Meet a Committee Member: Dan Pohlig

On which committee do you serve? I serve on the Outreach committee and am currently helping to recruit and organize people to contribute to our blog and other social media outlets. Through this we hope to stay regularly connected to potential members and shoppers, build a community of co-op supporters, give frequent updates on our progress and generally keep the co-op on everyone's radar until we have a physical presence to go along with the virtual one. What do you do for a living? Advertising/marketing for Democratic political candidates. How did you get involved with the food co-op? I married into it (or actually, the co-op married into me). Alison Fritz, chair of the steering committee, is my wife and inspiration. At first I came on board to help out because the project was so important to her. Since then I've seen how this local, food-related effort really ties into many of the issues that I'm very personally interested in (sustainability, awareness of the environment, responsible capitalism, energy conservation) and which I hope to move toward professionally as well. Why do you want a food co-op in South Philly? Economics 101 (or Ec 10 as it was called in college). I'm not a foodie in particular, though I would love to learn how to cook. I am, however, keenly aware of waste and inefficiency and have been turned onto the amount of waste, inefficiency, inequity and just general badness that exists in our current industrial food system. I'd like there to be a place where I can go and KNOW that everything I pick up was carefully selected to be on that shelf because it was locally grown, sustainably raised or harvested and produced in such a manner that doesn't exploit the humans or animals who worked to make it - truly guilt-free meals. Why should people join a food co-op? Everyone will have their own reason and the people who hear the term "co-op" and think "I know what that is. Awesome. Sign me up" probably don't need me to tell them why they should join. However, for folks who are less familiar and might not otherwise be inclined to do so, I would appeal to their pride in their community and their neighborhood - South Philadelphia. There are plenty of folks who go way back in these neighborhoods and who have plenty of reason to be proud of the area. A locally-owned, community-owned food store (and one that we hope is wildly successful) will not only bring and keep more wealth into the community, it will also be yet another reason for people to think of this area as progressive, forward thinking and part of the solution. What is your favorite meal to cook and why? I love rolling out the dough and making a nice pizza with extra cheese, kalamata olives, and artichoke hearts. It's my favorite food to eat and I can never quite get it as well as my favorite pizza place in the city (FrancoLuigi's at 13th and Tasker) but I love to try. Plus a badly made pizza can beat most well made dishes any day of the week so I can't really go wrong.