say. At our member meeting on October 17, Stephanie and I gave a little presentation on "How to Talk About the Co-op." I've already recapped perhaps the answer to one of our most important questions. Here I'll share the complete presentation. Take what you want. Leave out what you don't want. It's all up to you. And remember, each new member you bring in earns you a volunteer hour and gets us that much closer to 250. How to talk about Co-op Starting the conversation Often, the most difficult part of talking about the Co-op is figuring out how to bring it up in the course of a normal conversation. This doesn't have to be so. Anything that brings the subject to food is a possible starting point for talking about the Co-op. Someone mentions getting things from a local farmers market. Did you hear about the South Philly Food Co-op, it's a member-owned grocery store that could make farmers market-quality produce available all week long. A friend complains that they can't find a good non-dairy cheese substitute at the local chain supermarket. The South Philly Food Co-op will carry items suggested by its members, which means if people want the high-quality vegan and vegetarian foods, they can buy it there. There are countless ways to start the conversation even if it's just the simple, "Have you heard about the South Philly Food Co-op" that we so often use when tabling at events. Once the conversation starts, however, then you have to be ready to answer some of the most frequently asked questions. The good thing is that there are very few facts, if any, that need to memorized. Answering questions about the Co-op includes a lot of variations of "That's the great thing about a Co-op… the answer to that question will be determined by the members!" Let's go through a few of the most common questions and go over the main points you might want to hit when answering them. What is a co-op? Very simple. A co-op is a type of business that is equally owned by its members, whether they be the makers of the products or the customers. In our case, we are looking to open a member (or cooperatively) owned grocery store that will be owned by its customers, who will all have an equal stake in the business. This differs from most businesses that you're used to in that the owner of the store is a person or limited group of people who make all the decisions about the store or a corporate model that is owned by stockholders who can buy as much of a piece of the business as they want for the sole purpose of receiving a piece of the profit and managed by a CEO and others who make the decisions. In the case of the Co-op, day-to-day businesses decisions will be made by the store management but the bigger picture issues will be decided by the members either by direct vote or through the decisions of the board, who themselves are member-owners. Most importantly, no ONE household or member has any more power or decision-making authority than any other, whether they have been a member for a day or a decade. Why would I join now instead of waiting until you have a store? An excellent question and one that can be answered pretty simply. Joining now is the best way to get the Co-op opened soon. So if this is something you're really interested in and would like to see happen in the next couple years, join now AND ask some friends and neighbors if they would like to join. The location for the Co-op will also be determined, in part, by where most of the members live at the time of the location decision. So one way to make sure the the Co-op is close to you is to become a member AND get everyone on your street to become a member too. What benefits are there to joining? There are plenty of monetary benefits through our shop South Philly program which will be launching soon. Membership also includes decision-making power to influence the initial location, direction and policies of the Co-op. And eventually, members will be entitled to exclusive specials, sales and events. But the benefit to joining now is much bigger. It's the knowledge that YOU are a Founding Member. You are making possible what we all hope will be an institution in this neighborhood for decades. Not all of us have time to do "something big" or to make a difference in the community, but by becoming a member now, you WILL be making a difference and that's something to feel good about. Will I get my money back if I move or if you don't open? The Board and the various committees are working EXTREMELY hard to make sure that costs associated with the planning phase of the Co-op are covered as much as possible by money raised through events like the Garden Tour and happy hours. The goal is that any money paid as member-owner equity goes directly to actual start-up costs like renting or buying a store, hiring management and staff and acquiring inventory. You can trust that the Board, who are all member-owners themselves with the same stake as you, will be good stewards of your money and take their fiduciary responsibilities very seriously. Once the store is open, member-owners who move or want to cease being a part of the co-op are entitled to all or part of their equity depending on the liquidity of the store at that time. Where will the co-op be located? If you ever get this question, welcome to the club! This is perhaps the most frequently asked question we get. And for a lot of people, the answer I'm about to suggest just won't be good enough. Those are the folks who are waiting for a location to be determined before they decide whether or not to buy in. Don't be discouraged by them… in fact consider them a stockpile of potential member-owners who will flood our ranks when we DO get a location. But, for those who are just curious and are so interested in the Co-op that they would consider joining before we choose a location, here goes… Location will be determined by a number of factors, the most important of which is where most of our members live. So the best way to influence that decision is to become a member and get all of your neighbors to join as well. Other factors will be determined by a comprehensive and professional analysis of the market and a feasibility study that will tell us what kind of space and traffic we need to have the best chance for success. This is simply too big a decision to be made based on a "feeling" or a romantic attachment to a building. We're not interested in starting something that is going to fail so we're going to approach the location decision in the most business-savvy way possible. Finally, depending on your audience, you may ask them whether they have heard of Weaver's Way in Mt. Airy or Mariposa in West Philadelphia. Whether they have or not, you can absolutely promise that the South Philly Food Co-op will be closer to them than either of those co-ops. What kind of products will the Co-op offer? Another very frequently asked question for which the best answer ultimately is… it depends. I know… seems kind of cagey, right? But that's the truth. One of the great things about a co-op is that the member-owners help determine the product mix. If the membership shows a preference for all locally grown produce or beef and pork from locally and responsibly raised cows and pigs, that's what the Co-op will carry. The members, through their board representatives, set the policies that will govern the types of products that are available. So really, you can answer this question with a question… "What would you want to see the Co-op offer?" Is this just another expensive health food store? Yep… it's possible that everything you've described about the Co-op puts the picture in your audience's mind of a store full of nuts, seeds and grasses. So how to answer this question… I happen to like ice cream. I like cookies. I like candy. (You see where I'm going… I have a bit of a sweet tooth.) As a member-owner I'm going to want to see those products on the shelves. Of course, probably not talking about products from large corporations, otherwise why wouldn't you just go to the local supermarket chain. So while everything in the store won't necessary be "healthy" you'll at least know how it was made, who made it and where it came from. $200 seems like a lot of money... The economy is down. We get that. We want it to be as easy as possible for people to become members but we also want it to mean something to them when they do. So that means having "skin in the game." But we also understand that not everyone can fork over $200 at one time. So for a minimum of $25, anyone can become a member owner and take up to 26 months to make installments to get up to $200. It's this easy: join now for $25. Pay off the rest of your first $100 by the end of the current year then pay off the next $100 by December 31st of the following year. And that's it. No more obligations. Sure, you can take part in any member loan campaigns we might do to raise funds but your $200 member equity gives you all the rights and privileges enjoyed by every other member-owner. Do I have to volunteer to work at the store? (usually comes from people who know something about co-ops) People who know something about co-ops might ask this question. It's true that some co-ops have done away with their volunteer requirements but the South Philly Food Co-op board felt that having some token requirement of volunteer service would help strengthen the community-building aspect of the Co-op. So the answer is "Yes. But it's not as bad as you think it is." Each member-owner household is required to do 8 hours of volunteer work for the Co-op. That means if there are 4 people in your household, you could, in theory, each do 2 hours to cover the requirement. And there are several ways to fulfill these requirements, even ways to do them from home. We're not basing the feasibility of this business on the free labor of volunteers. We just want member-owners to get to know the Co-op and each other better by participating in the running of the store. You might actually have fun. So there are some ways to handle some of the most frequently asked questions that we get about the Co-op. In the end, however, the reason why someone will choose to become a part of this movement is unique to them. We each have our own reason, whether it's for the food, for the community building, for the economic model or for the strengthening of our food system. Your reason will be what you are most comfortable talking about… so go with it. Something convinced YOU to become a member. Who's to say that same thing won't help you convince someone else. So go… sign up a new member or five. Get us to the 250 and beyond. And let us know what works for you so we can share it with others.

Well I think this is about it for the tomatoes!  Here's my last harvest:

These were a little more mealy than my earlier tomatoes and I picked some a bit early because I was afraid of colder temperatures later in the week.  So I made them into tomato sauce!  After years of fiddling with sauce from fresh tomatoes (for some reason canned tomatoes are easier to make in to sauce for me - they have less of that bite that I love so much in fresh tomatoes but not so much in my tomato sauce) I think I have figured out the secret to good fresh tomato sauce.  Here's my non-recipe:

First you need to skin your tomatoes, otherwise you'll have little pieces of tomato skin floating around in your sauce - obviously I've made this mistake before.  The easiest way to skin tomatoes is to parboil.  Just bring a big pot of water to a boil, cut a little X at the bottom of each tomato and submerge in the boiling water for a few seconds or until you can see the skin starting to loosen.  Then fish them out (there's probably a kitchen utensil for this but a large spoon does the trick for me) and throw them all in a large bowl of cold water to stop them from cooking.  Some people use ice water but I just use cold tap water because ice is too fancy for me.  Also you're going to be cooking these in a minute anyway so I don't think it's the worst thing in the world if they don't entirely stop cooking.  Then I just run the tomatoes under cold water while I peel the skins off and then roughly chop them - these were pretty small anyway so I cut them into quarters, making sure to get rid of the tough stem-end.  I don't take out the seeds - I like the flavor and the extra water means you don't have to add any extra liquid when cooking the sauce.

Then just heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan and add either some minced onion or garlic.  I had garlic this time so I used that, but onion or shallots work too.  For this amount of tomatoes (probably 4-5 cups chopped?  I never measure) I used four small garlic cloves.  You don't want so much that it tastes like garlic or onion, you just want to add a little of the flavor in the background.  Before the garlic burns (a common problem of mine) throw in all the tomatoes and stir it all around.  Then add some salt and black pepper and simmer uncovered for a long time - I give it an hour but more is always better.  It'll look pretty weak and watery for the first 20-30 minutes or so but then it'll start to thicken up and actually look like tomato sauce.  Then you need to add tomato paste - this is definitely the thing that elevates it from tasting like fresh tomatoes to something you would actually put on pasta.  I start with about a tablespoon, stir it in well, and then taste it a few minutes later and add more if needed.  This time I used about two tablespoons but I was also trying to use up my tomato paste that had been sitting in the fridge for a while.

Then I add soy sauce - just a little.  I usually under-salt things anyway so I add the soy sauce to help with that and also because I like the taste.  And then this time I did something that I would usually never do:  I added a few teaspoons of plain white sugar.  Weird, right?  But I had heard that it helped and it really did!  I was really afraid it would be too sweet but the tomatoes weren't all that sweet to begin with.  I think it was the sugar that really made this taste good and it kind of feels like cheating?  But it tasted good so I'm okay with that.

So by now this has been simmering for about an hour and a lot of the liquid should have cooked off, leaving you with a thickish, chunky tomato sauce.  I mash up some of the larger pieces of tomato with my wooden spoon but I don't like it entirely smooth - though if you did you could certainly blend it (carefully!) in your blender or use one of those fancy kitchen utensils called an immersion blender to blend it right in the pan.  Right at the end I roll up a few leaves of basil from the garden and chiffonade them (that's a fancy word for cutting them into long strips) and then stir them in.  And that's it!  It may seem like it takes a while but most of the time you're just letting it simmer so you can do lots of other stuff, like wash all the dishes you've dirtied and boil some pasta.

Making tomatoes into sauce is a good way to use up tomatoes that you may not want to eat fresh because of weird texture or cosmetic issues.  This sauce is very forgiving!

A quick note on the garden:  I still have lots of green tomatoes and some of the tomato plants are still flowering so I'm going to let them keep going until we get our first frost.  Kale and chard are coming along, too but still not quite big enough to pick.  Soon!  Oh and yellow fig lost a few leaves and is now looking less yellow.  Such a fussy one, that fig.

Alison, MaryBeth and I went to a Cooperative Board Leadership Development (CBLD) session on Saturday in Mt. Airy.  We are committed to learning more about what it means to be successful directors on YOUR board.

Michael Healy, an independent consultant from the CDS Consulting Co-op, spent all day with a group of 25 board members from six local co-ops to teach us about Cooperative principles and values, legal duties, policy governance and balance sheets!

Not only was the facilitator and content excellent, but it was great to spend time with other co-ops and bounce ideas around.  There were some people from start up co-ops like us (Doylestown, Kensington) and other established co-ops (Weaver's Way, Mariposa, Swarthmore).

 

The most important thing I learned on Saturday that I'd like to share with you is fiduciary responsibility.  I thought (along with many others) that fiduciary responsibility was a complicated finance term.  Turns out that it's much simpler - it means to be entrusted to make a decision on someone else's behalf.  As your Board of Directors, we know that you have invested your hard earned money into the co-op and we have a responsibility to act in your best interest. That's something that's not lost on me (us) and we thank you.

Through this learning process, something that really impresses me about the cooperative principles is that cooperatives help other cooperatives. Weaver's Way has been an invaluable resource to the South Philly Food Co-op and they are always willing to lend a helping hand. This Board Leadership program is an example of that, WW sponsored all three of us to attend for free.  My hope is that one day the South Philly Food Co-op will have a budget large enough to be able to give back to other start-up co-ops. There are approximately 300 start-ups that we are aware are and if we are successful, co-ops could double in our communities - how exciting!

Thanks again to everyone who came out last night for the first of our regular, bi-annual member-owner meetings. As member-owner myself and someone who has been helping out with these start-up activities since darn near the beginning (though I must admit, not as long as Alison or Cassie or Patty or Josh or John or MaryBeth or a number of other folks), it was GREAT to see so many people who believe in this enterprise. I had the great pleasure to give a little presentation on how to talk about the Co-op with friends and neighbors who might be open to joining. While I leaned pretty heavily on the psychological reward of being one of our 250 Founding Members, I forgot what is perhaps the most practical reason and best answer for the question "Why should I join now rather than just wait until the store opens?" Quite simply... if you join now, the Co-op will open sooner. Conversely, if you wait until it opens, it may be a loooooong wait. (Thanks to Josh Skaroff for reminding me of this message point!) So, if you're out there talking to a friend or neighbor and you get a sense that they are interested in being a part of this enterprise but give you the "Why now?" question... it's quite simple. Join now and the Co-op opens sooner. Thanks again to everyone who came. Let's review the numbers... We had about 70 people in attendance (and that's NOT including the Boy Scout troop whose meeting space we invaded for the evening... special thanks to them for being Quiet along with Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.) Among these 70 people we had representation from 48 of our member-owner households who cast votes to ratify our by-laws (by a 48-0 vote). We signed up 5 (!) new member households to bring out total to 110. If I'm doing my math correctly that's 44 percent of the way to our first day of spring goal of 250. and... I ate 4 of the chocolate cupcakes and found them to be 110% delicious. Big thank you to everyone who earned a volunteer hour by bringing post-meeting snacks! And finally... if you really want a few more check out this blog post on Treehugger and the video below to find out directly from the Director-General of the International Co-operative Alliance why "the cooperative movement is gaining traction, and why it could be the fastest-growing enterprise model by the end of this decade." (Hint: it has a little to do with how strong the model is compared to some of the other *cough*corporate*cough* models which haven't performed so well recently.) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96EOrGPJfk8]

A quick Google tells me that vegetarian shepherd's pie is called "shepherdess pie." That upsets me. I don't understand the feminization of healthier foods. Men eat meat, women eat vegetables. It reminds me of this ad for a masculine version of diet soda.

I started this story last week, with my vegan garlic mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes without butter and milk are pretty easy; you use stock instead. This dish has been called "Swanson Mashed Potatoes," so I'm guessing it was Swanson chicken broth's idea. Or they popularized it. But you can do it with vegetable stock* too. I added roasted garlic to make it a bit richer.

Let's imagine we all cooked together and you've got some taters to start with. Next, clean out your fridge. I was inspired to do this when I thought my fridge had stopped working, and I found homes for my dairy and whatnot, but there wasn't enough space for the veg. I rescued my foods in order of cost. So I had carrots and turnips and mushrooms in the fridge, and also potatoes and onions. Shepherd's pie. I made a meat version 8 months ago, burned it, and I offer this link only for a laugh.



I started with my carrots and turnips.



I cut the carrots into rounds, and cut the thicker rounds in half. Then I diced my turnips fairly large.



Luckily, I was only about halfway through the first turnip when I realized they needed to be peeled. That's the drag about cooking seasonally... I haven't seen a turnip in a long time, and I think I forgot how they work. Turnips do not lend themselves to vegetable peelers. You need to use a knife.



I turned my oven to 400 and set my veg to roast. First, I spritzed them with a bit of olive oil.

 They were going to be a while, so I took this time to make the gravy.

Onions.

Only three of these made it in (one was scary) and that was plenty of onion. Diced up.



I cut some mushrooms into various sizes. I wanted some to almost melt into the gravy and others to provide a bit of texture. I used about two and a half cups of cut-up mushrooms.

I got the onions going in a tablespoon of oil, and when they were translucent I added the mushrooms. I gave them just a few minutes to toss around in the heat on medium and then added stock and wine and black pepper. A cup of stock, a quarter cup of red wine, and a lot of black pepper.



I dialed that up to a constant bubble but not really a boil, to reduce and thicken, and let it go for half an hour while the vegetables roasted. When it was thicker but not quite thick enough, I added some flour and stirred vigorously. I'd have whisked if there weren't mushrooms in the way.

The veg were done after they'd been in for about 40 minutes. They were wrinkly and getting crisp around the edges. A creative person would do something with the fond here on the bottom of the pan. I did not.

Instead, I added some fresh thyme.



And mixed that with the roasted veg. I actually transferred it to a larger pan at this point, too.

I poured the mushroom/onion/gravy mix overtop and mixed that together.



Then I got out my potatoes. I had mashed up four smallish potatoes and had about four cups. "Recipe" here. I tossed all of that on top of the "stew."

And spread it around with a spatula.

Everything was cooked at this point, so we just needed to get it warmed up together and get those potatoes just a little toasty on top. 10 minutes at 350.

When it was done, it was just golden along the tops of the peaks.

There was a decent stew-to-potato ratio, but that isn't obvious in the later pictures. On a plate it looks like mashed potatoes that were exposed to some vegetable stew.

It looked a bit of a mess on a plate, but was hearty and flavorful. The carrots were just sweet and the gravy was rich and mushroom-y.

It doesn't cut cleanly, it's stew, with potatoes on top.

I had to rush home from a South Philly Food Co-op member meeting to get this post together. It was really inspirational to see a room full of the founding membership and some potential members.

This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food. 

*Just a note - my homemade veg stock has no salt, so if you're using something not-homemade, use less salt in the recipe. Or none.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups mushrooms (baby bella, white, etc)

 

• 3 large carrots (sliced)

 

• 3 medium onions, diced

 

• 2 turnips

 

• 1 cup vegetable stock (no salt)

 

• 1/4 cup red wine

 

• 1 1/2 tablespoons white flour

 

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

 

• black pepper, plenty - to taste

 

• salt, to taste

 

• 10 sprigs thyme (optional)

 

• 4 cups vegan mashed potatoes

Instructions

• Peel and dice turnips, slice carrots, spritz with olive oil and place in preheated 400 degree oven in a baking dish. Leave for 40 minutes while you do other things.

 

• Put 1 tbsp of oil in a saute pan and heat to medium. Add onions and saute until translucent and fragrant.

 

• Add mushrooms to pan and toss for a minute or so before adding stock and wine.

 

• Simmer pretty high, not quite boiling to reduce and thicken.

 

• When carrots and turnips are crisp at edges and wrinkly all over, sprinkle flour over mushroom/onion gravy and stir vigorously.

 

• Add mushroom/onion gravy to roasted vegetables, with optional thyme. Arrange in large baking dish.

 

• Top with mashed potatoes (I used 4 potatoes, skin on, 3/4 cup stock and one head roasted garlic). Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until potatoes are slightly browned at peaks.

Details

• Prep time: 10 mins

 

• Cook time: 1 hour

 

• Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

 

• Yield: 6 servings

 

Did you know that October is Co-op Month? It's a time to celebrate all kinds of cooperatively owned businesses, from producer-owned co-ops where the makers of the goods or providers of the services own the business to consumer-owned co-ops like the one we're trying to start in South Philly. By now you've heard plenty about why some of the folks who are working so hard to start the South Philly Food Co-op want to make this happen and in the coming months we hope to bring you some stories from people have become one of over a 100 members so far. For a great perspective on why co-ops are important, check out this link that one of our board members, Stephanie Rupertus, shared yesterday. It comes from Alison Grey, the marketing coordinator for the Community Food Co-op in Bozeman, Montana (which seems like it must be an AWESOME place to live). Here's my favorite part:

The more I shopped here, the more I realized how different the cooperative business model really was. I had always figured it operated the same way as any other business: with one all knowing and dictating owner, some dutiful employees and unquestioning customers. It could not have been any different. I learned our co-op is equally owned and operated by all of its members, an economic democracy of sorts. I was literally voting with my fork, or spoon for that matter. And eating was fun, so I could rejoice in this cause. Since my days of operating lemonade stands and posting huge profit margins on my products (hey, I didn’t care about ripping off my customers), I had never considered business ownership as part of my future plans. Now, as a part-owner, I had an equal say in the co-op’s operations and future, and that felt good. No one was forcing me to participate, but when I had a problem or suggestion, someone here might actually listen to me. I had a choice about what I was purchasing and as a consumer, this was empowering.

Oh... and lucky for them... they get to sell wine in their co-op. (Maybe some day, Pennsylvania!) Looking forward to seeing all of our member-owners tomorrow night TONIGHT, TONIGHT, TONIGHT at the Fall General Membership meeting. The meeting is open to member-owners and non-member-owners alike so if you're thinking about joining or just want to see what we're up to come on along. Member-owners will be exercising their rights to vote on by-laws and anyone can become a member-owner on the spot and participate. Time and Location Details: Monday, October 17th, 6:30 – 8:00pm The Church of the Trinity 2300 S. 18th Street (on 18th Street between Wolf and Ritner).

Help!  My fig has turned yellow!

 

From this angle you look even more yellow!

No, really:  I don't know if this is supposed to happen or if something is horribly wrong.  The other fig is still green.  I will do some figgy research (sorry) and report back!

Now...this is embarrassing.  I am going to show you an incriminating picture of what a horrible gardener I am.  Are you ready?  Okay:

This, my friends, is the state of my garden.  Half-rotted tomatoes and so much dead foliage!  I don't have much to say for myself except that it gets dark so early now that I have a window of about 15 minutes between when I get home from work and when it gets dark so finding time to spend out there is getting harder and harder.  But the growing season is almost over so I'll get this stuff cleaned up soon.

In the meantime, here's some kale:

Little curly leaves.  You're very cute, kale.  I like you.  Please grow up nice and strong so I can eat you.

Almost exactly one month ago, I wrote about how important it was for us to reach 250 member-owner households. Admittedly, I was a little nervous when the immediate response was six "unsubscribes" from the email list. But a day or two later, the new member-owner applications and payments came rolling in. Since then nearly 20 people answered that call and helped boost us from 86 to the 104 member-owner households we have today. If we have any shot at achieving our near-term goal of 250 in 6 months (by the first day of Spring 2012), then we need you to become one of our 250 Founding Members. The full member equity amount is $200 (that's it... for life) and can be paid in small installments over the next 15 months. Thank you to everyone who has already become a member and to our many wonderful committee members and volunteers. On behalf of the Board and our committees I also want to extend a special note of thanks to the The Energy Cooperative and everyone who mentioned the South Philly Food Co-op when they switched to locally produced, cooperatively owned, renewable energy. For the twenty-six referrals, The Energy Cooperative is donating $520 to us. That's as close to a win-win-win situation as you're going to get! We're looking forward to seeing everyone at the member-owner meeting on the 17th. Remember, the sooner you become a member-owner, the sooner we can start the process of looking for a location! And if you need some inspiration as autumn marches on and days get shorter, check out the video below and remind yourself why you want a cooperatively owned grocery store in your neighborhood. Sincerely, Alison L. Fritz President, Board of Directors, South Philly Food Co-op [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoIO2ze8GS4]

The following was submitted to the Board in at the end of September.  The board minutes are also available on our website.
Subcommittee Updates as of 9/28/11 Tour Details 20 gardens participated - 8 home and 12 community 108 people “checked-in” and received bracelets and tour guide Follow up The garden tour committee has met to debrief and make suggestions for next year. Two surveys (host and participant) are currently in the field to gather feed back. In the next few weeks, we will set a date for next year’s tour and set a month to begin the planning process. Business Outreach Goal is to have 5 Shop South Philly partners by to announce the member benefit at the 10/17 meeting. Current businesses pending:

• Wishing Well – accepted SSP
• Grindcore – verbal agreement, pending completed form
• Black N Brew – pending
• Philly Car Share – pending
• 2nd Street Brew – pending
• Bennett’s Compost – pending
• Devil’s Den – pending
• Calm
• Philly Wellness Center
• SliCe
• Urban Jungle
• GirlBikeDog
• Julie Laquer - Illustrator/Designer

Though the election of our board of directors back in June could technically be considered our "first" Member-Owner General Meeting, that was really a special meeting for the specific purpose of electing the board (a task we will take up again in the spring). So the South Philly Food Co-op's General Meeting on October 17 really could be considered an historic event as the first ever meeting of its kind in the history of what we believe will be a longstanding South Philly institution. This meeting, the first of biannual membership meetings, will be a discussion of what the SPFC has accomplished recently, our plans and goals for the next 6-12 months, and our first member vote on the SPFC Bylaws. If you are not yet a member, we will be accepting membership applications at the meeting so you can join on the spot, take part in our historic first vote, and get us another step closer to our membership goals. The agenda for the Oct 17th General Member-Owner meeting can be found here. Afterward, we invite you to join us and your fellow member-owners for a drink and/or some snacks at a local watering hole (location TBA) so we can continue to get to know each other and build upon the steadily growing community that is the South Philly Food Co-op. Time and Location Details: Monday, October 17th, 6:30 – 8:00pm The Church of the Trinity 2300 S. 18th Street (on 18th Street between Wolf and Ritner). Get your vote on! See you there.