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

Those of you who read this blog regularly and who have been following the progress of the South Philly Food Co-op (and it's 256+ member-owners!) probably already know the difference between a co-op and a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). So you'd be surprised to know that this continues to be one of the most frequently asked questions that we get either by email or in person when we're tabling at events. It's so frequent, in fact, that we've put it in our FAQs. So, if you're out there doing what you should be doing - that is getting more people to join the Co-op - and you get this question, feel free to use some variation of our answer:

So you’re one of those farm shares, right? That’s cool but I’m not sure I could eat all that food by myself or find time to pick up my food once a week…

Whoa… whoa… whoa. Hold on, Tex. You’re mistaking a co-op for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). A CSA is an organization that supports farmers by having members each buy a “share,” which supports the whole budget of a single farm or several farming operations. Members have a “shared risk and reward” agreement with the faming operations, and are limited to what is seasonally available and ripe. That’s not what the South Philly Food Co-op is.

What we are trying to start is a food co-op or a grocery store that is owned and run by its member-owners, usually offering natural, organic and local foods and other products. Food co-ops tend to focus on social responsibility and community building more than for-profit grocery stores.

So it’s like any other grocery store in that you can shop there whenever it is open, get your food when your schedule allows and only buy what you need.

That's not to say we don't also love CSAs. In fact, many of our member-owners, board members and committee members also are involved with CSAs. Some host the weekly pick-ups at their home while others travel the great distance to the far-off Town of Fish (in the heart of Kensington Community Food Co-op country) to pick up their CSA from the uber awesome Greensgrow Farm. In the comments below, feel free to share your own experiences with a CSA and make recommendations to anyone who is looking to join one. We should all be supporting our local agriculture (which I'm sure the Co-op will do once it is open) or we run the risk of it going away and severely jeopardizing our regional food security. There are also a few resources out there that maintain lists of local CSA's including this one at Farm To City's website. Pretty sure most are still accepting subscriptions for their summer season (Greensgrow was as of May 10th) but you better hurry!

Those of you who read this blog regularly and who have been following the progress of the South Philly Food Co-op (and it's 256+ member-owners!) probably already know the difference between a co-op and a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). So you'd be surprised to know that this continues to be one of the most frequently asked questions that we get either by email or in person when we're tabling at events. It's so frequent, in fact, that we've put it in our FAQs. So, if you're out there doing what you should be doing - that is getting more people to join the Co-op - and you get this question, feel free to use some variation of our answer:

So you’re one of those farm shares, right? That’s cool but I’m not sure I could eat all that food by myself or find time to pick up my food once a week…

Whoa… whoa… whoa. Hold on, Tex. You’re mistaking a co-op for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). A CSA is an organization that supports farmers by having members each buy a “share,” which supports the whole budget of a single farm or several farming operations. Members have a “shared risk and reward” agreement with the faming operations, and are limited to what is seasonally available and ripe. That’s not what the South Philly Food Co-op is.

What we are trying to start is a food co-op or a grocery store that is owned and run by its member-owners, usually offering natural, organic and local foods and other products. Food co-ops tend to focus on social responsibility and community building more than for-profit grocery stores.

So it’s like any other grocery store in that you can shop there whenever it is open, get your food when your schedule allows and only buy what you need.

That's not to say we don't also love CSAs. In fact, many of our member-owners, board members and committee members also are involved with CSAs. Some host the weekly pick-ups at their home while others travel the great distance to the far-off Town of Fish (in the heart of Kensington Community Food Co-op country) to pick up their CSA from the uber awesome Greensgrow Farm. In the comments below, feel free to share your own experiences with a CSA and make recommendations to anyone who is looking to join one. We should all be supporting our local agriculture (which I'm sure the Co-op will do once it is open) or we run the risk of it going away and severely jeopardizing our regional food security. There are also a few resources out there that maintain lists of local CSA's including this one at Farm To City's website. Pretty sure most are still accepting subscriptions for their summer season (Greensgrow was as of May 10th) but you better hurry!

While it's a little premature to start thinking about where the Co-op is going to be sourcing its products, it's likely that the member-owners will express their desire to focus on food that is grown locally and either organically or with an eye toward sustainability. With that in mind, it's always helpful as consumers to familiarize ourselves with the food "system" in our region and our country. To put it simply (very simply), there are big, thousand+ acre, industrial, single-crop concerns and there are small, single-proprietor or partnership-run, multiple crop farms. The "system" (man!) favors the former in many ways even down to the nomenclature. For example, fruits and vegetables are legally known as "specialty crops." (Unfortunately, for most Americans, they're also a specialty food!) But one of the major hurdles faced by the small farms is that fact that the system of federally provided crop insurance - the safety net in case of weather or pest-related disasters - is designed for the large farms. The New York Times' Green blog explains this issue quite well in a piece that was posted on Tuesday. (Note: The article mentions CSAs as one alternative that small farms have turned to since crop insurance is basically unavailable to them, which of course requires me to point you to our FAQs for a refresher on the difference between a co-op and a CSA. You might already know the difference, but you'd be surprised how many don't. Hence it's appearance as an FAQ.) As members of a Co-op, we become more than just individual consumers. We're a group of people banded together with the potential to effect positive change by the choices we make as a group. If one of those choices is to make sure our shelves are stocked with foods from local farms and producers, then we should also be prepared to advocate for policies that benefit (or at the very least, don't harm) those producers. Otherwise, we might find that one day there are no small, local farms left! This also means that agricultural issues - like the Farm Bill - touch us as city folk just as much as they affect our fellow citizens in the rural parts of the country. Therefore we need to let our elected representatives in Congress know that we expect them to be up on these issues as well.

While it's a little premature to start thinking about where the Co-op is going to be sourcing its products, it's likely that the member-owners will express their desire to focus on food that is grown locally and either organically or with an eye toward sustainability. With that in mind, it's always helpful as consumers to familiarize ourselves with the food "system" in our region and our country. To put it simply (very simply), there are big, thousand+ acre, industrial, single-crop concerns and there are small, single-proprietor or partnership-run, multiple crop farms. The "system" (man!) favors the former in many ways even down to the nomenclature. For example, fruits and vegetables are legally known as "specialty crops." (Unfortunately, for most Americans, they're also a specialty food!) But one of the major hurdles faced by the small farms is that fact that the system of federally provided crop insurance - the safety net in case of weather or pest-related disasters - is designed for the large farms. The New York Times' Green blog explains this issue quite well in a piece that was posted on Tuesday. (Note: The article mentions CSAs as one alternative that small farms have turned to since crop insurance is basically unavailable to them, which of course requires me to point you to our FAQs for a refresher on the difference between a co-op and a CSA. You might already know the difference, but you'd be surprised how many don't. Hence it's appearance as an FAQ.) As members of a Co-op, we become more than just individual consumers. We're a group of people banded together with the potential to effect positive change by the choices we make as a group. If one of those choices is to make sure our shelves are stocked with foods from local farms and producers, then we should also be prepared to advocate for policies that benefit (or at the very least, don't harm) those producers. Otherwise, we might find that one day there are no small, local farms left! This also means that agricultural issues - like the Farm Bill - touch us as city folk just as much as they affect our fellow citizens in the rural parts of the country. Therefore we need to let our elected representatives in Congress know that we expect them to be up on these issues as well.

File this under co-ops helping co-ops. The Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA) is an umbrella organization that includes representatives from several major cooperative organizations in the regions, from credit unions to grocery stores to cooperative housing arrangements. Last month they held a great event attended by more than 70 people interested in co-ops and credit unions.  There was a lot of excitement in the room about the resolution that was passed by the City of Philadelphia and the work that PACA's doing and going to do in support of co-ops in the region. If you are excited about what the South Philly Food Co-op has accomplished so far and are looking for ways to strengthen the cooperative movement in other sectors of the regional economy, consider volunteering some time with PACA. They are forming three committees to work on:

• Planning and promoting future events for the Interational Year of Cooperatives, like a celebratory event in October (co-op month!)
• Public policy research and advocacy
• Coordinating local co-op communicators and developing PACA's own communications

If you are interested in getting involved with one or more of these committees, or have other ideas about how to get involved go to: http://philadelphiacoops.wufoo.com/forms/get-involved-with-paca/. PS - If you haven't already signed up for the free co-op conference this June, there's still time.  Sign up today!

File this under co-ops helping co-ops. The Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA) is an umbrella organization that includes representatives from several major cooperative organizations in the regions, from credit unions to grocery stores to cooperative housing arrangements. Last month they held a great event attended by more than 70 people interested in co-ops and credit unions.  There was a lot of excitement in the room about the resolution that was passed by the City of Philadelphia and the work that PACA's doing and going to do in support of co-ops in the region. If you are excited about what the South Philly Food Co-op has accomplished so far and are looking for ways to strengthen the cooperative movement in other sectors of the regional economy, consider volunteering some time with PACA. They are forming three committees to work on:

• Planning and promoting future events for the Interational Year of Cooperatives, like a celebratory event in October (co-op month!)
• Public policy research and advocacy
• Coordinating local co-op communicators and developing PACA's own communications

If you are interested in getting involved with one or more of these committees, or have other ideas about how to get involved go to: http://philadelphiacoops.wufoo.com/forms/get-involved-with-paca/. PS - If you haven't already signed up for the free co-op conference this June, there's still time.  Sign up today!

This time of year is always a little stressful as we wait to see if a year's worth of earning, spending, and donating money will result in us owing a little bit more of it our federal, state and local governments or getting a tidy little refund for the interest-free loan we gave to Uncle Sam over the year. I gave up on doing my taxes long ago when my tax preparation software told me I owed $3.6 billion dollars. Perhaps I should have made more charitable donations. If you're expecting a check or direct deposit from the U.S. Federal Government, consider fighting the temptation to blow it on $200 worth of Oreos (aka the fate of my 1998 refund) and instead use it toward your member equity. For current member-owners, this is a great way to get yourself all paid off and then not have to worry about it for the rest of your life. For not-yet member-owners, let this be the sign from above that finally gets you to visit our easy-to-use online application so that you can be counted among our 250 Founding Members and get us to the point where we can start the process of looking for a location. Of course, you can join with an initial payment as low as $25 and then have until the end of 2013 to pay off the rest. But if you're sitting on a nice refund, why pay it all off now? I know the latest technological gadget is sitting on your other shoulder whispering for you to ignore the Co-op and instead spend it on him. Don't listen to him! Join the Co-op today! Besides, why spend this year's refund on an iPad 3 when you can just wait and use next year's on the iPad 4? And hopefully by this time next year, you'll be using it to keep track of our progress as we raise the capital for a our new location!

This time of year is always a little stressful as we wait to see if a year's worth of earning, spending, and donating money will result in us owing a little bit more of it our federal, state and local governments or getting a tidy little refund for the interest-free loan we gave to Uncle Sam over the year. I gave up on doing my taxes long ago when my tax preparation software told me I owed $3.6 billion dollars. Perhaps I should have made more charitable donations. If you're expecting a check or direct deposit from the U.S. Federal Government, consider fighting the temptation to blow it on $200 worth of Oreos (aka the fate of my 1998 refund) and instead use it toward your member equity. For current member-owners, this is a great way to get yourself all paid off and then not have to worry about it for the rest of your life. For not-yet member-owners, let this be the sign from above that finally gets you to visit our easy-to-use online application so that you can be counted among our 250 Founding Members and get us to the point where we can start the process of looking for a location. Of course, you can join with an initial payment as low as $25 and then have until the end of 2013 to pay off the rest. But if you're sitting on a nice refund, why pay it all off now? I know the latest technological gadget is sitting on your other shoulder whispering for you to ignore the Co-op and instead spend it on him. Don't listen to him! Join the Co-op today! Besides, why spend this year's refund on an iPad 3 when you can just wait and use next year's on the iPad 4? And hopefully by this time next year, you'll be using it to keep track of our progress as we raise the capital for a our new location!

Almost one year ago exactly we wrote about a congressional briefing being hosted by Congressman Chaka Fattah, whose district includes both Weavers Way and Mariposa co-ops. The briefing was prelude to a bill known as the National Cooperative Development Act (H.R. 3677) that Fattah introduced in mid-December and which has been cosponsored by Congressman Brady and Congresswoman Schwartz along with six other members of Congress. Full text of the bill can be found here. The bill, summed up nicely by The Campaign for Cooperation will:

• Provide loans and seed capital to groups who are attempting to form cooperatives;
• Award grants to nonprofit organizations, colleges, and universities so that they can provide technical assistance to operating cooperatives or groups that are attempting to form cooperatives;
• Provide guidance, information on best practices, and technical assistance to communities seeking to establish cooperatives;
• Provide funding for training of providers of technical assistance and supporting existing professional development training for organizations engaged in cooperative development;
• Establish cooperative development centers in areas that currently do not have them; and
• Authorize $25 million yearly for four years.

All over the world people are seeking alternatives to the system that enables corporate scandals and encourages greed. Because cooperatives are democratic and focus on member-owner needs rather than maximizing return for shareholders, they are perfectly situated to provide such an alternative. The National Cooperative Development Act is both an outgrowth of, and will help to support, this historic surge of interest in cooperatives as a means to build a better world. In case you don't remember what you learned in American Government back in high school, this bill still has a LONG way to go before it becomes law and will require the support of everyone in the country who would like to see the cooperative movement expand and thrive. One obstacle to overcome is getting companion legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate. So, Pennsylvanians, please contact Senators Casey and Toomey and ask them to introduce companion legislation for H.R. 3677 - the National Cooperative Development Act. Tell them it will be good for farmers (it will) and cities (it will). That pretty much covers all of PA right there. And if you happen to be reading this from a congressional district not covered by the 9 co-sponsors of the bill (which means you live in one of the 426 other districts), please contact your representative and ask him or her to sign onto Congressman Fattah's bill. To find out more about the legislation and how you can support its passage, visit www.campaign.coop.