Volunteer opportunities such as the ones below are great ways to get to know more about the co-op, spread the word about it, get to know committee members and generally help to get the co-op started. These are very fun, low pressure activities that basically entail talking to people and telling them why a food co-op is such a good idea. No one is thrown out there on their own the first time to volunteer and volunteering does not obligate anyone to future events... though we could always use more folks on our committees! Tomorrow: Spring Cleanup The 4th annual Philly Spring Cleanup is tomorrow and the co-op thought that it would be a good time to get out into the neighborhoods to talk to Spring Clean up participants. While we would love to hit every civic association and neighborhood group throughout South Philadelphia we just don’t have the manpower to do that, so some of our Outreach Committee members have reached out to a few groups where they live and have received the okay from civic associations to hang out and have folks fill out surveys and just generally be around to answer any questions. The plan: hand out surveys and talk to people. There will probably be some handing out of trash bags, rakes, recycling bins too. Email southphillyfoodcoop (at) gmail.com or respond as a comment to this blog post if you are interested in helping out at either of the opportunities listed below. We will gave a third, and possibly a fourth, location somewhere on the west side of Broad Street but those details are still being ironed out. LoMo - Partner with Julie, Outreach Committee member. Meet at 9am at South Philly High (2101 South Broad Street). Please let us know if you are interested in helping Julie out. Newbold Neighbors - Partner with Rachel, Outreach Committee member. Meet at 9:30 @ Ultimo (15th & Mifflin). Please let us know if you’re interested in helping Rachel out. ---------------------------------------------- April 30: Flavors of The Avenue East Passyunk Avenue will be bursting with flavor on the last Saturday of this month and we want to take advantage of that energy. From 12pm to 5pm we will have a table on East Passyunk somewhere between Dickinson and Morris and will be handing out brochures, asking people to fill out surveys and just generally talking up the foodie goodness of the Co-op. If you're interested in partnering up with Outreach Committee members Dan and Kat for all or part of the time, contact us at southphillyfoodcoop (at) gmail.com. We could use people at 11:30 to help set up. Dan and Kat will gladly give you the quick orientation on answering the most frequently asked questions. This event is rain or shine and if it rains we'll have a tent because our other event that day has a scheduled rain date. ---------------------------------------------- April 30: LoMo Spring Market and Community Fair (Rain date: May 7) Dozens of tables will be set up on Broad Street between Snyder Avenue & Jackson Street. Event goes from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. We should be covered with set-up but anyone who wants to help out can meet us at 8:30 to help out. Let us know how many hours you can help out by emailing southphillyfoodcoop (at) gmail.com or responding in the comments below. You'll be partnering up with committee members Julie (9am - 11am), Stephanie (11am - 1pm) or Cassie and Rachel (1pm - 3pm). We could also use volunteers to help with the planning process and have input into what we're going to do at this event. This will be a good opportunity to incorporate some family fun into the event. Last year we did a bake sale which was mildly successful mostly because we had a really terrific salesman helping us unload the table at the end of the day! We want to come up with an idea to attract people to the table. ---------------------------------------------- May 7: PEP Annual Plant Sale Looking for one or two more volunteers to help out at the PEP Annual Plant Sale on Saturday, May 7. It runs from 10am - 6pm at their office at 1200 South Broad Street. We can split it into 2 or 3 shifts of a few hours each. Partner up with committee member Rachel. This is an especially good volunteer activity for people who live west of Broad Street and want to help with our outreach efforts in that area. --------------------------------- Also, please note, we are going to try to hold a volunteer training session prior to these later events to give any prospective volunteers and idea of how to talk about the co-op. If you can't make that (time and place TBD), don't worry about it. One of our committee members will be at each event to answer any questions.

Volunteer opportunities such as the ones below are great ways to get to know more about the co-op, spread the word about it, get to know committee members and generally help to get the co-op started. These are very fun, low pressure activities that basically entail talking to people and telling them why a food co-op is such a good idea. No one is thrown out there on their own the first time to volunteer and volunteering does not obligate anyone to future events... though we could always use more folks on our committees! Tomorrow: Spring Cleanup The 4th annual Philly Spring Cleanup is tomorrow and the co-op thought that it would be a good time to get out into the neighborhoods to talk to Spring Clean up participants. While we would love to hit every civic association and neighborhood group throughout South Philadelphia we just don’t have the manpower to do that, so some of our Outreach Committee members have reached out to a few groups where they live and have received the okay from civic associations to hang out and have folks fill out surveys and just generally be around to answer any questions. The plan: hand out surveys and talk to people. There will probably be some handing out of trash bags, rakes, recycling bins too. Email southphillyfoodcoop (at) gmail.com or respond as a comment to this blog post if you are interested in helping out at either of the opportunities listed below. We will gave a third, and possibly a fourth, location somewhere on the west side of Broad Street but those details are still being ironed out. LoMo - Partner with Julie, Outreach Committee member. Meet at 9am at South Philly High (2101 South Broad Street). Please let us know if you are interested in helping Julie out. Newbold Neighbors - Partner with Rachel, Outreach Committee member. Meet at 9:30 @ Ultimo (15th & Mifflin). Please let us know if you’re interested in helping Rachel out. ---------------------------------------------- April 30: Flavors of The Avenue East Passyunk Avenue will be bursting with flavor on the last Saturday of this month and we want to take advantage of that energy. From 12pm to 5pm we will have a table on East Passyunk somewhere between Dickinson and Morris and will be handing out brochures, asking people to fill out surveys and just generally talking up the foodie goodness of the Co-op. If you're interested in partnering up with Outreach Committee members Dan and Kat for all or part of the time, contact us at southphillyfoodcoop (at) gmail.com. We could use people at 11:30 to help set up. Dan and Kat will gladly give you the quick orientation on answering the most frequently asked questions. This event is rain or shine and if it rains we'll have a tent because our other event that day has a scheduled rain date. ---------------------------------------------- April 30: LoMo Spring Market and Community Fair (Rain date: May 7) Dozens of tables will be set up on Broad Street between Snyder Avenue & Jackson Street. Event goes from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. We should be covered with set-up but anyone who wants to help out can meet us at 8:30 to help out. Let us know how many hours you can help out by emailing southphillyfoodcoop (at) gmail.com or responding in the comments below. You'll be partnering up with committee members Julie (9am - 11am), Stephanie (11am - 1pm) or Cassie and Rachel (1pm - 3pm). We could also use volunteers to help with the planning process and have input into what we're going to do at this event. This will be a good opportunity to incorporate some family fun into the event. Last year we did a bake sale which was mildly successful mostly because we had a really terrific salesman helping us unload the table at the end of the day! We want to come up with an idea to attract people to the table. ---------------------------------------------- May 7: PEP Annual Plant Sale Looking for one or two more volunteers to help out at the PEP Annual Plant Sale on Saturday, May 7. It runs from 10am - 6pm at their office at 1200 South Broad Street. We can split it into 2 or 3 shifts of a few hours each. Partner up with committee member Rachel. This is an especially good volunteer activity for people who live west of Broad Street and want to help with our outreach efforts in that area. --------------------------------- Also, please note, we are going to try to hold a volunteer training session prior to these later events to give any prospective volunteers and idea of how to talk about the co-op. If you can't make that (time and place TBD), don't worry about it. One of our committee members will be at each event to answer any questions.

Mark Bittman, the New York Times columnist and author of the seemingly ubiquitous, How To Cook Everything, is spending the week fasting to call attention to the cuts to food assistance programs currently churning through the House. In the name of measly deficit reduction the bills in front of Congress would make deep cuts to numerous programs that feed the hungriest amongst us.

I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry. By doing so, I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living. But the decision was easy after I spoke last week with David Beckmann, a reverend who is this year’s World Food Prize laureate. Our conversation turned, as so many about food do these days, to the poor. Who are — once again — under attack, this time in the House budget bill, H.R. 1. The budget proposes cuts in the WIC program (which supports women, infants and children), in international food and health aid (18 million people would be immediately cut off from a much-needed food stream, and 4 million would lose access to malaria medicine) and in programs that aid farmers in underdeveloped countries. Food stamps are also being attacked, in the twisted “Welfare Reform 2011” bill. (There are other egregious maneuvers in H.R. 1, but I’m sticking to those related to food.)

While I applaud Mark's goals and use of his national platform to call attention to food security and availability issues, there are also more concrete things we can do in the short term to help. If you want to do something more, make a donation to one of Philadelphia's food banks, such as Philabundance, and help immediately feed people who are hungry. A major focus for many of us at the Co-op is improving access to high quality food in our area. Rest assured, we will be accepting food stamps and WIC at our eventual store. Though it applies to everything contributors to this blog write, it should be expressly stated that any opinions below are solely those of the author and DO NOT reflect any policies, rules, or decisions made the South Philly Food Co-op’s steering, legal/finance, or outreach committees.

Mark Bittman, the New York Times columnist and author of the seemingly ubiquitous, How To Cook Everything, is spending the week fasting to call attention to the cuts to food assistance programs currently churning through the House. In the name of measly deficit reduction the bills in front of Congress would make deep cuts to numerous programs that feed the hungriest amongst us.

I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry. By doing so, I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living. But the decision was easy after I spoke last week with David Beckmann, a reverend who is this year’s World Food Prize laureate. Our conversation turned, as so many about food do these days, to the poor. Who are — once again — under attack, this time in the House budget bill, H.R. 1. The budget proposes cuts in the WIC program (which supports women, infants and children), in international food and health aid (18 million people would be immediately cut off from a much-needed food stream, and 4 million would lose access to malaria medicine) and in programs that aid farmers in underdeveloped countries. Food stamps are also being attacked, in the twisted “Welfare Reform 2011” bill. (There are other egregious maneuvers in H.R. 1, but I’m sticking to those related to food.)

While I applaud Mark's goals and use of his national platform to call attention to food security and availability issues, there are also more concrete things we can do in the short term to help. If you want to do something more, make a donation to one of Philadelphia's food banks, such as Philabundance, and help immediately feed people who are hungry. A major focus for many of us at the Co-op is improving access to high quality food in our area. Rest assured, we will be accepting food stamps and WIC at our eventual store. Though it applies to everything contributors to this blog write, it should be expressly stated that any opinions below are solely those of the author and DO NOT reflect any policies, rules, or decisions made the South Philly Food Co-op’s steering, legal/finance, or outreach committees.

The National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) is using the opportunity of a new session of Congress to educate the members of the U.S. House of Representatives about the benefits of cooperatively owned businesses. On March 29, 2011 Representative Fattah (who happens to represent all of South Philadelphia west of Broad Street) and Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) will hold a congressional briefing on “The Role of Cooperatives in Rural and Urban Communities,” from 2–3 p.m. in room 2362-B of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. According to the NCBA, all members of the U.S. House of Representatives have been invited to attend. They are trying to get people to contact their own representatives in Congress and ask him or her to put this on her calendar. They even provide customizable text of what the message should be (scroll down). So if you live in South Philly west of Broad Street you can contact Congressman Fattah here. Obviously since he's hosting the event he will be attending (in theory) but it's always good to let him know that you're grateful for what he's doing AND that such a thing as the South Philly Co-op exists. (In my letter to Congressman Brady I made sure to mention that the Co-op is something "which our group is trying to start with the support of nearly a thousand of your constituents." They love big numbers. Especially big numbers of voters.) With Weaver's Way AND Mariposa already in his district, Fattah should be aware of the good work that Co-ops do in general. In the drop down menu for topic I suggest "Education/Labor." Congressman Fattah is big supporter of education and it's likely to catch his staff's attention. If you live east of Broad Street (like me) you'll want to use this link to contact Congressman Brady. Brady is not likely aware of this little start-up movement yet so feel free to include as much as you want about the co-op and how important it is to you and a couple thousand of your closest friends. For the message subject, I chose "Small Business" since, for a member of Congress, being against small business is like being against puppy dogs or beautiful spring days. If you're just a big fan of what we're doing and don't live in either of those two districts, you can find your representative's website here.

The National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) is using the opportunity of a new session of Congress to educate the members of the U.S. House of Representatives about the benefits of cooperatively owned businesses. On March 29, 2011 Representative Fattah (who happens to represent all of South Philadelphia west of Broad Street) and Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) will hold a congressional briefing on “The Role of Cooperatives in Rural and Urban Communities,” from 2–3 p.m. in room 2362-B of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. According to the NCBA, all members of the U.S. House of Representatives have been invited to attend. They are trying to get people to contact their own representatives in Congress and ask him or her to put this on her calendar. They even provide customizable text of what the message should be (scroll down). So if you live in South Philly west of Broad Street you can contact Congressman Fattah here. Obviously since he's hosting the event he will be attending (in theory) but it's always good to let him know that you're grateful for what he's doing AND that such a thing as the South Philly Co-op exists. (In my letter to Congressman Brady I made sure to mention that the Co-op is something "which our group is trying to start with the support of nearly a thousand of your constituents." They love big numbers. Especially big numbers of voters.) With Weaver's Way AND Mariposa already in his district, Fattah should be aware of the good work that Co-ops do in general. In the drop down menu for topic I suggest "Education/Labor." Congressman Fattah is big supporter of education and it's likely to catch his staff's attention. If you live east of Broad Street (like me) you'll want to use this link to contact Congressman Brady. Brady is not likely aware of this little start-up movement yet so feel free to include as much as you want about the co-op and how important it is to you and a couple thousand of your closest friends. For the message subject, I chose "Small Business" since, for a member of Congress, being against small business is like being against puppy dogs or beautiful spring days. If you're just a big fan of what we're doing and don't live in either of those two districts, you can find your representative's website here.

The FDA recently announced that it will halt imports of milk and produce from four prefectures that are closest to the damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan.  Foods from other parts of Japan, including seafood, will be checked for radiation to see if they are at acceptable levels that can be sold. However, the FDA has had difficulty in the past with tracking food production facilities that are in other countries. While seafood will be checked for radiation if it comes from Japan, it is not clear if  fish is caught in the sea near Japan by another country's ships will be screened. Obviously, this is a concern as seafood does not respect national borders. This is a story to follow in the future.

I came across this presentation by James H. Kunstler from a TED conference in 2004 while reading Postgreen's really cool blog about sustainable design and development. (Caution: Kunstler uses some colorful, not necessarily safe for work, language to make some of his points.) Most of the video, which is worth watching especially if you like it when someone totally trashes the abominable land use and design decisions that took hold of our country after World War II, is about the world we have created in the presence of cheap fossil fuels. Kunstler brings his point home by saying (remember... back in 2004) that the era of cheap fossil fuels is coming to an end. He's also more than a little pessimistic about the idea that we'll be able to replace this cheap power source entirely with renewable, clean energy. The key will be rethinking the way we live and how much space and energy we consume. Of particular interest in to anyone who wants to get a food co-op started and is thinking about what principles can guide the product selection is a point Kunstler makes at about the 16-minute mark of the video. It's a point which had been made before him and continues to be made to this day:

We're going to have to grow more food closer to where we live. The age of the 3000-mile Caesar salad is coming to an end.

For us as citizens (note: I didn't say "consumers") this means a commitment to buying food that is grown closer to where we live and, hopefully, supporting a business that is committed to selling as much locally grown food as possible. (Edited to add: and living as close to each other as we do in South Philly, we've already made the choice to live in such a way that is energy conscious. We are definitely a market that can sustain such a business.) Anyway, watch the video. It's actually very funny in places. Kunstler is like a Lewis Black-type shock comic who focuses on sustainability.

I came across this presentation by James H. Kunstler from a TED conference in 2004 while reading Postgreen's really cool blog about sustainable design and development. (Caution: Kunstler uses some colorful, not necessarily safe for work, language to make some of his points.) Most of the video, which is worth watching especially if you like it when someone totally trashes the abominable land use and design decisions that took hold of our country after World War II, is about the world we have created in the presence of cheap fossil fuels. Kunstler brings his point home by saying (remember... back in 2004) that the era of cheap fossil fuels is coming to an end. He's also more than a little pessimistic about the idea that we'll be able to replace this cheap power source entirely with renewable, clean energy. The key will be rethinking the way we live and how much space and energy we consume. Of particular interest in to anyone who wants to get a food co-op started and is thinking about what principles can guide the product selection is a point Kunstler makes at about the 16-minute mark of the video. It's a point which had been made before him and continues to be made to this day:

We're going to have to grow more food closer to where we live. The age of the 3000-mile Caesar salad is coming to an end.

For us as citizens (note: I didn't say "consumers") this means a commitment to buying food that is grown closer to where we live and, hopefully, supporting a business that is committed to selling as much locally grown food as possible. (Edited to add: and living as close to each other as we do in South Philly, we've already made the choice to live in such a way that is energy conscious. We are definitely a market that can sustain such a business.) Anyway, watch the video. It's actually very funny in places. Kunstler is like a Lewis Black-type shock comic who focuses on sustainability.

The New York Times published a wonderful story about a newer, younger generation of farmers that are starting to change the American landscape. There are now younger farmers, spurred on by the local food movement, that have jumped into farming and trying to make this their livelihood. The are also facing a lot of difficulties too. It is hard to find and buy land and equipment. They also need to learn the basics of farming, which, as you can guess, is not easy. While the article focuses on the Eugene, Oregon, you can see how this  is being repeated across the country and our area. A really good read if you want to learn a little about what new farmers are facing.